North Central Vietnam: Busy harvesting unripe rice crops to escape the storm.

This is considered the most arduous summer-autumn rice crop in many years in North Central Vietnam: the seedlings died from waterlogging shortly after planting, requiring replanting due to unusual floods, and now, nearing the end of the season, farmers have to harvest the young rice to avoid the storm.

Video : Harvesting young rice plants overnight before Typhoon No. 5 makes landfall.

Throughout last night and into this morning (August 24th), farmers in the provinces and cities of the North Central region, from Hue City to Ha Tinh , were busy in the fields, taking advantage of the time before the rain to harvest the summer-autumn rice crop, in order to salvage some of their labor and the money spent on seeds and fertilizers.

In Quang Dien commune ( Hue City), the rice harvest is underway with great urgency. In the fields, combine harvesters are operating at full capacity, regardless of the midday sun or the darkness of night. Farmers are also taking advantage of the dry weather to quickly dry the rice and collect the straw.

The arduous task of harvesting the summer-autumn rice crop before the storm.

Mr. Mai Van Hoa (Quang Dien commune) said that the area is low-lying and is a "flood epicenter" of Hue City, so people have to race against time to save their rice crops before the storm hits, accompanied by heavy rain.

"Now people are on tenterhooks, just hoping to harvest their rice and bring it home before Typhoon No. 5 makes landfall. Harvesting rice 5 days to a week earlier than the scheduled season will affect yield and quality. But if they don't harvest, the typhoon will knock down the plants, and then heavy rains will cause flooding, causing the rice to sprout and resulting in a total loss," Mr. Hoa said.

Farmers in Hoa Chau ward, Hue City, harvest rice throughout the night.

On the morning of August 24th, more than 100 officers and soldiers from Regiment 6 under the Hue City Military Command marched to assist farmers in loading rice and clearing warehouses in Phu Gia.

According to a report from the Hue City Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, the summer-autumn rice crop in the city covered 25,000 hectares, of which 1,500 hectares have been harvested so far.

Currently, emergency response teams are being deployed to fields in the area to help farmers harvest rice, following the principle of "better to harvest while the rice is still green than to let it ripen in the field," in order to minimize damage caused by Typhoon No. 5.

Mobilize all available combine harvesters to harvest the summer-autumn rice crop before the storm.

In Quang Tri province, farmers have harvested 2,513 hectares out of a total of 38,792 hectares of summer-autumn rice. Many farmers stayed up all night working with combine harvesters to finish harvesting the ripe rice before the storm hit.

In the early-ripening rice fields, farmers in Ha Tinh are putting all their efforts into harvesting the rice in order to minimize damage caused by Typhoon No. 5.

At the same time, aquaculture farmers in Hue City, Quang Tri, Ha Tinh, and Nghe An provinces are stepping up the harvesting of shrimp and fish from freshwater and brackish water ponds in coastal lagoons. Areas that could not yet be harvested have been reinforced and enclosed to minimize losses.

VAN THANG - NAM SON

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/bac-mien-trung-tat-bat-thu-hoach-lua-non-chay-bao-post809904.html