Due to drought, Dien Chau farmers buy water to irrigate their fields before harvesting peanuts.

The spring peanuts are old and ready to be harvested, but the prolonged drought has made the soil hard and impossible to uproot. Therefore, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ty's family (Dien An commune, Dien Chau) had to hire a tanker truck to water the peanuts.

The price of each water truck is 300,000 VND. Ms. Ty said: "The soil is hard, pulling it up will break the roots, the tubers, making it impossible to harvest. We have to hire a truck to carry water to irrigate, wet the soil, soften the soil before we can pull out the peanuts. Each truck like that is enough to irrigate 1 sao, which is 300,000 VND."

Not only Ty’s family but also many peanut growers here have to hire water tankers to irrigate their fields before harvesting. Water is taken from ponds and lakes, transported to the fields and used to water the fields with hoses, making the soil soft and wet. Only then do people start harvesting.

“Not all fields need to be irrigated, only dry, hard soil. Since the beginning of the peanut harvest season, I have transported hundreds of water trips to serve the people,” said a water tanker truck owner in Dien Phu commune (Dien Chau).

In Dien Thinh commune, except for peanut fields along the coast, which have sandy soil, are loose and porous, and are not affected by sunny weather, all fields along National Highway 1A must hire water trucks to pump water to be able to pull the peanuts. Mr. Hoang Cong Hai - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Dien Thinh commune said: "This year, the drought is so severe that peanuts cannot be pulled because the soil is hard. The only way left is to hire water trucks to pump water into the fields. Therefore, people spend an additional 250,000-300,000 VND per sao of peanuts to hire water trucks."

This crop, Dien Chau planted 2,300 hectares, with more than 10,000 households growing peanuts, with small households planting 1 sao, large households planting from 6 to 8 sao. Communes of Dien Trung, Dien Thinh, Dien Hung, Dien Thanh, Dien Ky, Dien Phong with large peanut growing areas have dug hundreds of wells in the fields to get water for irrigating peanuts when drought occurs.

However, currently, there is a severe drought and the source of well water is limited, so to soften the soil, people have to hire tankers to carry water to the fields for irrigation.

Despite the extreme heat, people still have to stay in the fields to harvest peanuts. To avoid the sun, they mainly harvest peanuts at night or early morning. Most people harvest peanuts at night, and only use canvas during the day to pick peanuts.

"Robbing" time, "robbing" sunlight to harvest and dry before the cold air mass, causing storms next week, people also have to hire more workers to pick peanuts, rent peanut threshing machines right in the field to speed up progress and save labor.

“It’s been sunny and rainy, and if it rains during harvest time, peanuts will crack and rot. Therefore, despite the extreme heat, farmers still have to take advantage of the opportunity to harvest peanuts. Households with large areas and few people have to hire people to pull out peanuts or threshers to harvest them before the rain comes and dry them in the hot sun,” said Nguyen Thi Hien, a farmer in Dien Thinh commune.

Currently, the daily wage for picking peanuts is 300,000 VND/person; the wage for threshing peanuts is 300,000 VND/sao. It is expected that by mid-May, Dien Chau farmers will have finished harvesting 100% of the spring peanut crop and proceed to plant summer-autumn sesame.