Farmers get payout after birds ruin crops
Print Edition
AUTHORITIES in east China’s Jiangxi Province are paying compensation to local farmers for the damage caused to their crops by the 700,000 migratory birds that descend on Poyang Lake every winter.
Last month, Tao Wenge, a farmer in the village of Changbei in the Xinjian District of the provincial capital Nanchang, was paid 1,200 yuan (US$184) after the birds destroyed his rice crop.
“It wasn’t much and didn’t cover the damage they caused,” he said.
About 10,000 farmers who live near the lake have received payouts, said Zhou Chengdong, director of the wetland protection office at the provincial forestry department.
“It is the first time they have been compensated,” he said, adding that the funds distributed last month were in payment for crop losses in 2014.
In 2014, three regions in Jiangxi — Xinjian, and the counties of Yongxiu and Xingzi in the city of Jiujiang — were listed as national pilot zones for the compensation scheme.
The central government allocated a budget of 50 million yuan to pay for crops lost to wildlife and ecological rehabilitation projects near Poyang Lake in 2014 and 2015, Zhou said.
The birds fly to Poyang from Siberia, Mongolia, Japan and north China in late September and stay until April.
“We saw the birds eating and trampling crops near the lake in October, which is the start of the harvest season for late rice,” Tao said.
“We’re not allowed to kill them, so we try to scare them away by banging gongs and setting off firecrackers,” he said.
Despite the best efforts of the farmers, the birds still did a lot of damage, he said.
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