Scorching dry heat and a long lasting drought have left fallow and abandoned thousands of hectares of farm land in the central region, predicting an imminent shortage of food grain across the area.
Nguyen Thi Hong, a farmer from Dien Ban District in Quang Nam Province, said that her rice fields should have been sown by now but salt intrusion from the drought has blocked the Tu Cau Pumping Station. Hong is very anxious because rice is her family’s main means of income.
Other 5,000 households in the District are facing the same situation. Salt water has penetrated further into the Vinh Dien River to jam the flow from pumping stations these last several months.
More than 500 hectares of farm land now lie uncultivated due to water shortage in Ngu Hanh Son and Hoa Vang Districts in Da Nang City. Reservoir levels have dropped while salt water has penetrated tens of kilometers into rivers.
Huynh Van Thang, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Da Nang City, said that cultivation of the summer-autumn rice crop is scheduled to complete by end of May. However water shortage has rendered fallow thousands of hectares.
According to the Irrigation Works Exploitation Company in Quang Nam Province, salt intrusion has resulted in severe water shortage to affect more than 4,000 hectares of farm land along Vu Gia and Thu Bon Rivers.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Binh Dinh Province said that this has been the worst drought for the last 20 years. At least 6,000 hectares of farm land now lie parched, of which 1,300 hectares are lying fallow.
About 10,000 out of 50,000 hectares of farm land dependant on rainwater are in danger of being abandoned in Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Tri Province.
The central region has more than 100,000 newly-sowed rice hectares but there is no water to irrigate the rice crop for the next three months.
Provincial agriculture departments have instructed localities to delay cultivation of summer-autumn rice crop and switch to growing short term crops like corn and sesame instead. They will also provide farmers with initial seeds for these crops.
In the long term, Huynh Van Thang, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Da Nang City, said that local authorities should help residents dig more ponds and dredge more reservoirs to accumulate water.
They should continue to demand for water to be released from hydropower plants from the upper reaches of Vu Gia and Thu Bon Rivers. The Government and the National Assembly should intervene in this matter.
