Around 80,000 smallholder farmers whose livelihoods and welfare have been severely impacted by COVID-19 will benefit from a global initiative by Bayer titled ‘Better Farms, Better Lives.’
This year’s flood season in the Mekong Delta is likely to arrive late and if there is insufficient rain in the months to come, drought and saltwater intrusion may plague the region again during the next dry season, experts have said.
Drip irrigation, an effective Israeli technique that significantly reduces water use, could be applied in Vietnam and address drought and saline intrusion, an Israeli agriculture expert said on a webinar on June 25.
With over 4 million ha of land, the Mekong Delta is home to nearly 20 million people and the largest rice production hub of Vietnam, but it is also facing historic water scarcity.
Eleven minor earthquakes have occurred in Vietnam since the beginning of this year, according to the Standing Office of the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.
Saline intrusion has occurred earlier than normal in the Mekong Delta and is expected to affect a greater area this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
A conference was held in Ben Tre province on January 3 to discuss measures for coping with drought and saltwater intrusion which are getting more serious in the Mekong Delta this dry season.
ASEAN-member countries have vowed to take immediate action to resolve problems caused by worsening drought in Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region, which is especially susceptible to global warming.
A variety of measures to help the Mekong Delta region better respond to climate change and achieve sustainable agricultural production were proposed at a seminar on December 20 in Long An province, part of the third Vietnam Rice Festival.
Despite a larger scale of plantation, winter-spring rice crops grown in the south are estimated to yield just over 11.36 million tonnes of rice, a decrease of 190,000 tonnes compared with last year.
Development partners and sponsors have recommended measures to cope with the acute drought and saltwater intrusion in the central, Central Highlands and Mekong Delta regions of Vietnam.
Drought and saltwater intrusion are predicted to continue damaging parts of the south central, Central Highlands and southern regions this month due to the El Nino impacts.
The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang is working to cope with drought and saltwater intrusion, with a focus on developing and upgrading irrigation works to ensure 2016 crops grow efficiently.
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