Provide enough crop varieties to restore production after storms and floods.

Crop production is estimated to have suffered over VND4,000 billion in damage due to storm No.3 and floods in the North. This is also a sector with a fairly high growth rate, contributing to a large agricultural export turnover.

Over 600 hectares of agricultural crops in Yen Bai province were damaged by storm No. 3. Photo: VNA

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Trung shared with VNA reporters about the orientations in production recovery, ensuring the supply of seedlings to ensure production, meeting timely food supply, especially for Tet. How does the Deputy Minister assess the damage caused by storm No. 3 and recent floods in the crop sector and what solutions does the sector have to restore production after the water recedes? Storm No. 3 and floods have damaged 312,000 hectares of crops. Of which, 200,000 hectares of rice were affected; 51,000 hectares of vegetables, 36,000 hectares of corn alone; 61,000 hectares of fruit trees, industrial crops... The recent storms and floods have caused damage to the crop sector of over 4,000 billion VND. Implementing the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development quickly organized a meeting to direct the immediate recovery of production after the storm and flood in the fields of livestock, aquaculture, cultivation, and forestry with technical instructions for the earliest recovery of areas that can be saved. Along with that, urgent measures to prevent flooding were implemented. In order to have resources to recover production soon, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also called for the cooperation of businesses and associations. Businesses are also very responsible, joining hands to share the loss of people. The Ministry will work with the business community with the highest capacity, the fastest spirit, and the most timely to support people to quickly stabilize their lives and restore production. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will hold production recovery conferences to ensure the crop season and crop structure. From there, ensure the supply of food and foodstuffs at the end of the year and the following years. Regarding the policy mechanism, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is advising the Government and the Prime Minister to soon issue a decree amending Decree No. 02/2017/ND-CP of the Government on mechanisms and policies to support agricultural production to restore production in areas damaged by natural disasters and epidemics. The issuance of the amended decree will significantly contribute to helping localities and people have resources to regenerate and develop production. Many large commodity production areas, especially those serving Tet needs, have been damaged. What solutions will the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have to ensure the supply of food and food for people's needs in the coming time? Many large vegetable production areas have been damaged; fruit trees and ornamental plants have also been affected and damaged. In the immediate future, fruit orchards, ornamental plants, and vegetable growing areas should immediately apply the measures that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has instructed and can be saved, then restored. Regarding food supply, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is making great efforts to immediately deploy response solutions from livestock, aquaculture as well as vegetables, fruit trees, etc. to ensure supply for the end of the year. Next week, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will organize a conference on winter crop production in the northern provinces. This is an annual crop, with a production area of about 400,000 hectares. If winter crop production is good, it will meet the food demand for domestic consumption, especially for the Lunar New Year. In addition, other areas such as livestock and aquaculture are also being promptly directed by leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with solutions for early recovery. Thereby, people continue to do business, produce stably and supply the market with many products from livestock, aquaculture to cultivation. Thus, winter crop production this year will certainly have to be placed in a completely different context than every year. So how does the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development plan to implement this winter crop? Every year, the winter crop area fluctuates between 350,000 and 400,000 hectares. This year, the agricultural sector will coordinate with localities to maximize the winter crop area. Areas that have been completely damaged and cannot recover will be pushed up to winter crops early. Thus, the winter crop area will increase. Localities will have to restructure and use short-term crop varieties to rotate many production cycles before entering the 2024-2025 winter-spring rice crop. Localities will also proactively ask for seeds from national reserves as well as businesses to provide the most timely supply. With the motto that everything must still be locally-based, localities must also proactively coordinate with units of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with enterprises to ensure the supply of all types of seeds and agricultural materials, serving the winter-spring crop production as soon as possible, ensuring area and productivity. According to the report of the Department of Crop Production, the demand for rice seeds in the damaged provinces is about 15,000 tons for the 2024-2025 winter-spring crop. However, the national reserve has only more than 4,000 tons. What challenges does this pose in the upcoming winter-spring crop, Deputy Minister? Currently, the national reserve has about 5,800 tons of rice; of which the structure of rice seeds of all kinds to serve the northern provinces is more than 4,000 tons. Compared to the demand for rice seeds in the damaged provinces of about 15,000 tons, there is still a shortage of more than 10,000 tons. With the current cooperation of businesses and other available resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will coordinate with localities, combining support policies to completely provide enough seeds for people to serve the upcoming crop production. This is the amount of seeds to serve the 2024 - 2025 Winter-Spring crop, so there is still time to mobilize, ensure supply and support farmers in areas affected by natural disasters and floods with enough seeds for production. Thank you for sharing, Deputy Minister!

Baotintuc.vn