The agriculture ministry has called on central and northern provinceshit by the worst drought in 40 years to encourage a major shift fromrice cultivation to drought-resistant crops.
The ministry'sPlant Cultivation Department has asked all localities in these regionsto advise farmers and issue policies supporting this shift, according toTin Tuc (News) newspaper.
It said the area that would switchfrom rice cultivation for the 2014-2015 winter-spring crop and the 2015summer-autumn crop would account for about 60 percent of the originallyplanned 8,527ha.
However, the report also expressed someskepticism of the plan, because the prolonged water shortage has made itdifficult for localities to grow even drought-tolerant plants.
Anearlier report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development(MARD) said that about 50,000ha of farmland across the country have beenrendered barren by the prolonged drought, mostly in the provinces ofBinh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, Khanh Hoa and Quang Tri.
It saidlocalities have taken various measures to cope with the droughtincluding digging ponds, sourcing underground water, and dredging canalsto try and provide water for irrigation and daily use. They have alsoworked with hydropower plants to release water from their reservoirs andasked residents to save water.
Furthermore, the ministry hasproposed that the Government provides financial assistance to helpprovinces overcome consequences of the drought. Emergency mitigationmeasures carried out by the ministry is said to have cost 57.5 billionVND (2.6 million USD) so far.
The Tin Tuc (News) report quotedNguyen Xuan Dinh, head of the Agriculture Department in Quynh Luudistrict, Nghe An province, as saying nearly 500ha of 7,500ha of ricefields have been switched to other crops.
The department hasasked provincial authorities to provide capital support to compensatefor losses suffered by farmers and help them restructure their farmingactivities.
Ho Duc Hai, who lives in Quynh Luu district's An Hoacommune, said his family had finished transplanting rice seedlings onnearly 1,000sq.m for the summer-autumn crop, but these had wilted anddied in the heat.
"My family had to switch to growing corn on that land," Hai told Tin Tuc.
"I hope that the Government will issue policies to support people in shifting from rice to other crops," he said.
Inthe central province of Ninh Thuan, where reservoirs have almostcompletely dried up with water below 10 percent of their designcapacity, officials plan to stop planting rice on 10,229ha for thesummer-autumn crop.
The province has received some rainfall inrecent days, but not enough for farmers to irrigate their rice fields.The province, therefore, plans to grow corn, beans and grass forlivestock on the rice fields, said Phan Van Thuu, Deputy Director of theNinh Thuan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Householdsshifting from rice to other cash crops will receive assistance withseeds as well as application of modern technology in production, hesaid.-VNA
The ministry'sPlant Cultivation Department has asked all localities in these regionsto advise farmers and issue policies supporting this shift, according toTin Tuc (News) newspaper.
It said the area that would switchfrom rice cultivation for the 2014-2015 winter-spring crop and the 2015summer-autumn crop would account for about 60 percent of the originallyplanned 8,527ha.
However, the report also expressed someskepticism of the plan, because the prolonged water shortage has made itdifficult for localities to grow even drought-tolerant plants.
Anearlier report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development(MARD) said that about 50,000ha of farmland across the country have beenrendered barren by the prolonged drought, mostly in the provinces ofBinh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, Khanh Hoa and Quang Tri.
It saidlocalities have taken various measures to cope with the droughtincluding digging ponds, sourcing underground water, and dredging canalsto try and provide water for irrigation and daily use. They have alsoworked with hydropower plants to release water from their reservoirs andasked residents to save water.
Furthermore, the ministry hasproposed that the Government provides financial assistance to helpprovinces overcome consequences of the drought. Emergency mitigationmeasures carried out by the ministry is said to have cost 57.5 billionVND (2.6 million USD) so far.
The Tin Tuc (News) report quotedNguyen Xuan Dinh, head of the Agriculture Department in Quynh Luudistrict, Nghe An province, as saying nearly 500ha of 7,500ha of ricefields have been switched to other crops.
The department hasasked provincial authorities to provide capital support to compensatefor losses suffered by farmers and help them restructure their farmingactivities.
Ho Duc Hai, who lives in Quynh Luu district's An Hoacommune, said his family had finished transplanting rice seedlings onnearly 1,000sq.m for the summer-autumn crop, but these had wilted anddied in the heat.
"My family had to switch to growing corn on that land," Hai told Tin Tuc.
"I hope that the Government will issue policies to support people in shifting from rice to other crops," he said.
Inthe central province of Ninh Thuan, where reservoirs have almostcompletely dried up with water below 10 percent of their designcapacity, officials plan to stop planting rice on 10,229ha for thesummer-autumn crop.
The province has received some rainfall inrecent days, but not enough for farmers to irrigate their rice fields.The province, therefore, plans to grow corn, beans and grass forlivestock on the rice fields, said Phan Van Thuu, Deputy Director of theNinh Thuan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Householdsshifting from rice to other cash crops will receive assistance withseeds as well as application of modern technology in production, hesaid.-VNA
