More cold-tolerant plants in the winter crop to offset the damage of rain floods

Almost 3,000 ha of rice fell in Nam Dinh

On September 30, the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) organized a working group to examine the damage of rain floods and preparation for the winter crop in Red River Delta provinces.

In Nam Dinh, due to the influence of a tropical depression, heavy rain occurred last week with thunderstorms. From September 26, the average rainfall was up to more than 220 mm, causing prolonged flooding in many roads in Nam Dinh city and some low-lying areas in Nam Truc, Truc Ninh and Nghia Hung districts.

On the night of September 27 and early morning of September 28, the rainfall increased sharply in some places such as Y Yen 77 mm, My Loc 75 mm, Truc Ninh 75 mm. In particular, rainfall measured in Nam Truc was up to 123 mm, Ha Lan 132 mm, Cong Muc 2 (Ha Trung commune) 137 mm.

According to Nam Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the rice area with water levels up to 2/3 of the plants (70% flooded) is approximately 7,000 ha, equivalent to 10% of the total area of the province. The area of rice collapsed is nearly 3,000 ha, equivalent to 4%.

As soon as adverse weather conditions occurred, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development consulted the provincial People's Committees to direct pumping stations in the north of the province to operate at maximum. Stations in the south made the most of tides to drain water naturally. The culverts across the dike were opened continuously from 8:00 p.m. the previous day to 10:00 a.m. the next morning.

“After 3 days of focusing maximum resources, production has basically returned to normal. For young rice areas, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development recommends farmers go to the fields and start tying up soon. As for ripe rice areas, we encourage farmers to harvest with haste," said Nguyen Van Huu, Deputy Director of Nam Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In the 2023 seasonal crop, Nam Dinh cultivates approximately 71,000 ha of rice, down more than 800 ha compared to last year. The province mainly focuses on high quality and specialty rice varieties, accounting for more than 85% of the rice area. Regarding winter crops, leaders of Nam Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the locality plans to speed up the implementation progress.

Thai Binh proposed seed support for 1,500 - 1,700 ha of vegetable crop

Apart from Nam Dinh, the prolonged rain from September 25 to 28 affected another key agricultural province of the Red River Delta, Thai Binh province. Mai Thanh Giang, Director of Thai Binh Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, said that the total rainfall during the recent heavy rain in the area was commonly over 200 mm. Some local spots had up to 300 - 400 mm.

This incident caused roughly 11,000 ha of seasonal rice to fall (equivalent to nearly 15% of the total rice area), and 6,700 ha of vegetables were affected. Nearly 500 ha of rice area was flooded at a rate of 70% or more, over 3,000 ha suffered 30 - 70% of rice stalks flooded, and the remaining area is less than 30% flooded.

In response to the current situation, Nam Dinh People’s Committee issued Official Telegram No. 05 dated September 28, requesting the People's Committees of districts, cities, departments, branches, and relevant organizations to urgently clear the water flow and implement drainage solutions, especially in winter crop growing areas.

Based on consultations of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nam Dinh People's Committee has directed farmers to temporarily stop planting heat-tolerant winter crops, well-preserve the amount of nursed seedlings, and wait for favorable weather.

According to Director Mai Thanh Giang, every year in the winter crop, 50% of Thai Binh’s crop area uses heat-tolerant plant varieties and 50% of the area uses cold-tolerant plant varieties. However, due to unusual waterlogging during this period, the Department of Crop Production proposed to increase the group of cold-tolerant plants to compensate for the area of early winter crops recently damaged.

In previous years, Thai Binh planted approximately 36,000 ha of winter crops. This year, the province plans to increase the area to 38,000 ha. To achieve this goal, Thai Binh Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection advised localities to plan an additional 500 ha of crop mixing potato and a cold-tolerant plant with high economic value.