Nghe An: Catching the harvest season, hired planters earn millions to buy Tet gifts

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 sow spring rice. Many families, due to lack of labor, have to pay to hire people 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 that today, because the rice fields are deep in mud, it is more difficult, so the owner raised the price to 350,000 VND/person/day; while for the shallow fields, it is only 300,000 VND/person/day. All day today, the 3 sisters finished rice planting 3 sao of rice fields.

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

"Being a farmer's son, I am familiar with planting and harvesting, but goinghired transplanterTo earn money, you have to be more diligent and hardworking. You go from 6am to 11am for lunch, and from 1pm to 5pm. You work hard all day, "selling your face to the ground and your back to the sky", and when you come home at night, your whole body aches. But the crop season only lasts a short time, so you take the opportunity to work as a hired laborer to earn money to make ends meet. This spring, I worked for 7 days, earning 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 old couple is at home, so the children send money back to their parents to hire workers to plant rice. After renting a machine to plow the land, he hired 3 women to plant rice in 1 day to finish the field. "If we don't hire workers, the two of them will have to work hard for a week to finish the field, if unfortunately they get sick, the children will have to work harder, so even though it costs money, we still hire them to speed things up," said Mr. Van.

The hired rice planting job 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 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, a raincoat, and waterproof boots. It's hard work, but once they accept someone's offer, they have to work hard to maintain their reputation and ensure the rights of the hirer," Ms. Thai shared.

When planting rice on cold winter days, women must 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 work far away and many families lack the workforce to work in the fields, the transplanter team has helped localities ensureseasonal. When it was getting dark, the rice planters finished their day's work, the fields were covered with the green 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./.