In Nanning, Guangxi Province, a watermelon grabbing incident occurred, with melon farmers crying foul as a large number of villagers entered the fields and seized watermelons, making it impossible to stop them.
Mr. Wei, a watermelon farmer, told the New Beijing News on June 9th that he had rented 280 mu of land in Luowei Town, Nanning, to plant watermelons. After the harvest, there were still some leftover melons in the field. From the 6th to the 7th of June, many villagers entered the melon field without permission to pick watermelons.
Wei said that he and his three employees tried to stop them, but there were too many people to control, leading to physical clashes between the two sides. They eventually had to call the police for help.
Wei emphasized, “They even seized our equipment. Farmers just drove in and picked the melons directly, damaging our ladders and pipes.” Wei estimated a loss of 20,000 yuan.
In response, local village officials stated that the villagers thought the watermelon field had already been harvested, and the remaining melons were open for villagers to pick for free. When the news spread, people from other towns and villages also came. The incident was not reported to the village committee by the melon farmers at the time. If the village committee had intervened, things might have been better, but the farmers said they had not considered that option.
On the 10th, a netizen commented in the video section, saying, according to information obtained from local friends, “The boss’s watermelon field had already been harvested on June 1st and 2nd, with some small and unripe melons left. Initially, on the 6th, people from the village started filling fertilizer bags themselves, each bag costing ten yuan. Many villagers went to fill bags. Later, I don’t know if the foremen said it was free, and more people came, but they didn’t drive down to the field. On the 7th, during the day, many more people came, some from neighboring villages. The good ones by the roadside were picked clean, so they started driving into the middle of the field, damaging water pipes. When the boss saw this, an argument broke out, and then they called the police. Now, no one knows who said it was free to take. The watermelons the boss planted were Black Diamond variety, bought at a purchasing price of 20 cents per kilogram.”
This incident serves as a reminder of the challenges faced by farmers in protecting their crops from unauthorized harvesting and the importance of effective communication between farmers and local authorities to prevent such conflicts in the future.