Nghe An farmers rush to harvest vegetables to escape the flood

Along with large vegetable growing areas in the province, Quynh Lien commune (Hoang Mai town) is a locality that suffered a lot of damage in the recent flood. All 257 hectares of vegetables were submerged in water, of which only about 50 hectares could be recovered.

While urgently harvesting white radish vegetables when the water at the foot of the field had just receded, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong in Quynh Lien commune was sad: "Heavy rain caused the entire area of ​​white radish vegetables to be deeply submerged in water. Now that the water has receded, the family has mobilized manpower to go to the field to harvest. If there was no flooding, the expected yield of 5 sao of white radish would be 4.2 tons, earning about 30 million VND, but now only 3 tons have been harvested, losing more than 1 ton due to the roots being soaked in water and damaged."

Harvesting white radish after the flood in Quynh Lien, Hoang Mai - Photo: Manh Hung

Taking advantage of the time when the rain has stopped, farmers in Quynh Lien commune are actively going to the fields to harvest the affected vegetables. Although many vegetable areas are not yet ripe, farmers are still willing to reduce productivity and value to urgently "escape the flood".

The remaining products of Hoang Mai vegetable farmers after the flood. Photo: Manh Hung

Ms. Nguyen Thi Tham said: “Currently, the water in the field has receded. If we do not harvest urgently, the 6 rows of green onions will be damaged. Although the selling price has decreased by half compared to before the flood, the family still accepts to harvest. If we wait a few more days and encounter another rain, everything will be damaged. If there were no flood, the family would earn about 15 million VND, but now we can only sell for 5-7 million VND, a decrease of more than half.”

Harvesting green onions in Hoang Mai town. Photo: Manh Hung

Quynh Lien is a large vegetable growing commune of Hoang Mai town. During the recent flood, the major damaged vegetable areas were mainly chayote and carrots.

Especially for chayote, the whole commune has structured 80 hectares of area. Starting from the 7th lunar month, people start planting and harvest in October, lasting until the end of March of the following year. In the recent flood, the entire area of ​​chayote and carrots was submerged by water, beyond saving.

Many vegetable growing areas have yet to be restored. Photo: Viet Hung

Mr. Ho Ngoc Tang - Chairman of Quynh Lien Commune People's Committee (Hoang Mai town) said that the recent flood caused the entire vegetable area of ​​the people to be flooded, with an estimated loss of about 15 - 16 billion VND. Especially for the chayote area, if there is no flood, there will only be about 1 month left to harvest, with an average selling price of 3,000 - 4,000 VND/kg and the harvest lasting for 5 - 6 months, the revenue from chayote plants will reach billions of VND. Currently, chayote plants cannot recover and there are no seeds to replant, so people will take advantage of switching to growing other crops such as carrots, vegetables, etc.