Tuanzhou reaps harvest after floods

Watching harvesters collect grain on his farmland in Tuanzhou township, Li Ruihua felt relieved knowing his family will be able to make some money after floodwaters engulfed his farm in July.

After more than three months of being inundated by floodwaters, the township of Huarong county in Hunan province has finally welcomed its autumn harvest.

The township, which is located beside Dongting Lake, the second largest freshwater lake in China, was flooded after a dike dividing the township with the lake breached and widened to 226 meters on July 5.

An area of 47.6 square kilometers, or 92.5 percent of the township, flooded in that incident. All 7,680 people living in Tuanzhou were transferred to safe places, and there have been no reports of casualties.

The breach was sealed on July 8 and the farmland began surfacing on July 27 after concerted efforts to drain the floodwater.

The county government has not wasted any time in organizing agricultural machine teams to help with the tilling and sowing, and a total of 244 hectares of farmland had been sown by Aug 5, according to local government figures.

The government offered farmers free seedlings, and 2,773.1 hectares of farmland have been sown with grain, oilseed rape and vegetables.

Li, 57, who has been a farmer his entire life, said he was devastated to see the land left useless by the flood in July and thought that the family wouldn't be able to harvest anything this year. However, with the help of the local government, the farmland quickly turned green.

More importantly, agricultural experts were sent by different levels of governments to assist farmers to make sure the seedlings survive and thrive this season.

As the township also did not rain for a longtime afterward, the county government also purchased equipment to pump water into the land.

After concerted efforts, around 6.67 hectares of Li's farmland of grain has welcomed harvest recently, with average yielding reaching around 6 metric tons per hectare, he said.

He said he is expected to make more than 80,000 yuan ($11,000) from the grain this year, making up for some losses from the flood.

"Without the help of the government, it would be very hard for us to recover so soon," he said, adding that he worked extra hard in the past several months to protect the crops.

"All farmers want and hope for is a good harvest. Nobody wants to experience natural disasters, and when they strike, we can strive to make the most of an unideal situation."