The hard work of 'playing with soil' to earn money in Nghe An

Tan Huong commune area (Tan Ky) is home to many establishments.seedling nursery, mainly trees for forest planting such as acacia, eucalyptus, rosewood, etc. In order to promptly meet the demand for buying trees in large quantities from forest owners, nursery facilities are forced to hire people to pack soil into pots. Therefore, a labor force specializing in packing soil into pots was born.

Workers diligently sit and make tree pots. Photo: Tien Dong

To get 300,000 VND in wages, each day the workers making pots of soil must make more than 10,000 pots.

Ms. Ha, who lives in Hamlet 9 (Tan Huong), has been doing this job for many years. She quickly uses her hands to pick up the bags that are stepped on under her feet, scoops up soil, puts it in the pots, and compacts it into neat rows. Every movement and gesture is repeated like a machine. Seeing my surprise, Ms. Ha smiled, saying that after a long time, you will get used to it. Making 10,000 pots of soil a day is not a simple matter. Not to mention that there are times when the price of seedlings is cheap, so the cost of making pots is also cheap.

"At this time, the price of seedlings is high, each acacia sapling costs 500 VND, and each sapling costs 5,000 VND, so we can also benefit" - Ms. Ha laughed.

Grinding soil to make potting mix. Photo: Tien Dong

Ms. Ha said this job is a "dirt playing" job. The soil to make pots is scooped into a grinder by others, mixed with synthetic fertilizer, then dumped into a pile for the women to work on. On cool, calm days, they can earn 300,000 VND, but on sunny days of 39-40 degrees, sitting in the sun all day makes everyone dizzy, and they can't even make 150,000 VND. Not to mention that when it rains, the soil becomes soggy that it can't be packed. So there is no income.

After being packed, the soil balls are neatly lined up to facilitate counting and payment. Photo: Tien Dong

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong, Tan Minh hamlet (Tan Huong), who specializes in calling workers to make pots for trees, said: People who do this job initially determined it was a part-time job, only doing it when they had free time from farming at home. But gradually, due to the need to make pots every day, they work continuously, becoming the main source of income. People who make pots for trees in Tan Huong never run out of work, the only thing is, if the price of trees is high, the garden owner will pay more for making pots and vice versa.

After finishing the potting mix for this garden, they move on to another garden. After finishing the potting mix for the acacia trees, they move on to potting the lacquer trees and the ironwood trees. If the pots are big, the salary is also higher.

After finishing the potting stage, other people will be responsible for planting the seedlings in the pots. Photo: Tien Dong

After completing the soil potting, garden owners must hire other workers to plant seedlings in the pots.

For the tree thenseedAfter germinating in the ground for a few weeks, they will be transplanted into pots. Plants with large, hard seeds or cuttings will be transplanted directly into pots. Usually, a group or team will take on the task of making pots and transplanting seedlings. There are also people who are only familiar with transplanting seedlings. The daily wage ranges from 150,000 to 170,000 VND.

Unlike potting, the person who transplants the tree into the pot must be more careful and gentle to avoid breaking the young tree. Photo: Tien Dong

Ms. Nguyen Thi Vinh, from Lang Rao (Tan Huong), rides her motorbike to Tan Minh hamlet every day to plant seedlings in pots for the garden owner. Ms. Vinh has been doing this job for 2 years. Although it is hard work, especially sitting outside all day, which often causes spinal degeneration and herniated discs, people in this profession have to accept it in order to ensure their family's survival.

Mr. Nguyen Hai Nam - Vice Chairman of Tan Huong Commune People's Committee shared: More than 10 years ago, some local households built their own nursery model.forestry seedlingshighly effective, later many households followed suit. Up to now, the whole commune has nearly 200 households building tree nurseries, providing seedlings for almost all provinces in the North Central region. Since the development of tree nursery, it has become a new direction for local people.

In the whole Tan Huong commune, there are 10 hamlets, the tree nurseries are mainly in Tan Minh, Tan Son, Chau Nam hamlets, people in the remaining hamlets come to these hamlets to work, creating a diverse labor force. Some people specialize in potting, transplanting, weeding, turning trees, some people grind soil or trade seedlings to sell to people in need in other localities./.