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

Because of the drought and lack of 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 the afternoon 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 sown late so it has not fully ripened, only 70%. To avoid storms, for 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 is a storm, all the rice grains will fall and fall to the ground, making it difficult to harvest, reducing productivity and quality.

Since hearing the 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 sticky corn. Chu Van Quan's family, who grows 5 sao of sticky corn, contacted traders to buy fresh corn and mobilized workers to harvest.

In just 2 days (September 3 and 4), the entire area of ​​​​glutinous corn of the family was harvested. "If the corn is ripe enough, it is harvested widely and sold gradually, 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 vegetable beds that are ready for harvest, and vegetables that are easily crushed in heavy rains.

In the fields of Quynh Luong commune (Quynh Luu), people are actively harvesting sweet mustard greens, Chinese cabbage, and Chinese mustard greens; traders are also flocking 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. "So much effort and money has been put into it, now that it's harvest time, if we "can't run away in time for the weather", 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 trellis collapse, breakage, and crushing of 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 ground to avoid flooding and damage. Mr. Tran Van Su, a farmer in Quynh Lien commune, grows 5 sao of onions. Hearing that storm No. 3 caused heavy rain, he mobilized his wife and children to move onions from low-lying areas prone to flooding to higher ground.

Mr. Su said: “Onions are easily crushed and their roots rot if they are flooded. Therefore, we have to move them to higher ground to plant temporarily, wait for the heavy rain to pass, and 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, there is also a possibility of widespread heavy rain on land in the Northern, North Central and Central Central provinces.