The southern region should prioritise rice varieties with high quality and yields for export in the upcoming winter-spring rice, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh has said.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoRE) has called on provinces and cities nationwide to step up the conservation of groundwater resources.
In recent years, residents in the Mekong Delta, one of the world’s three largest deltas, have seen growing climate change impacts on local water resources and their livelihoods.
The Mekong Delta is seeing increasing saltwater intrusion caused by high tides this week, with salinity boundary of 4 g/l likely to penetrate up to 65km upstream, according the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Directorate of Water Resources.
The Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau plans to convert this year nearly 2,000ha of unproductive rice paddies into fields where rice and aquatic species are rotated or perennial crops are grown.
The Mekong Delta region is forecast to suffer more severe saltwater intrusion than the average in many years from the start of February, but not as hard as the 2019-2020 dry season, according to Phung Tien Dung, head of the Hydrological Forecasting Department for the Central, Central Highlands and Southern Regions under the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.
Vietnamese and Dutch experts gave recommendations on measures to respond to land subsidence and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta region during a scientific conference on January 12.
The Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang has taken measures to supply water for daily use to more households in areas affected by saltwater intrusion to ensure no one has to buy water at high prices.
The International Mother Earth Day is an occasion for world leaders to take actions to prevent future disasters caused by climate change so that the “common home” of the mankind will become greener.
Saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta will remain an issue between now and late April, an official from the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has forecast.
Vietnamese and foreign experts and scientists gathered at a conference in Can Tho city on March 31 to seek solutions to boost sustainable development in the Mekong Delta region amid climate change.
The Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang plans to expand rotation cultivation models for rice and other crops in its eastern area in an aim to improve productivity and cope with natural disasters, its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has said.
Storms and tropical depressions are likely to hit the northern region and the northern reaches of the central region during August and September, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.
Saltwater intrusion will affect about 40,000ha of fruits and 5,000ha of rice in the Mekong Delta this month, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Irrigation Department.