Yen Thanh is at risk of losing the entire summer-autumn rice crop.

(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, not to mention seeds and fertilizer. The rice looks like it has flowers but there are many empty grains, the yield is less than 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 was the worst in many years. The rice was all white and bare, and the harvest was light and contained only dry leaves. Livestock prices have dropped, rice is plagued by pests and diseases, and 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 pure rice varieties such as LC 20, Song Lam 9, Khang Dan mutated. Being a low-lying commune, often affected by storms, the commune issued a plan early, organized to go to the fields to plant and ensure the structural schedule.

However, this year the weather was complicated, during the rice heading stage, it was damaged by pests such as planthoppers and stunted rice. Especially, right at the time of rice flowering, storm No. 2 caused flooding, panicle wilting, 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 had directed 4 rounds of spraying but it was not all gone, especially bacterial stripe spot disease; then there was a storm that broke the rice plants in half, and water entered the ears, 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 where people did not have enough money for seeds, materials, and labor to hire harvesters. 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 sheath blight at the time of rice flowering, which has 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