Dozens of hectares of hot chili peppers in Quynh Luu withered and died prematurely.

In the entire An Hoa commune, there are 15 hectares of chili peppers, of which 70% are wilted and dead. Photo: Hong Dien

The entire An Hoa commune has 15 hectares of GF99 chili peppers, mainly concentrated in the Toan Thang Agricultural Service Cooperative. According to households, this year's chili peppers have grown well, producing relatively large, even, and beautiful fruits. The expected yield per sao is 900 to 1 ton. However, due to the cold air strengthening and heavy rain on March 4, many fields were flooded, causing 70% of the chili pepper area in An Hoa to wither.

Ms. Ho Thi Tich in Hamlet 1, An Hoa Commune said: This year, her family planted 1.5 sao of chili peppers but all the leaves have fallen off, and when the sun comes up, the plants will dry up and die. The chili pepper fields were green and fruitful, but now they are wilted and cannot be restored. Previously, with just the above area, she earned tens of millions of VND/year, but this chili crop, her family has almost lost everything. Currently, she is monitoring the weather, when it is stable, she will clean the fields and prepare the soil to plant short-term crops.

Seeing the hot peppers bearing lots of fruit but already wilted, people can't help but feel sorry. Photo: Hong Dien

In the past 5 years, An Hoa people have been actively producing the chili pepper variety, the household with the largest area is nearly 800 m.², the smallest household is also 500m². After about 2 months of planting and caring, the chili peppers begin to ripen and the harvest period lasts for 8 months. On average, each sao yields 800 kg, after deducting all costs, the grower earns a profit of 20 million VND/sao.

However, this hot chili crop, people spent a lot of money, effort to care for and cultivate, but due to bad weather, the plants suffered from root rot and died when they were just entering the early stages of the harvest period. Mr. Nguyen Van Huu - a resident of An Hoa shared: This year, seeing the chili grow well, flower and bear fruit a lot, everyone is excited. Although the price at the beginning of the season is much lower than the same period last year, due to the long harvest period, people hope that the purchase price from the company will increase.

The chili pepper plants suffered root rot and died just at the beginning of the harvest season. Photo: Hong Dien

The cooperative invited an agricultural engineer to inspect and advise on how to save the plants, but because the roots were almost completely rotten, there was no way to restore them and they had to accept the loss. Currently, they are promoting and mobilizing people to convert the dead chili pepper fields to sesame.

Mr. Hoang Van Binh - Toan Thang Agricultural Service Cooperative

Not only in An Hoa commune, some chili growing communes such as Quynh Bang and Quynh Nghia also have some areas that have died due to the rain. At this time, people are urgently clearing the dead tree stumps to prepare the land to sow short-term vegetable varieties, in order to close the vacant land area./.