Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on January 14 presented gifts to more than 200 families of social policy beneficiaries, workers and poor households in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, ahead of the traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has forecast saltwater intrusion for 10 of the 13 provincial-level localities in the Mekong Delta this dry season, and the phenomenon has already appeared in eight so far.
At least half of Vietnam’s seas and islands will be surveyed and evaluated in terms of natural resources, and marine and island environment by 2030, at a scale of 1:500,000.
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.
Saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre is affecting seedling production and farmers have taken measures to secure irrigation water, according to local authorities.
Although challenges lie ahead, there remains room for agro-forestry-fishery exports to increase in 2020, according to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong.
Officials proposed a number of measures to fulfill socio-economic targets for the next year during a teleconference between the Government and localities held in Hanoi on December 30.
Lemongrass farmers in Tien Giang province’s Tan Phu Dong district, the Mekong Delta’s largest producer of the herb, are earning growing incomes now since prices are increasing.
Saltwater has intruded early this year into the Mekong Delta’s coastal provinces, affecting the availability of freshwater for irrigation and household use.
The Mekong Delta may experience sooner and even more serious droughts and saltwater intrusion in the 2019 – 2020 dry season, compared to the situation in 2016 when historic saline intrusion was recorded, an official has said.
Authorities in provinces in the Mekong Delta and Can Tho city are dredging irrigation works and storing fresh water to cope with saltwater intrusion during the dry season.
Forty seven of HCM City’s 56 rural communes have met all 19 criteria set in the national target programme on building new-style rural areas, according to the municipal Party Committee.
The income per capita of rural residents in Kien Giang province, the country’s largest rice producer, has reached 46.2 million VND (1,990 USD) a year, up 1.5 times against 2015, mostly due to the use of new farming models and agricultural restructuring.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has agreed to allocate rice from national reserve for the south central province of Binh Dinh to help ease difficulties faced by local residents in natural disaster-hit areas.
Land subsidence is worsening in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, and experts told a recent seminar in Can Tho city that over-exploitation of groundwater is one of the factors causing it.
Rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta are becoming alarming, said Prof. David Dapice, Senior Economist, Vietnam and Myanmar Programme, Harvard Kennedy School, at a meeting with leaders of Can Tho city on October 8.
A workshop was held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on October 7 to seek improvement of policies and legislation in response to climate change in Vietnam.
The Mekong Delta has restructured agriculture towards climate-change adaptation and market demand by establishing specialised farming areas for its key agricultural products, and by growing other crops on ineffective rice fields or rotating rice with other crops on the same field.
The Mekong Delta’s 12 provinces and Can Tho city have achieved good results in the national target programme on new-style rural area building, with rural incomes and living conditions improving considerably.
Politics
