Mountainous areas are actively planting crops.

(Baonghean) - The prolonged drought has caused delays in rice planting in many mountainous districts. Following the principle of "better late than never," immediately after heavy rains, local authorities instructed farmers to focus on land preparation, combined with proactive measures to secure irrigation water in anticipation of the unpredictable weather.

Building embankments to retain water.

This cropping season, Que Phong district aims to plant 2,200 hectares of wet rice, 330 hectares of upland rice, and 150 hectares of corn. According to Mr. Lu Van Tien, Head of the District Agriculture Department, the District People's Committee has directed the structuring of short- and medium-day rice varieties, ensuring two factors: stable yield and good rice quality. These include hybrid rice varieties such as Nhi Uu 986 and TH 3-5, and purebred varieties like Japonica, Bac Thom 9, Vat Tu NA2, and Nep 97. Only 1-2 rice varieties with the same growth period are planted per field to facilitate disease control. The District People's Committee scheduled the planting season from July 5th to 16th (depending on the rice variety). However, due to the prolonged drought and water shortage, the planting season is delayed by about 10 days.

According to the district's planting schedule, farmers should have already started sowing rice in the fields. However, as of July 12th, farmers across Que Phong district were still preparing the land and building embankments to retain water. Mr. Lu Van Tien explained: Unlike previous years when water was abundant and farmers only needed to prepare the land and build embankments, now they have to build sturdy embankments to prevent water from flowing freely as before, maintaining just enough water for planting in the fields, in case of continued drought which could delay the planting season. This is necessary because Que Phong district lacks large reservoirs and dams, so irrigation water is not readily available and relies mainly on weather conditions. Regarding fertilizers, the district has instructed the Agricultural Extension Station to disseminate information and guide farmers on the rational use of fertilizers for each rice variety, and for terraced fields, deep-placement fertilizer application is necessary.

Ms. Ha Thi Thuy and her daughter in Muong village, Chau Kim commune (Que Phong district) are building embankments to retain water, preparing for the rice planting season.

Unlike the previous season, this season Que Phong district has restructured its rice cultivation to include over 300 hectares of Japonica rice in large fields across several localities. In particular, Muong Ngoc commune has 280 hectares, with over 50% of the area dedicated to this variety, aiming for commercial rice production for local farmers. Chau Kim commune has 198 hectares of rice planted this season, with 50% hybrid rice and 50% high-yield rice. By mid-July, the entire area of ​​Chau Kim had been plowed and carefully prepared with irrigation dikes. Ms. Ha Thi Thuy from Muong village, while helping her daughter build dikes for their terraced rice field, shared: "We have 5 sao (approximately 0.5 hectares) of rice fields. We should have planted them at the beginning of July, but because of the lack of water, we only started transplanting seedlings a few days ago. This season, our family chose the hybrid rice variety 1 to cultivate." After several days of rain, the mother and daughter went to the fields to prepare the soil, weed, and carefully build embankments to retain water right in the fields, instead of letting it overflow as before. If the weather is favorable, the people of Muong village will go down to the fields to plant rice in the coming days.

Chau Thon is one of the localities in the district with a large area of ​​rice cultivation, with 200 hectares. Mr. Vi Van Chin, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: Taking advantage of the streams with abundant water after the rain, the people in the commune repair and install water wheels to irrigate the fields. When the fields are full of water, they build embankments, fill them with nets to retain water, and prepare the land using machinery, or for smaller fields, use buffaloes to plow and harrow. The commune has propagated and instructed people to absolutely not sow seeds directly, but to transplant seedlings. Due to the short growing season of the rice crop, the commune guides people to focus on applying a lot of base fertilizer and early topdressing. In particular, based on the characteristics of each rice variety, they increase the amount of potassium fertilizer, especially for hybrid rice varieties, and increase deep-placement fertilization.

Dig a hole to collect water.

The dry season is over and the planting season is late, but farmers in the mountainous district of Con Cuong are actively heading to the fields. Areas with concentrated late-season rice cultivation have become the optimal solution for farmers to ensure food security. For rice farmers in many communes such as Don Phuc, Binh Chuan, Mau Duc, and Thach Ngan, the rains after the drought are truly precious, a good opportunity for them to go to the fields and plant, following the principle of "better late than never."

