Ploughing is only the first step in preparing the wet-rice terraces for the planting of seedlings. It is followed by harrowing which further breaks up the earth — which has been turned into lumps of mud by ploughing — into smaller pieces or lumps. As with ploughing, the term for this process is derived from the Northern Thai term for the implement that is used in it — phya, “harrow” or “rake”. The harrows are made in Palokhi and are modelled on those of the Northern Thai just as the ploughs are. Similar to ploughing, the task of harrowing requires two men and a buffalo, and the work arrangements are the same as well. The work is no less strenuous than ploughing because the harrows have to be kept steady and manipulated through the resistant lumps of mud, and thrown at regular intervals to shed the mud that accumulates before and in-between the tines of the harrow.

Where the terraces are too small for harrowing to be done with buffaloes, further hoeing may be necessary to continue the process of breaking up the soil and mud. This, however, is usually done as part of the initial hoeing of these micro-terraces.