Yen Thanh at risk of losing all summer-autumn rice

(Baonghean.vn) - At this time, over 3,000 hectares of flooded summer-autumn rice in remote communes of Yen Thanh district are entering the harvest stage. Due to complex natural disasters and pests, productivity is very low.

Currently, many farmers in Khanh Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) are renting combine harvesters, mobilizing manpower and equipment to quickly harvest summer-autumn rice in low-lying areas. However, facing the reality of burnt and blighted fields, farmers cannot help but worry.

Ms. Phan Thi Thuan in Dong Phu hamlet, Khanh Thanh commune said: "This year's crop was so bad, now the harvest is not enough to pay for the machine, let alone seeds and fertilizers. The rice looks like it has flowers but there are many empty grains, the yield is not even 1 quintal/sao.

In Khanh Thanh commune (Yen Thanh), this year's summer-autumn rice yield decreased by an average of 60-70%, in many areas it decreased by 80-90% compared to previous years. Photo: Anh Tuan

"This summer-autumn crop is the worst in many years. The rice is all white and bare, and the harvest is light and only dry leaves. The price of livestock has dropped, and the rice is plagued by pests. Farmers don't know what to do to make a living anymore," Ms. Nguyen Thi Nam in Quynh Khoi hamlet lamented.

According to the production plan, in the summer-autumn crop of 2017, Khanh Thanh commune planted more than 300 hectares of rice, with hybrid and purebred rice varieties such as LC 20, Song Lam 9, and Khang Dan. Being a low-lying commune, often affected by storms, the commune issued a plan early, organized to go to the fields to sow and plant to ensure the structural schedule.

However, this year the weather was complicated, during the rice standing stage, it was damaged by pests such as planthoppers and dwarf leaf curl. Especially, right at the time of rice flowering, storm No. 2 caused flooding, panicle collapse, and the inability to dry the panicles, affecting the yield and output of summer-autumn rice.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nam in Quynh Khoi hamlet, Khanh Thanh commune, took advantage of the opportunity to harvest the rice by hand. She said that the rice was damaged by bacterial stripe disease, so the rice flowers were very light, had few grains, many were empty, and the leaves were dry. Photo: Phan Hien

According to Mr. Cao Dinh Son - Vice Chairman of Khanh Thanh Commune People's Committee, the summer-autumn crop was complicated, the commune directed 4 sprayings but it did not stop, especially bacterial stripe spot disease; then there was a storm that broke the rice plants, causing water to enter the panicles, so the yield decreased by 60 - 70%; purebred rice only yielded about 2 quintals/sao, hybrid rice from 1.6 - 1.75 quintals/sao.

Determining summer-autumn crop production in unfavorable conditions, localities in deep-lying areas mainly structure with short-term rice varieties such as Khang Dan Mut Mut, Thien Uu 8, Bac Thom, Song Lam 9 and some hybrid rice varieties suitable for the land such as Thai Xuyen 111, VT404, Thuy Huong...

Mr. Nguyen Phuc Khiem - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Vien Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh added: This summer-autumn crop, the commune had a bad harvest, especially in the low-lying hamlets, 1 sao only harvested about 1.2 quintals, some fields were harvested but not enough money for seeds, materials, and labor for harvesting. To compensate for the productivity, the commune has a mechanism for people to boost winter crop production such as supporting corn seeds and short-term crops to partially compensate for the loss of the summer-autumn crop.

Due to complicated weather developments, many areas were damaged by the 4th and 5th generation of leaf rollers on a large scale, along with damage caused by many types of pests and diseases, especially the outbreak of bacterial stripe disease, leaf blight, black striped dwarf disease, and brown spot disease at the time of rice flowering, which greatly reduced the yield of over 3,000 hectares of rice in flooded areas of remote communes of Yen Thanh district./.

Anh Tuan - Phan Hien