Nghe An farmers rush to harvest rice and crops to 'escape' storm No. 3

Because of the drought and lack of irrigation water for early-season rice, the rice of people in hamlet 8, Nghi Lam commune (Nghi Loc) ripens later than other areas.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Lam - head of hamlet 8 said: "The whole hamlet has 37 hectares of rice. This year, due to a lack of irrigation water at the beginning of the season, the rice bloomed late and ripened later. While other hamlets in the commune have harvested all their rice, up to now, the rice of the people in the hamlet has only ripened 75-80%. Hearing the news of storm No. 3, determined to "be green at home rather than ripe in the field", so since yesterday, the hamlet has mobilized harvesters to harvest the rice."

Harvesting to avoid the storm, last night (September 3), 4 harvesters worked all night on the fields of the people in hamlet 8. After harvesting, the rice was purchased by traders right in the fields.

Ms. Tran Thi Thu, a resident of Hamlet 8, said: “My family has 4 sao of rice fields. We finished harvesting at 11pm and got nearly 1 ton of rice, which we sold to traders. Luckily, we harvested before the rain and storm. We also sold the rice so we don’t have to worry about heavy rain and strong winds in the coming days and not being able to dry it.”

With the goal of harvesting all the ripe rice before the storm, from yesterday until today, the cadres and people of hamlet 8 have been staying in the fields to urge the harvesters to quickly harvest, harvesting all of one field before moving on to another, working through noon to finish before the rain comes.

In many areas, the summer-autumn rice has not yet fully ripened, but to minimize damage caused by storms and rains, people are rushing to harvest. In some plots, due to the terrain, machines cannot enter, so people have mobilized relatives to harvest by hand.

Mr. Pham Kim Hao - Vice Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Linh Son Commune (Anh Son) said: "The rice in this area was planted late so it has not fully ripened, only 70%. To avoid storms, in the past 2 days, people have called harvesters to gather for harvesting, currently there are 6 harvesters operating at full capacity in the fields.

As for the deep, yellow-ripe rice fields where harvesters cannot enter, people borrow people to harvest by hand. Because if it rains or there are strong winds, the rice will fall apart and become difficult to harvest, reducing productivity and quality.

Since hearing news of storm No. 3, people in Thuong Tan Loc, Kim Lien, Nam Anh (Nam Dan) have rushed to the fields to harvest the old glutinous corn. Chu Van Quan's family grows 5 sao of glutinous corn. To avoid the corn from falling, he contacted traders to buy fresh corn and mobilized workers to harvest.

In just 2 days (September 3 and 4), the entire family's waxy corn acreage was harvested. "If the corn is ripe enough, it can be harvested and sold gradually, so the price will be better. If the corn is young, harvested and sold in large quantities at once, the price will be lower. To avoid damage caused by the storm, we have to accept it."

People in key vegetable growing areas are also urgently harvesting the mature vegetable beds, vegetables that are easily crushed in heavy rain.

In the fields of Quynh Luong commune (Quynh Luu), people are actively harvesting sweet mustard greens, Chinese cabbage, and Chinese cabbage; traders also flock to the fields to buy vegetables and transport them to dealers. Although the weather before the storm was hot, humid, and stuffy, in order to finish harvesting before the storm, people only took a break to have lunch and then hurried back to the fields. "All the effort and money have been poured into it, now that it's harvest time, if we "can't run away in time", everything will be lost," said Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan.

In Quynh Lien commune (Hoang Mai town), in home gardens, people actively harvest squash to avoid storms that can cause trellises to collapse, break, or crush the fruit. Because squash is easy to preserve and can be kept for a long time, people are not too worried about consumption.

In addition to harvesting, people in the vegetable growing areas are also urgently moving onions to higher areas to avoid flooding and damage. Mr. Tran Van Su, a farmer in Quynh Lien commune, grows 5 sao of onions. When he heard that storm No. 3 was causing heavy rain, he mobilized his wife and children to move onions from low-lying areas that are prone to flooding to higher areas.

Mr. Su said: “Onions are easily crushed and rotten if it rains heavily. Therefore, we have to move them to higher ground to plant them temporarily, wait for the heavy rain to pass, then replant them in the same area.”

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According to weather experts, storm No. 3 (Yagi) is a very strong storm, capable of reaching level 14, gusting to level 17, so its range of influence is very wide. The level of natural disaster risk caused by storm No. 3 in the sea area of ​​the North East Sea has been raised to level 4 (very high risk) by the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting. The range of strong winds of the storm also expands rapidly as the storm increases in intensity, most clearly shown by the fact that the storm's area of ​​influence is very wide. In addition, strong thunderstorms occurring before the storm's impact is also a point to note because thunderstorms are often accompanied by tornadoes and strong gusts of wind. Depending on the movement scenario of storm No. 3, on land in the Northern, North Central and Central Central provinces, there is also the possibility of a widespread heavy rain.