Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality is making preparations for another "cotton exodus" --to organize its farmers to harvest the crop in the border region of Xinjiang, local agricultural authorities said Sunday.
Gong Tianrong, deputy chief of the Municipal Agricultural Bureau, said they have earmarked 20 million yuan (about 2.6 million U.S. dollars) to arrange 43 trains for round trips between Chongqing and Xinjiang.
Last year, twenty-six trains carried about 100,000 farmers from Chongqing to pick cotton in Xinjiang. The farmers brought home 200 million yuan (about 26 million U.S. dollars) in just two months, each farmer making at least 2,000 yuan (260 U.S. dollars).
The plan was initiated to divert manpower from Chongqing which saw large swathes of croplands destroyed by the worst drought in 50 years last year to help farmers in scarcely-populated Xinjiang pick cotton.
This year, the municipality suffered another blow after the heaviest rainfall on record flooded more than 192,500 hectares of its farmland in July, Gong said.
More than 90,000 farmers have signed up for the trip, and they will head for Shihezi, Aksu City and Korla City in the region, Gong added.
