Nghe An: Catching the harvest season, hired planters earn millions for Tet shopping

From dawn, groups of women stand waiting for people to hire them to plant rice. Photo: Xuan Hoang

On this occasion, in the fields of Yen Thanh, Dien Chau, Quynh Luu... (Nghe An), farmers are going to the fields to plant spring rice. Many families, due to labor shortages, have to pay to hire workers to plant rice. Therefore, from dawn, groups of middle-aged women can be seen standing along the roads, waiting for people to hire them to plant rice.

Just coming back from the field, her hands and feet covered in mud, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Tan in Bac Phong hamlet, Lien Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) confided, today because planting in deep mud fields is more difficult, so the field owner raised the price to 350,000 VND/person/day; and for shallow fields, it is only 300,000 VND/person/day. All day today, the 3 sisters finished planting 3 sao of rice fields.

Many women have extra income thanks to rice planting for hire. Photo: XH

"As a farmer's son, planting and harvesting is familiar to me, but goinghired transplantersTo earn money, you have to be more diligent and hardworking. You go from 6am to 11am for lunch break, and from 1pm to 5pm for a break. All day you work hard "selling your face to the ground, selling your back to the sky", and at night you have pain all over your body, but the crop season only lasts for a short time, so you take the opportunity to work as a hired laborer to earn money to cover your living expenses. This spring, I worked for 7 days, with a total income of more than 2 million VND," Ms. Tan shared.

Mr. Van's family in Nam Thanh commune said that the family has 3 sao of rice fields, but because the children work far away, only the two old people are at home, so the children send money back to their parents to hire workers to plant rice. After renting the machine to plow the land, he hired 3 women to plant rice in 1 day to finish the field. "If they don't hire workers, the two of them will have to work hard for a week to finish the field, if they get sick, the children will have to work harder, so even though it costs money, they still hire workers to speed up the process," said Mr. Van.

The job of planting rice for hire not only requires beautiful planting, but also fast planting to ensure the rights of the hirer. Photo: Xuan Hoang

"The hired planters not only have to plant well but also have to plant quickly. Planting in winter is even harder, especially when the weather is cold and windy. To ensure their health, planters have to wear many layers of clothing, raincoats, and waterproof boots. It's hard work, but once they accept someone's job, they have to work hard to maintain their reputation and ensure the rights of the hirer," Ms. Thai shared.

When going to plant rice on cold winter days, women have to wear warm clothes to keep their bodies warm. Photo: Xuan Hoang

There are no statistics on how many people work as transplanters each season, but in the condition that children go to work far away, many families lack the workforce to work in the fields, the transplanter team has helped localities ensureseasonal. When it was getting dark, the planters finished their work for the day, the fields were covered with the green color of young rice seedlings. Each woman received a sum of money immediately. Working hard all season, many women earned millions of dong to buy things for the upcoming Tet./.