Hundreds of hectares of winter-spring rice in a mountainous district of Nghe An are at risk of being lost due to brown planthopper infection.

These days, the rice fields of Co Noong block, Kim Son town (Que Phong) have appeared in a series of dry and burnt fields, making it difficult for them to flower. It is known that the dry and burnt rice fields are due to heavy brown planthopper infestation.

Ms. Vi Thi Lan, a farmer in Co Noong block, Kim Son town, sadly said that this crop, her family planted 13 hectares of rice (equivalent to more than 2 sao), with the pure Bac Thinh rice variety. When the rice plants reached the stage of forming ears, they appeared.brown planthopperdense. Although the family spent 300 thousand dong to buy pesticides to spray 3 times, it could not save the rice. Now the rice is getting more and more dry and burnt, so the family stopped spraying pesticides.

"The family's entire field is dry and burnt, at risk of not being able to produce flowers, so this season there will be no rice to harvest, facing a food shortage during the upcoming lean season," said Ms. Vi Thi Lan.

Mr. Hoang Trung Cuong - Chairman of the People's CommitteeKim Son townsaid: The locality has 200 hectares of winter-spring rice, of which 47 hectares are heavily infected with planthoppers, in addition, there are some areas lightly infected with planthoppers. The areas heavily infected with planthoppers have dry leaves and are unable to flower.

"Currently, the town People's Committee continues to propagate and mobilize farmers to spray pesticides to save areas lightly infected with planthoppers. To effectively prevent rice pests, the town regularly guides people to buy the right pesticides, spray them correctly, and at the right time...", said Mr. Hoang Trung Cuong.

Similarly, Chau Kim commune is also a locality with a large area of ​​rice infected with brown planthoppers. Mr. Ha Minh Tuan - Secretary of Chau Kim commune Party Committee said that the whole commune has 100 hectares of rice infected, of which more than 30 hectares are severely infected, at risk of not being able to bloom.

"Currently, the locality continues to propagate to farmers to spray pesticides on areas lightly infected with planthoppers, but on areas heavily infected with dry, burnt leaves, they should not spray anymore, because spraying cannot save them. In particular, it can be seen that areas where people plant Cay Noi rice (local rice variety) are less infected with planthoppers, or not heavily infected; while areas planted with pure rice varieties are mostly infected with planthoppers and heavily infected," said Mr. Ha Minh Tuan.

Mr. Phan Trong Dung - Head of the District Department of Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentQue Phongsaid: This season, the whole district planted more than 2,000 hectares of rice. However, this year, brown planthoppers appeared in many areas, so pest control for rice encountered many difficulties. Up to this point, through data from localities, the whole district has 350 hectares infected with brown planthoppers; of which, the area heavily infected and burnt is up to hundreds of hectares (currently, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is continuing to count the heavily infected areas in localities). The winter-spring rice areas infected with brown planthoppers are mainly in the outlying communes: Chau Kim, Muong Noc, Kim Son town and Tien Phong.

According to Mr. Phan Trong Dung, the reason why Que Phong district's winter-spring rice crop was heavily infected with brown planthoppers was because farmers did not spray pesticides properly; moreover, this year's weather was different from other years, sunny in the morning and rainy in the afternoon, and the spraying was not uniform, so the pesticides were not effective after spraying; in addition, some households did not spray pesticides due to lack of manpower, leading to the spread of planthoppers to other areas.

According to Mr. Nguyen Tien Duc - Head of the Provincial Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, currently, the winter-spring rice crop in mountainous districts in general is growing steadily, only Que Phong district has many areas heavily infected with brown planthoppers. "Currently, the rice is in the earing stage, close to flowering, so the locality needs to continue to guide farmers to spray pesticides to prevent brown planthoppers on lightly infected areas, to limit the spread of planthoppers more widely. For areas that are heavily infected, with all the leaves dried up, there is a high risk that they will not be able to flower," Mr. Nguyen Tien Duc shared.

The rice crop in Que Phong district blooms from mid-late September to late October. However, this year hundreds of hectares of rice are at risk of not blooming due to heavy infestation of planthoppers, so many families will not have rice to harvest.