Spring crop failure

(Baonghean) - Lush green corn fields with no cobs or with corn but no kernels, peanut fields, tubers with few kernels, and empty kernels are common in the spring crop production areas this year. While spring rice is considered to have the highest yield ever, many crops in many areas have been lost due to droughts during the important growth period of the crops.

Kernel corn

Kernelless corn in Cat Van commune (Thanh Chuong).

Bong Khe Commune, Con Cuong District, the agricultural land area is mainly fertile land, along the Lam River. This is also the locality with the largest corn area in the district. This spring crop, Bong Khe planted 170 hectares of corn, due to hot weather, combined with strong Lao winds, 157 hectares of corn (mainly hybrid corn variety NK4300) were dry, unable to pollinate, resulting in corn without kernels. Mr. Tran Van Tuan and his wife in Vinh Hoan village said: The family has 8 sao of spring corn, like previous years they harvested 3-4 tons of corn, but this crop did not harvest any kernels. The corn fields were green and well-grown, but the corns bloomed right during the prolonged hot weather, causing the corns to dry out and burn, and the corn husks had no kernels. It is said that TH Milk Company came to buy corn plants for people to feed dairy cows, at a price of 800,000 VND/ton, but the company has not come to buy and had to cut down the corn plants to feed the buffaloes. Mr. Tuan's family's life mainly depends on 8 acres of fertile land, there is no land for rice cultivation, this spring-summer corn crop was completely lost, greatly affecting the family's economy.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tan, Head of Vinh Hoan village, worried: This spring crop, the whole village planted nearly 50 hectares of corn, but nearly 36 hectares were burned and burned, considered a total loss. There was no other way, we contacted TH Milk Company to buy corn for the people, because the family's buffalo and cows could not eat it all. However, up to now, TH Milk Company has not announced the purchase, the people are impatient, because if they wait any longer in the hot sun like this, the corn will dry out. This spring-summer crop, the whole Con Cuong district planted 915 hectares of corn, in the communes: Bong Khe, Thi Tran, Binh Chuan, Thach Ngan, Cam Lam, Don Phuc, Yen Khe... of which Bong Khe commune has the most, with nearly 170 hectares. However, only corn in Bong Khe commune was damaged by the heat, the remaining communes, up to this point, have finished harvesting, corn yield has not decreased compared to the previous crop. Thus, because the spring corn planting schedule in Bong Khe commune is later than in other localities, the corn blossomed late, leading to the above consequences.

Similarly, in the Cat Van commune (Thanh Chuong) area, corn stretches out endlessly, but the corn cobs are stunted, crooked, and have almost no seeds. The entire commune has 140 hectares of corn, but most of it is lost with a loss rate of over 70%. According to Mr. Hoang Dinh Truong - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee: This year, due to prolonged rain and floods, the winter corn sowing season has been delayed until mid-October, and spring corn planting has not been done until the end of February, later than every year. In the early stages, the plants grew well, but from the beginning of May, the intense heat that lasted for nearly a month right at the time when the plants were forming ears has severely affected the yield of the corn. The corn has flowered but cannot be pollinated, most of the area has no ears or if there are any, there are no seeds. Normally, corn productivity ranges from 2.5 to 2.7 quintals/sao, but currently, the commune is having to direct the harvest to get the stems and leaves as animal feed, speed up the land preparation process, and plant summer-autumn crops on schedule.

Mr. Le Dinh Thanh, Head of the District Agriculture Department, said: Thanh Chuong district has 2,000 hectares of spring corn, according to reports from communes, of which over 1,400 hectares were damaged by 70% or more. From May 5 to May 25, there was no rain in the district, the heat lasted for a long time, with some days reaching 41-420C, greatly affecting spring crops, especially corn, peanuts and some vegetables. About 1/3 of the corn area planted from the beginning of February avoided damage because the corn had time to form cobs before the drought, the remaining 2/3 of the area planted from mid-February onwards because the winter crop was harvested late was considered a total loss.

