Taking advantage of the water, Nghe An rice transplanters 'work at full capacity'

Taking advantage of the water, farmers in Thanh Chuong district "rob" the season to plant summer-autumn rice. Photo: TP

Ms. Trinh Thi Thom's planting team in Dien Phu commune (Dien Chau) has 4 members, mainly women in the commune. After finishing planting their family's rice fields, they take advantage of the opportunity to plant for hire for households in need. This year, the weather is hot, there is little rain, and there is a lack of electricity to pump water, so the fields lack water for planting.

The summer-autumn crop requires “working fast, winning fast”, planting immediately after the spring rice harvest to avoid flooding. Therefore, when there is water, farmers must quickly prepare the land and plant immediately to meet the season. The urgent progress means that most households have to hire workers to meet the schedule and “steal” water for planting.

The planting teams work at full capacity, planting day and night to keep up with the season. Photo: TP

Ms. Trinh Thi Thom said: “In this crop, besides the hardships caused by the hot weather, the requirements for the crop schedule also urge the women to “race”. Especially due to the lack of water and the fear of dry fields, the field owners require the hired planting teams to plant quickly and neatly. Therefore, the team of 4 workers must work at full capacity. They get up at 4am to plant, rest at 10am when the sun comes up, and plant at 4pm until 11am or 12pm before resting. In just 10 days, our team has planted more than 8 hectares of rice fields for the people in the area.”

According to Ms. Thom, the current salary for transplanting rice is quite high, from 350,000-400,000 VND/day (including lunch, working 8 hours a day), or contracted based on area (400,000-450,000 VND/sao). In groups that take advantage of transplanting at night and work hard, each transplanter can earn 800,000-1,000,000 VND per day.

Working hard under the hot sun and through the night, but in return, the wages of rice transplanters are quite high. Photo: TP

For about 10 days now, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhung in Bao Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) has taken advantage of the opportunity to invite other women in the neighborhood to form a planting team to hire people in and outside the district. Ms. Nhung's planting team does not have a fixed number of people. If she receives a large area, she mobilizes a large number of people to go, but if she receives a small area, she mobilizes fewer people.

“This summer-autumn crop, the area for planting is not much, people mainly sow and transplant rice, only in deep and low-lying areas do they plant rice seedlings. However, due to the urgent season, the demand for workers to hire transplanters is very high, the transplanting season only lasts about 10 days, but our team of transplanters has to work at full capacity to meet the needs of the people. After we finish planting in Yen Thanh field, we will go to Dien Chau, Quynh Luu, Do Luong fields... When people call, we will schedule and assign each other to go.”

These days, taking advantage of afternoon thunderstorms, localities are speeding up the planting progress. Photo: TP

In order to ensure "safety" and avoid natural disasters, Thanh Chuong district focuses on directing land preparation and planting, focusing on short-term varieties (less than 100 days), especially in areas with high risk of flooding. However, at the beginning of the season, there was a lack of water for land preparation, but now, when the water is regulated, there is a lack of electricity to pump water and bring water to the fields. Therefore, up to now, the area of ​​summer-autumn crop fields that has been planted has only reached 1%.

Taking advantage of the past two days of rain and thunderstorms, the people have concentrated on preparing the land and hiring workers to speed up the progress to meet the crop schedule. Therefore, the workers in Thanh Chuong district are also very "in demand" these days.

Ms. Dinh Thi Thanh in Dai Dong commune (Thanh Chuong), a member of a planting team, said: "Currently, my fields do not have water, so I take advantage of the time to go with my sisters to plant in other fields in the district. Despite the hot weather, to keep up with the crop schedule, try to plant when the fields are not dry yet, and avoid planting "stretch" (when the water recedes, leaving only mud), so people request that we plant quickly.

The demand for rice transplanters is increasing as people take advantage of water from showers and thunderstorms to speed up progress. Photo: TP

As for me, if I work at night, I can plant about 2 sao a day. If I don't have lunch, I get paid 450,000 VND/sao. There are days when a team of 10 workers, divided into 3 groups, works from early morning to late at night but still cannot meet the needs of the people. Almost every day, there are people calling to hire them to plant rice. In some places, the area is small, so we have to refuse.

Currently, in addition to the planting teams operating at full capacity, in Thanh Chuong district, many communes have deployed tray sowing and machine planting such as Thanh Lien, Thanh Tien, Thanh Hoa, Cat Van... but the number of planting machines can only meet the needs of about 200/5,000 hectares of the summer-autumn crop.

Localities are making efforts to overcome difficulties and strive to plant the summer-autumn crop on schedule. Photo: CSCC

In the coming days, according to the weather forecast, Nghe An will have showers and thunderstorms, concentrated in the afternoon and at night, so localities are directing and urging people to take advantage of every favorable time to plant summer-autumn rice. The season is urgent, lightning "heaven and earth", people in localities in the province speed up the progress of planting summer-autumn rice, leading to an increase in the demand for transplanters. The transplanting teams work at full capacity, straining under the hot sun, but in return, they have a fairly high income during a season.