Nghe An: Lack of labor to harvest raw materials

(Baonghean) - The end of the year is the time to harvest raw materials for processing factories such as sugarcane, cassava, and acacia, which require a lot of labor. However, there is a serious shortage of labor, and many places cannot find people to hire.

Ms. Vi Thi Hong in Cung village, Chau Dinh commune, Quy Hop district shared: "My family has more than 2 hectares of sugarcane. Currently, there is a harvest order from the Sugar Factory, so the family mobilizes children and relatives to exchange labor. But sometimes, brothers and sisters are also ordered to cut for their own family, so they cannot cut for others. The price is up to 120,000 VND/day, but many people are not interested."

Like Ms. Hong's family, Mr. Cao Van Quynh's family in Dai Xuan hamlet, Van Loi commune, Quy Hop district has nearly 3 hectares of sugarcane, which is in the peak period of sugarcane harvesting and replanting, so finding labor is very difficult.

The cost of sugarcane cutting labor has reached 200,000 VND/person/day. Photo: Minh Thai.

Mr. Quynh said: "In addition to mobilizing family members to harvest, the family has to hire bundles of sugarcane for 1,000 VND/bundle. If 1 hectare of sugarcane yields 65 to 70 tons, the cost of cutting the sugarcane alone is about 6 to 7 million VND, not including the cost of loading it onto the truck to transport it to the factory. However, finding workers to harvest in time is also very difficult during the harvest season."

Quy Hop district currently has a sugarcane area of ​​5,116 hectares for the 2017-2018 crop year. Currently, the entire district has orders to harvest about 30% of the area, ensuring the factory's capacity of more than 7,000 tons of sugarcane per day.

Along with sugarcane harvesting, Quy Hop district has 1,085 hectares of raw acacia ready for harvest. Acacia harvesting also requires as much labor as sugarcane harvesting. However, acacia gardens are often "hugged" by traders. After the sale agreement, the traders take care of the harvesting themselves and they also have to find people to hire.

Harvesting raw acacia at Nghia Dan Forestry. Photo courtesy

Mr. Nguyen Hung Cuong - Owner of Chau Quang commune's acacia buyer said: "After surveying and reaching an agreement with the acacia seller, I had to hire workers, mainly local people in the district, to harvest. The characteristics of acacia harvesting are using saws and heavy lifting and transportation, so mainly male labor is used. Labor costs are also relatively high, from 150,000 - 200,000 VND/worker/day, but many times we still can't find workers.

The situation is similar in Nghia Dan. Currently, the district has nearly 7,800 hectares of sugarcane, an increase of 300 hectares compared to the 2016-2017 crop. Sugarcane is grown scattered in 25 communes and towns in the district, but mainly concentrated in the communes of Nghia Hung, Nghia Thinh, Nghia Duc, Nghia Lac, Nghia Phu... The fields are urgently entering the sugarcane harvest season, but finding labor is very difficult.

Mr. Thai Van Hoi in Hamlet 14, Nghia Hung Commune (Nghia Dan) said: "Currently, sugarcane is in the harvest season, the sugar factory has issued a cutting schedule but cannot find any workers. My family planted more than 20 hectares of sugarcane this year, with an expected output of over 1,100 tons, but so far we have only sold 400 tons to the factory."

According to Mr. Hoi, last year at this time, his sugarcane farm always had about 10-15 people cutting sugarcane, mainly idle farm workers from Yen Thanh and Dien Chau districts, and the harvest was almost complete. Now, there are only 5-6 fewer workers, so more than half of the sugarcane area has not been harvested yet.

Tan Ky farmers harvest sugarcane in the raw material area. Photo: Archive

According to our research, currently the sugarcane owner and the hired cutter have an agreement not to calculate by the cutting labor but by the bundle, each bundle of sugarcane is about 15 - 20 stalks to calculate the labor cost. Last year, the price for hiring someone to cut a bundle of sugarcane in Nghia Hung was about 900 - 1,000 VND/bundle, but this year's crop has increased to 1,300 - 1,500 VND/bundle, depending on the locality, meaning that for each ton of sugarcane, hiring someone to cut the sugarcane owner costs nearly 1 million VND.

In addition, because trucks cannot enter the fields to pick up the sugarcane, they have to hire a tanker to go to the main road, which costs about 100,000 VND/ton; plus water and medicine for sugarcane cutters, the cost of harvesting is up to 6-7 million VND/ha. Meanwhile, the price of sugarcane is about 880,000 VND/ton, 1 hectare of sugarcane with an average yield of 60 tons yields about 53 million VND, after deducting the investment cost of about 20-25 million VND/ha, sugarcane growers have very little left.

This year, the cost of cutting sugarcane is nearly 1.5 times higher than last year, but many households still cannot find workers to hire. On the other hand, hiring workers leads to post-harvest losses, as workers only focus on quantity, so they cut haphazardly, leaving the roots behind.

According to Mr. Phan Van Binh - Vice Chairman of Nghia Dan District People's Committee, currently entering the mass sugarcane harvesting period, most sugar factories have arranged a cutting schedule for people, but due to the lack of sugarcane cutting workers, the harvesting progress is somewhat slow. The shortage of sugarcane cutting workers has caused labor costs to increase. In the face of the above situation, to support sugarcane growers to speed up the harvesting progress, the District People's Committee has directed departments and organizations to develop plans, strengthen propaganda and mobilize people to mobilize all resources from families, villages and hamlets; sugarcane growing cooperatives conduct labor day exchanges and promptly support families facing difficulties in harvesting sugarcane.

Mr. Nguyen Sy Hai, in charge of raw materials at Song Con Sugar Factory, also said: The current difficulty of factories is that unskilled labor is increasingly scarce in rural areas, with almost only the elderly and middle-aged people, and young people working as workers or going to the South, so the raw material harvest season in most communes is difficult and affects the progress of harvesting raw materials.