Authorities in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai have distributed a state aid packet of 162 tonnes of rice to targeted local districts and communes.

The rice is expected to help ease hunger for 2,790 impoverished households with 10,800 people across the locality.

Lao Cai bore the brunt of an 11,000-tonne food supply loss in 2014 due to a mid-year drought.-VNA