For almost a decade, farmer Qin Bin, 50, has toiled his plot, growing
peaches and dragon fruits for sale to visiting tourists at his orchard on the
outskirts of the Chinese megacity of Chongqing.
اضافة اعلان
But this year's crop is devastated, another casualty of a blistering
heatwave that has engulfed southern
China in the country's hottest summer on
record and subsumed half its land in drought.
"This is absolutely the first time in my life encountering such a
disaster," he tells AFP.
"This year is a very miserable one.
"We should be harvesting fruits right now, but it's all gone, dead from
the scorching sun."
Southern China has recorded its longest continuous period of high
temperatures since records began more than 60 years ago, forcing power cuts
that have hit agricultural workers hard.
The searing heat poses a "severe threat" to the country's autumn
harvest, the Chinese government has said, promising billions of yuan in fresh
aid to farmers.
But for Qin, any help will come too late -- his crop has dried up on the
vine and with it his main source of income.
"It's basically all dead," he says. "The government has been
making a huge effort to help us, but it can only bring trees to life, not
fruits."
He's far from the only one suffering in his village, home to over a thousand
acres of longans that are now ruined.
"If you take a walk around our town, you can feel the scale of the
disaster," he says.
The extreme heat has forced Qin and fellow farmers to work odd hours -- it's
simply too hot to toil during the day as the mercury pushes past 40 degrees
Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
Instead they work at night -- from 10 pm until 4 am -- and rest during the
day.
"It's impossible to work out in the orchard, because the ground
temperature is around 60 degrees Celsius... we measured it the other day,"
he explains.
But their efforts to save what they can may be in vain if the drought lasts
into next month.
"If the heat lasts until September 4 as some of them said, probably
more than half of the trees that we put day-and-night effort into rescuing will
be dead," Qin says.
"It's too miserable to bear witness to."
Qin is sceptical that much can be done to help his beleaguered community --
with so much land affected, he says, authorities have a huge task on their
hands.
"Those who can save themselves are doing it," he says.
The effects of the drought will continue even into 2023, as his parched
trees struggle to produce fruit.
"My trees won't bloom well next season, the fruits will be greatly
affected as a result."
All they can do for now, he says, is wait for rain.
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