作物全滅…記録的猛暑にあえぐ農家　中国・重慶

【重慶ＡＦＰ＝時事】中国・重慶郊外で果樹園を営むキン・ビンさん（５０）はここ１０年近く、精魂傾けてモモやドラゴンフルーツを栽培し、観光客に売ってきた。（写真は中国・重慶で干ばつの被害を受けたかんきつ類の実）
　だが今年、観測史上最も暑い夏となり、国土の半分が干ばつに見舞われている。作柄は壊滅的だ。
　キンさんはＡＦＰに対し「これほどの災厄に遭ったのは人生で初めてだ」と語った。
　「例年なら今頃、果実を収穫しているが、全部駄目になった。あまりの暑さで枯れてしまった」
　中国南部では猛暑が続いており、６０年余り前の観測開始以来、その期間は最長となっている。
　政府は、猛暑によって秋の収穫が「深刻な脅威」にさらされているとし、農家に数十億元規模の支援を行うと約束している。
　しかし、作物が「全滅した」キンさんにとって、どんな支援も手遅れだ。
　「政府は私たちを支援しようとしているが、救えるのは果樹だけで、果実はどうにもならない」と嘆く。
　リュウガン（ロンガン）栽培が盛んな村で、被害を受けているのはキンさんだけではない。
　日中は４０度を超える日が続く。農家は夜１０時から翌朝４時まで作業し、日中は休むようにしている。
　キンさんは「この前測ってみたが、地表温度は６０度前後にもなる。そんな中で働くのは無理だ」と話した。
　しかも、来月も日照りが続けば、変則的な時間帯に作業をするといった農家の努力もすべて徒労に終わる可能性がある。
　「予報通り、猛暑が９月４日まで続けば、日夜必死に救おうとした木も半分以上が枯れてしまうだろう」とキンさん。「そんな惨状は直視できない」
　水分が足りていない木は、実をつけにくくなる。来年にも影響が残ることになる。
　「うちの果樹は来年、満足に開花しないだろう。結実にも深刻な影響が出るはずだ」
　今は雨を待つしかないと、キンさんは漏らした。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/08/30-14:20）

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.
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.