Thanh Chuong: 200 hectares of tea are burning to death

(Baonghean.vn) - Tea is the main crop of Thanh Chuong district, with an area of ​​3,000 hectares. Due to severe drought, over 200 hectares of tea leaves in the area are burning.

In previous years, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong's family in Hamlet 1, Hanh Lam Commune had over 4 hectares of tea. She also invested in a processing factory, earning over 500 million VND from tea each year.

At the beginning of the hot season this year, her family took many measures such as covering the roots, watering, and stopping harvesting, but many tea rows had burnt leaves...

Ms. Huong worried: “Tea is the main crop, the main source of income for my family and many households here. We do not regret spending time to save the tea, but the difficulty is that there is no electricity, no water source. The whole area has a few small capacity diesel engines that often leak, so we have to leave it to the weather.

Many tea areas in Hanh Lam commune, Thanh Chuong burned down due to the heat.

However, the heat wave that has lasted nearly 2 months has caused over 200 hectares of tea in Thanh Chuong district to wither; concentrated in the communes of Thanh An, Hanh Lam, Ngoc Lam Tea Enterprise, Thanh Mai and scattered in 10 communes with tea.

Mr. Phan Dinh Tuy of Hanh Lam Tea Enterprise often combines manual and automatic watering systems for his tea. However, many of his family's tea fields still die because of the hot weather.

According to Mr. Nguyen Danh Duyen - Secretary of Thanh An Commune Party Committee, tea is a plant mainly grown on hills and mountains. In order to prevent drought for tea, in addition to technical measures and intensive harvesting, the most important thing is to have a source of irrigation water. However, except for a few tea areas near streams, lakes, and dams, the majority lack irrigation water. Therefore, in 2015, Thanh An Commune had 150/500 hectares die due to drought. This year, about 10 hectares of tea have withered. If there is no rain in the next five to seven days, this tea area is at risk of dying.

In harsh weather conditions and drought, the district's agricultural sector has encouraged farmers to take measures to keep the soil moist; avoiding major damage caused by heat to tea plants.

Mr. Tran Phi Hung - Head of the Department of Agriculture of Thanh Chuong district said: For newly planted tea, people need to intercrop legumes such as monkey bone and black muong. At present, to save tea, we must immediately stop harvesting, especially harvesting by machine. Where there is water, we must continue to irrigate but must irrigate heavily, cover the tea roots... As a long-term solution, the agricultural sector has recommended that people immediately replant shade trees (such as troi and dau trees) and maintain vegetation on the hilltops to prevent drought for tea plants.

In 2015, Thanh Chuong district had over 1,000 hectares of tea die due to drought.

Ha Temple

Thanh Chuong Radio