African swine fever in Nghe An has decreased but the situation is still complicated

This is the information given by Mr. Hoang Nghia Hieu - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) at the regular July meeting of the People's Committee of Nghe An province, which took place on the morning of July 23 under the chairmanship of comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy chaired the regular July meeting of the Provincial People's Committee on the morning of July 23. Photo: Thu Giang

Nearly 1% of total pig herd destroyed

According to the leaders of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, as of 2:00 p.m. on July 22, African swine fever had occurred in 155 communes and 18 districts of Nghe An province, with 8,500 pigs culled, equivalent to 0.9% of the province's total pig herd. Up to this point, 65 communes have declared the epidemic over, but 5 of them have re-infected, so there are still 95 communes in 12 districts with the epidemic.

“The trend has decreased but the epidemic is still very dangerous, the most complicated developments are in Yen Thanh with 25 communes, Ky Son 17 communes, Quynh Luu 12 communes, Dien Chau 9 communes, Do Luong 5 communes, Que Phong 5 communes, Vinh City 5 communes and wards...” - Mr. Hoang Nghia Hieu said.

According to Mr. Hieu, currently 6 districts have declared the end of the epidemic, including: Nam Dan, Thanh Chuong, Anh Son, Tan Ky, Quy Chau, Quy Hop. Notably, 3 localities including Thai Hoa town, Nghia Dan district and Cua Lo town did not have the epidemic from the beginning, proving that they have done a very good job of epidemic prevention in the past time.

Director of Nghe An Department of Agriculture and Rural Development inspects the African swine fever checkpoint at Hoa Tay hamlet, Nghi Hoa commune, Nghi Loc district on June 11. Photo: Xuan Hoang

To prevent the spread of African swine fever, provincial authorities have set up dozens of animal quarantine stations, controlled all pigs circulating in the province, disinfected and sterilized, and called on people to strictly implement biosecurity measures in livestock farming.

In the coming time, the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the industry will continue to strengthen disease surveillance, strictly handle poultry smuggling, disseminate information and instruct farmers on technical measures to prevent and control diseases for livestock, and minimize damage.

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy acknowledged that the spread of African swine fever at this stage has slowed down and the number of cases has been controlled, showing that the measures and solutions have been effective, and at the same time proposed to continue strengthening epidemic prevention and control work.

Nearly 11,000 hectares of summer-autumn crops are affected by drought.

In July, the agricultural sector mainly focused on summer-autumn crop care and crop production. The total summer-autumn crop area is estimated at over 74,691 hectares, up 3.64% over the same period, equal to 97.96% of the plan.

For rice, the total summer-autumn crop area is estimated at more than 59,666 hectares/plan of 59,000 hectares, including nearly 52,823 hectares of pure rice, mainly high-quality rice.

Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Nghia Hieu reports on the results of summer-autumn and winter-spring crop planting. Photo: Thu Giang

Meanwhile, crop production is concentrated in mountainous districts that do not have proactive water sources such as Tan Ky, Nghia Dan, Que Phong, Quy Chau, Ky Son, Tuong Duong...

It is estimated that by July 8, the entire province has planted, sown, and sown an estimated 20,721/36,000 hectares of rice, reaching 57.56% of the plan, compared to the same crop, only 59.14% and compared to the progress of last year, only 88.56% due to prolonged heat over a large area, many areas are dry, there is no water to prepare the land for sowing...

"11,000 hectares of upland rice in the mountains were sown once, but it was too sunny to grow, so we directed them to switch to corn, so the rice area is unlikely to reach the target," said Mr. Hieu.

Leaders of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Irrigation Enterprise of Hung Nguyen district inspected the drought situation in Hung Thang commune. Photo: Phu Huong

Regarding this content, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy assessed that in the context of many difficult weather conditions, the agricultural sector has made efforts to sow the summer-autumn crop with good acreage, but the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in the coming time needs to continue to pay attention to caring for the crops to achieve high yields.

After listening to the "commander" of the Agriculture sector present the current situation and plans for the two sectors of forestry and fisheries in the last months of the year, comrade Thai Thanh Quy emphasized that in order for the sector to achieve the assigned growth scenario, there must be immediate solutions to nearly double the forestry exploitation capacity.

Besides, in aquaculture and fishing, it is necessary to review, propose solutions, and calculate to focus on strong direction, especially in the context of the upcoming storm and flood season.