China Aids Drought - Stricken Farmers on "Cotton Exodus"
Date: 23-Aug-06
Country: CHINA
For two weeks from Aug. 19, 26 trains will take farmers from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality 3,300 kilometres to Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, a senior agriculture official told Xinhua.
About 467,000 migrant workers were needed to pick cotton in Xinjiang, which has reported a bumper crop even as two months of drought conditions and hot weather have destroyed crops in much of the southwestern region.
The government is paying for the workers' travel expenses, while growers will cover some local costs for those they hire. Each farmer could make about 2,000 yuan (US$251) for two months of picking -- similar to what they might have earned by harvesting their own crops in a normal year, the official said.
The farmers are journeying to a remote region where the local Uighur population has bridled at the expanding presence of ethnic Han migrants who do not share their Islamic religion.
"I have never been to Xinjiang and I have no idea how much I can make there," it quoted a 42-year-old Chongqing farmer as saying. "It's worthwhile even if I just take it as a sightseeing tour."
About 10,000 farmers from neighbouring Sichuan province, which was also hit by drought, will take trains to the far-western region, the report said.
(US$1=7.966 Yuan)
