Mountainous areas actively cultivate crops

(Baonghean) - Prolonged drought has caused many mountainous districts to delay the planting of summer-autumn rice. With the motto "better late than never", right after heavy rains, localities have directed farmers to focus on land preparation, combined with proactive measures to provide irrigation water in the face of unusual weather developments.

Build dykes to retain water

This season, Que Phong district strives to cultivate 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's Agriculture Department, said: This season, the district People's Committee directed the restructuring of short- and medium-term rice varieties, ensuring two factors: stable productivity and good rice quality, namely: Nhi Uu 986 hybrid rice, TH 3-5 and pure rice varieties, such as: Japonica, Bac Thom 9; Vat Tu NA2, Nep 97. On a field, only 1-2 rice varieties with the same growth period are structured to facilitate disease prevention on rice. The district People's Committee arranged the sowing and planting schedule for the season from July 5 to 16 (depending on the rice variety). However, due to the prolonged dry weather and dry water sources, the sowing and planting of the season is about 10 days later than the schedule.

According to the district's crop calendar, people have now gone to the fields to sow rice, but on July 12, in all the fields of Que Phong, people are preparing the land and building banks to retain water. Mr. Lu Van Tien said: Unlike previous years when the water source was abundant, people only had to prepare the land and build banks, now they have to build banks firmly, not allowing water to flow freely like before, keeping the water level just enough to plant in the fields, in case the weather continues to be dry and dry, leading to a delay in the crop season. The reason for doing so is because Que Phong does not have a large dam, so it is not possible to take the initiative in irrigation water but mainly depends on the weather. Regarding fertilizer, the district directed the Agricultural Extension Station to propagate and guide farmers to use fertilizers appropriately for each rice variety, and terraced fields need to use deep-rooted fertilizer.

Ha Thi Thuy and her children in Muong village, Chau Kim commune (Que Phong) build a dike to retain water and prepare to sow rice for the summer-autumn crop.

Unlike the previous crop, this crop Que Phong has structured to plant Japonica rice on more than 300 hectares in large fields of some localities. Of which, Muong Noc commune has 280 hectares with more than 50% of the area being planted with this rice variety, aiming at the goal of producing commercial rice for the people. Chau Kim commune has planted 198 hectares of rice this crop, of which 50% is hybrid rice and 50% is high-yield rice. By mid-July, basically the entire land area of ​​Chau Kim has been plowed and carefully built with water banks by the people. Mrs. Ha Thi Thuy in Muong village, who is building banks for the terraced fields with her daughter, confided: My family has 5 sao of rice fields, which should have been planted since the beginning of July, but because there is no water, we have only been able to plant seedlings for a few days. This crop, my family has chosen Tap Giao 1 rice variety to plant. After a few days of rain, mother and son went to the fields to till the soil, weed, and carefully build embankments to keep water in the fields, not letting it overflow like before. If the weather is favorable, the Muong villagers will go to the fields to plant rice in the coming days.

Chau Thon is one of the localities with a large area of ​​​​summer rice cultivation in the district, with 200 hectares. Mr. Vi Van Chin, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: Taking advantage of streams with a lot of water after the rain, people in the commune repaired and installed water wheels to irrigate the fields. When the fields are full of water, people build up the banks, cover them with umbrellas, retain water, and work the soil with machines, or for small fields, use buffalo power to plow and harrow. The commune propagates and directs people to absolutely not sow, but to plant seedlings. The characteristic of the summer rice crop is that the growing period is short, so the commune guides people to focus on applying a lot of fertilizer and applying early fertilizer. In particular, based on the factors of each rice variety, increase potassium fertilizer, especially hybrid rice varieties, in which increasing deep fertilizer application.

Dig a water pit

The dry season has passed and the sowing season is late, but farmers in the mountainous district of Con Cuong are still actively going to the fields. The areas where wet rice is grown focus on the late crop season, which has become the optimal solution for farmers to ensure food. For rice farmers in many communes such as Don Phuc, Binh Chuan, Mau Duc, Thach Ngan, the rains after the drought are truly as precious as gold, a good opportunity for farmers to go to the fields to sow with the motto "better late than never".

