Yen Thanh: Spending 3 billion VND to 'dredging water' to serve summer-autumn rice planting

(Baonghean.vn) - Due to prolonged hot weather, the entire dam system of Yen Thanh district has run out of water. To ensure the cultivation of 11,000 hectares of summer-autumn rice, Yen Thanh is mobilizing pumps to drain water from the bottom of the dam.

Lang Thanh commune's Horn Lake is dry so the pumping station cannot operate.

These days, the mountainous areas of Yen Thanh district are concentrating their efforts on pumping water from the reservoirs to the summer-autumn crop. In addition to 40 electric pumping stations, half of which are not operational due to lack of water, the localities have also mobilized hundreds of diesel pumps to pump water from the reservoirs.

Ma Thanh commune mobilized 6 oil pumps to pump water from Chua Lui dam for people in Dong Bau 1 hamlet to plant crops in the summer-autumn season.

Ma Thanh commune has two electric pumping stations, but both are not working because the water source is exhausted. The commune has mobilized six oil pumps placed at the dams to pump water into the fields for people to sow summer-autumn rice.

Mr. Bui Trong Long - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: This summer-autumn crop, the locality plans to plant 348 hectares of rice, but with the current dry water situation, it is possible to only plant 260 hectares. Currently, in addition to 6 oil pumps, the commune also uses 5 electric pumps with a capacity of 30 m3/hour and hundreds of small gasoline pumps of the people to pump water from the dams. It is expected that to pump enough water to irrigate 260 hectares of rice, Ma Thanh will have to pump continuously for 25 days, at a cost of about 400 million VND.

It is expected that Ma Thanh commune will have to pump continuously for 25 days to have enough water to plant 260 hectares of summer-autumn rice.

The drought also caused hundreds of hectares of production land in Tien Thanh commune to be left fallow this summer-autumn crop. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dai - Chairman of Tien Thanh commune People's Committee shared: This summer-autumn crop, the locality can only plant 150 hectares, the remaining 200 hectares are left fallow, waiting to plant autumn-winter crops.

Farmers in Ma Thanh commune accept to pull up dry rice seedlings and save water to prepare the soil for planting.

In mountainous communes such as Quang Thanh, Tay Thanh, Thinh Thanh, Minh Thanh... hundreds of hectares of land also had to be left fallow during the summer-autumn crop due to drought.

About 200 hectares of Tien Thanh commune must be left fallow this summer-autumn crop, waiting for autumn-winter crop production.

Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Head of the District's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: This summer-autumn crop, Yen Thanh plans to plant 11,200 hectares, of which about 1,000 hectares must use water from fixed pumping stations and field pumps. Currently, localities are making efforts to pump water for planting, the cost of pumping water for planting in the whole district is about 3 billion VND.

In the immediate future, localities will allocate budget to pump water, then the district will support according to the state policy. The whole district has about 1,500 hectares that will not be planted with summer-autumn rice due to lack of water. The district People's Committee has directed localities not to plant the summer-autumn crop, but to wait to plant autumn-winter crops on areas that cannot be planted with summer-autumn rice. Currently, some cattle breeding companies directly contract with localities to buy autumn-winter corn to feed cows. This is a favorable condition for farmers to grow young corn, increasing their income.

Xuan Hoang