Peanut productivity decline

While Nghi Loc had a bumper corn crop this spring thanks to early planting, many peanut areas in the district were severely affected and damaged by drought. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Son's family (Hamlet 1, Nghi Thach Commune) has 4 sao of land, of which 2 sao were planted with peanuts right before the Lunar New Year. If in previous years, peanut yields usually reached 1.5 quintals/sao, this spring crop, the best field yielded less than 1.2 quintals/sao. "A sao of peanuts on a high hill only yielded over 70 kg due to the drought. The severe drought happened right when peanuts were flowering, so every bush had few tubers and the peanuts were not firm and beautiful," said Mr. Son. Nghi Thach Commune has 210 hectares of peanuts, of which about 40% of the area died since the beginning of May due to the excessive heat. People have started harvesting because the plants died, the yield was only 60 - 70 kg/sao.

The remaining areas are located in deeper, moist areas, and the yield still reaches 1.2-1.4 quintals/sao. Mr. Dang Ba Huong - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: In the near future, the commune plans to convert about 30-40% of the peanut area in high, dry land to corn cultivation". This year's spring crop is considered a production crop with harsh conditions for peanuts. The beginning of the crop was cloudy, the end of the crop was hot for a long time, especially in mid-May, the heat was intense, high temperatures occurred right at the time when Nghi Loc peanuts formed seeds, peanuts died early in large numbers, and people had to reluctantly harvest about 1,000 hectares of young peanuts.

According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Tho - Head of the District Agriculture Department, the entire district has about 2,000/3,700 hectares of peanuts with a 30-40% reduction in productivity, the rest have a 20-30% reduction compared to last year's spring crop, about 21-22 quintals/ha (spring crop 2013 was 25 quintals/ha). In the entire Nghi Loc district, only Nghi Dien and Nghi Yen communes do not have peanuts. Every year, spring peanuts are sown a week before and after the beginning of spring. This year, due to favorable weather, about 70% of the peanut area was sown from January 20 to February 4. However, there was no rain during the whole crop, especially from early April to May. If every year there are usually thunderstorms that are favorable for peanuts to flower and set tubers, this year the heat has lasted for a long time, with temperatures often reaching 38 - 400C while the peanut plants are in the period of accumulating nutrients into the seeds, determining productivity. The peanut plants withered early, especially in the semi-mountainous communes of Nghi Van, Nghi Lam, Nghi Kieu... Although the tubers are still guaranteed, the kernel ratio is low, the seeds are small and not plump. "Preventing drought in the crop area is currently very difficult, the peanut growing area is completely dependent on rainwater, there is no irrigation system. In the current solution of the district, we can only try to arrange the crop schedule earlier, cover the peanuts with plastic, and in higher areas we will switch to growing corn and beans" - Mr. Tho shared.

This spring crop, the whole province had 5,700 hectares of corn affected in productivity due to drought, mainly corn in the upland areas in Anh Son, Thanh Chuong, Tan Ky districts, of which more than 4,000 hectares lost over 70% of their yield; 4,200 hectares of peanuts and vegetables were damaged, of which 2,200 hectares lost over 70% of their yield. The cause is said to be the prolonged and early drought. Meanwhile, in some localities, due to the late harvest of winter crops, the spring crop was implemented late, especially the corn area in the upland areas. In the immediate future, to support farmers, the Department of Agriculture is working with localities to conduct inspections, review, and synthesize initial data to prepare a dossier to submit to the Provincial People's Committee to announce the damage caused by drought and support the people. However, in the long term, necessary solutions are needed. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Lap - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the current situation of climate change, it is necessary to review the weather and hydrometeorological situation to arrange a more reasonable crop schedule in the growing regions.

In fact, despite the drought, some localities in Dien Chau still had a good peanut harvest thanks to early sowing. In the alluvial areas, this is more difficult to do, but to overcome it, people need to speed up the harvest of winter crops, urgently sow spring corn in the spirit of the current summer-autumn production, which is "harvesting as soon as the land is prepared, this field may be harvested but other fields have been prepared and planted". At the same time, it is necessary to consider changing the corn variety structure more reasonably, in the direction of using short-term corn varieties, although the yield is not as high. In fact, we are currently using intensive, high-yielding corn varieties but the growing period is up to 125 days. In the current unpredictable weather conditions, it is necessary to prioritize safety criteria over productivity, using varieties with a shorter growing period, about 110 days, to limit damage if the drought comes early and severely like this year.

Phu Huong - Xuan Hoang