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

Don Phuc commune has 172 hectares of rice fields scattered across 7 villages in the whole commune. For a long time, people have abandoned slash-and-burn farming, so rice has become the main source of food for this area that still has many difficulties. In Hong Thang village alone, most of the 21 hectares of rice fields here are located along Khe Phen stream, which used to be quite favorable for irrigation. However, the prolonged heat wave has caused this stream to dry up, leading to many rice fields having no water for planting. Therefore, right after the rain, farmers actively went to the fields to sow rice and plow the land according to the motto "even though it is late, it cannot be later". Mr. La Dinh Viet, head of Hong Thang village, shared: However, in the village, there are still households with fields higher than the stream that still lack water. People are actively taking advantage of the areas with irrigation water for planting. The village is also petitioning the government to support people in pumping water into the high fields.

According to our records, Tong To and Tong Tien villages (Don Phuc commune) are the most difficult villages in terms of water for daily life as well as production. People have consciously applied many water-saving measures to irrigate their fields. Along the terraced fields, people have dug deep holes to store rainwater, to irrigate rice when necessary. A woman who was pulling up seedlings to prepare for planting said: "People rarely think about digging holes to store water like this, but this year there was a big drought, so the cadres informed us so we followed it and found it effective, suitable for highland fields."

Ms. Ho Tue Van, an agricultural officer of Don Phuc commune, said that currently, there are about 10 hectares of rice fields that are still facing difficulties in 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 supported 2 field pumps to pump water for irrigation. In addition, the commune has also instructed and encouraged people to conserve water for production by digging reservoirs next to the fields. By mid-July, many households in the villages had gone to the fields to pull out seedlings and plant in areas with favorable irrigation water.

Ban Que is the most difficult area of ​​Binh Chuan commune. The roads are difficult, so the people here are well aware that creating local food sources will help solve the difficulties when it rains, the roads are muddy, and it is very difficult to buy rice to eat. Although the area of ​​​​wet fields is quite modest, people still take advantage of the flattest land possible to reclaim wet fields. The recent drought caused most of the wet fields in the village to lack irrigation water. After the rains after the drought, although the amount of rain was not large, people were very excited. Mr. Lo Van Thanh's family has 1,200 m2 of wet fields. The weather is favorable for growing 2 crops a year, the family has enough rice to eat. It is impossible to lack rice to eat, after this drought, the family had to find ways to rent water pumps to ensure enough irrigation water. Although they took advantage of all water sources, actively dredged the irrigation canals, it was only enough to irrigate 800 m2, the remaining area still had to wait for rain water. “If there is no rain, we will have to continue renting water pumps to keep up with the season. If we leave the land fallow, our family will lack rice for many months,” said Mr. Thanh.

In Que village, not only Lo Van Thanh's family but also most of the families growing rice have to rent pumps to ensure irrigation water. This is also a common situation in some other villages in the commune. Mr. Nguyen The Manh, Chairman of Binh Chuan Commune People's Committee, said: "Taking advantage of water sources after the rain, by all means, the locality will create conditions for people to have enough irrigation water to produce the crop. Even though the season is late, we still have to plant rice, rice seeds are very precious to the people, if we don't have enough to eat, life will be much more difficult".

Con Cuong is an area that suffered heavy damage during the recent drought, but people are still actively creating water sources to irrigate their fields. Currently, many communes have completed planting, especially the "rice granary" Mon Son. According to our records, people in the Muong Qua field area have planted early. Currently, the summer-autumn and early-season rice are growing well. Some more difficult communes such as Yen Khe and Chi Khe will basically finish planting the summer-autumn and late-season crops by mid-July.

Thus, this season, many mountainous localities have delayed rice planting due to the consequences of prolonged heat. "Necessity is the mother of invention", with the practical experience of the highland people, it is hoped that these localities will have another bumper crop.

X.Hoang - V.Chong