Early spring watermelon seedling cultivation boosts rural prosperity

Workers work with watermelon seedlings. [Photo by Tian Haitian for chinadaily.com.cn]

Workers at Huafei Farm in Nanwangdian town, Dingtao district of Heze city, in East China's Shandong province, have been busy growing watermelons ahead of spring season.

Every day, workers carefully pinch the branches of the well-developed seedlings that meet the grafting conditions and transfer them to thermal insulation boxes.

The farmers here have managed to raise their quality of life after cultivating watermelon and cantaloupe seedlings for about seven to eight years.

This current lot of seedlings is the first early crop of the year and is primarily meant for neighboring farmers. With a total count of over 50,000 plants, farmers are anticipating returns of more than 20,000 yuan ($2,796). (Edited by Huang Junyao)