Women Villagers Gain Water Caltrops' Wealth amid Harvest Season

Aerial photo shows that women villagers pick water caltrops at a planting base in Fenyi County, Xinyu City, East China's Jiangxi Province, on July 29. [Xinhua/Zhao Chunliang]

A group of women villagers have been busy picking water caltrops at a water-caltrop planting base in Miancun Village, Fengyang Town, Xinyu City, East China's Jiangxi Province, since early July, and they will keep at it until October, covering a whole harvest season.

Some of them are from impoverished families. Working for eight hours per day, they can harvest water caltrops weighing more than 3,000 kilograms on average, which will be sold in Jiangxi, Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces.

The water caltrop is known as the "gold ingot" in the water. Its annual output of the planting base can reach 200,000 to 400,000 kilograms. Each member of the women's picking team is expected to earn 80 yuan (US $11.4) per day, and increase the annual income by more than 7,000 yuan (US $1,002) through three-month work.

The women villagers work in the fields all year round for local big farming households as raisers of rice seedlings as well as planters and harvesters of the fruit and vegetable bases. They have increased their income at their doorsteps via group work.

Women pickers walk along an embankment with tools in hand, ready to start their work in the planting base in Miancun Village, Fengyang Town, Xinyu City, East China's Jiangxi Province, on July 29. [Xinhua/Zhao Chunliang]

Women villagers pick water caltrops in the planting base in Miancun Village, Fengyang Town, Xinyu City, East China's Jiangxi Province, on July 29. [Xinhua/Zhao Chunliang]

Women villagers pick water caltrops in the planting base in Miancun Village, Fengyang Town, Xinyu City, East China's Jiangxi Province on July 29. [Xinhua/Zhao Chunliang]

Two women villagers load a vehicle with water caltrops at the planting base in Miancun Village, Fengyang Town, Xinyu City, East China's Jiangxi Province, on July 29. [Xinhua/Zhao Chunliang]

(Source: Xinhua/Translated and edited by Women of China)