China’s ageing farm labourers cash in on annual winter melon harvest
Despite being in their 50s and 60s, hardy rural workers think nothing of hauling three tonnes of the vegetables per day
Rural labourers in southern China are making hay while the sun shines, taking home as much as 400 yuan (US$60) a day helping farmers get their winter melon harvests to market, local media reported.
The work is not for the faint-hearted, however, with the hired hands generally expected to haul more than three tonnes of the vegetables, also known as white gourds, from the fields to the waiting trucks if they want to take home the biggest pay packets, Guangzhou Daily reported on Sunday.
That wouldn’t be so remarkable if it wasn’t for the fact that the average age of the labourers is more than 50, with several of them well into their 60s, the report said.
The harvest season in Yingde, a city in a mountainous region of Guangdong province where the vegetables are grown, is now well under way. The work might sound hard, but for the local pickers it’s no big deal.