Renting a tractor to plow the fields (photo taken in Trung Dinh village - Chi Khe - Con Cuong).

Don Phuc commune has 172 hectares of paddy fields scattered across 7 villages. For a long time, the people have abandoned slash-and-burn agriculture, so paddy rice has become the main food source in this still relatively disadvantaged area. In Hong Thang village alone, the majority of the 21 hectares of paddy fields are located along the Khe Phen stream, which previously provided a good water source for irrigation. However, a prolonged heatwave has caused the stream to dry up, resulting in many fields lacking water for planting. Therefore, as soon as the rain arrived, farmers actively went to the fields to sow seedlings and plow the land, following the motto "even though it's late, we can't delay any longer." Mr. La Dinh Viet, head of Hong Thang village, shared: "Even so, some households in the village still have fields higher than the stream and are lacking water. The people are actively utilizing areas with irrigation water for planting. The village is also petitioning the government to support people in pumping water into the higher fields."

According to our observations, the villages of Tong To and Tong Tien (Don Phuc commune) are the most disadvantaged in terms of both drinking water and water for production. The people have consciously adopted many water-saving measures for irrigating their fields. Along the terraced fields, they have dug deep holes to store rainwater, irrigating the rice when needed. A woman pulling up rice seedlings to prepare for transplanting said: “People rarely think about digging holes to store water like this, but this year the drought is severe, and the officials have explained it to us, so we followed their advice and found it effective and suitable for the highland fields.”

Ms. Ho Tue Van, an agricultural officer in Don Phuc commune, said that currently, about 10 hectares of rice fields are still facing difficulties with irrigation water. If it continues to rain, this area can still be planted. To proactively cope with the weather, the District People's Committee has also provided two mobile pumps to irrigate the fields. In addition, the commune has guided and encouraged people to retain water for production by digging reservoirs next to the fields. By mid-July, many households in the villages had gone to the fields to transplant seedlings in areas with favorable irrigation conditions.

Ban Que is the most disadvantaged area in Binh Chuan commune. Due to difficult road conditions, the people here are well aware that creating a local food source will help overcome difficulties when it rains and the roads become muddy, making it very difficult to buy rice. Although the area of ​​paddy fields is quite modest, the villagers still utilize the flattest land possible to cultivate rice paddies. The recent drought caused a significant lack of irrigation water for much of the paddy fields in the village. After the post-drought rains, although the amount was not large, the villagers were very happy. Mr. Lo Van Thanh's family has 1,200 square meters of paddy fields. With favorable weather, they can plant two crops a year, providing their family with enough rice. Unable to afford a rice shortage after this drought, the family had to find ways to rent water pumps to ensure sufficient irrigation. Despite utilizing all available water sources and actively dredging irrigation ditches, they only managed to irrigate 800 square meters; the remaining area still relies on rainwater. "If it doesn't rain, we'll have to keep renting water pumps to ensure the planting season is on time. Otherwise, if the land is left fallow, my family will be short of rice for months," Thành said.

In Que village, not only Lo Van Thanh's family but almost all rice-farming families have to rent water pumps to ensure irrigation. This is also a common situation in several other villages in the commune. Mr. Nguyen The Manh, Chairman of the People's Committee of Binh Chuan commune, said: "Taking advantage of post-rain water sources, the local authorities will do everything possible to ensure that people have enough water for irrigation to produce the crop. Although the planting season is delayed, we still have to plant the rice; rice grains are very precious to the people, and if they lack food, their lives will become much more difficult."

Con Cuong suffered heavy losses during the recent drought, yet the local people actively took the initiative to create water sources for irrigating their fields. Currently, many communes have completed planting, especially Mon Son, the "rice granary". According to our observations, farmers in the Muong Qua rice-growing area have planted early. The summer-autumn and early-season rice crops are currently developing well. In some more disadvantaged communes like Yen Khe and Chi Khe, farmers will essentially have finished planting the main and late-season crops by mid-July.

Thus, this season, many mountainous areas have delayed rice planting due to the prolonged heatwave. However, "necessity is the mother of invention," and with the practical experience of the highlanders, it is hoped that these areas will have a bountiful harvest.

X.Hoang - V.Choong