Cleaning up the fields after the flood
On the way back to Dai Le village (Tuy Phuoc Bac commune, Gia Lai ) in recent days, farmers have been cleaning up their vegetable fields to restore production and prepare to supply the market for the Lunar New Year.
On the messy field, a layer of wet straw lay flat on the ground, the fence was collapsed by the flood, asking around, it turned out that before the flood happened, this field was used by farmers to grow mushrooms. A farmer named Thien shared: “This fence was collapsed by storm No. 13 once, the layer of straw was also torn up by the storm, after the storm I rebuilt the fence, covered it with a new layer of straw to reproduce. Unexpectedly, more than 10 days later, the flood came back and collapsed the fence again and swept away the new layer of straw, it took so much effort”.
Mr. Thien is cleaning up the layer of straw washed away by the flood to grow mushrooms, waiting for the sun to rise and restore production. Photo: V.D.T.
Also in the field of Dai Le village, I saw an old farmer couple together cleaning up the tarps covering the straight rows of chili fields. Mrs. Chin, the owner of the chili field, shared: “My chili fields have just been prepared and covered with tarps. I ordered the chili seeds from a seed dealer and waited for the dealer to deliver the seeds before my husband and I planted them. Before we could do anything, the flood came, swept away and piled up the layers of tarps covering the rows of soil. Now my husband and I have to clean up and wait for the sun to rise to plow the soil again, because the flood compacted the soil and made it impossible to plant seeds. Farming is so hard, uncle. If the weather is favorable, we can still earn a little to support our family, but if there are storms and floods, it is considered a failure.”
Mrs. Chin's husband is clearing the tarps on the chili field for re-production. Photo: V.D.T.
The VietGAP vegetable areas of Phuoc Hiep Agricultural Cooperative (Tuy Phuoc Bac Commune) were even more miserable. After the damage caused by storm No. 13, vegetable growers here immediately destroyed the damaged vegetable beds and planted new vegetables to supply the market at the end of the year. The vegetable plants had just emerged from the ground when the flood came and completely destroyed them. The heaviest damage was on the bitter melon growing areas, because the cost of making the trellis was very high.
According to Mr. Pham Long Thang, Director of Phuoc Hiep Agricultural Cooperative, this cooperative has 10 groups of households growing vegetables according to VietGAP process, more than 250 households participating with an area of 13.5 hectares. After storm No. 13, the entire area of leafy vegetables and fruit vegetables here was devastated. After the storm, people immediately resumed production but encountered a fierce flood, once again the vegetable growers failed.
Mr. Ho Ngoc Dung, Director of Phuoc Son Agricultural Cooperative, is drying flooded rice of farmers. Photo: V.D.T.
Restore irrigation infrastructure, prepare enough crop varieties
Tuy Phuoc Dong Commune (Gia Lai) is a locality located at the end of the Kon River, so after the recent flood, it had to endure tons of trash from upstream, clogging the canals.
According to Mr. Ho Ngoc Dung, Director of Phuoc Son Agricultural Cooperative (Tuy Phuoc Dong Commune), the recent storm No. 13 blew off all the corrugated iron roofs of the rice warehouses and the drying factory for rice seed production. The flood had just arrived after the repairs were completed. Thanks to the Cooperative's warehouses being located in high positions, fertilizers and rice seeds prepared for the 2025-2026 winter-spring crop were not flooded, only the most severely damaged were the irrigation works.
Mr. Ho Thien, Deputy Director of Phuoc Son Agricultural Cooperative, repaired the drying system to operate the rice drying after the flood. Photo: V.D.T.
“Currently, Loc Thuong canal and Cai Son dam are being eroded by floodwaters. These are the cooperative’s key irrigation works. The cooperative is currently arranging manpower to repair them in time to serve production. But the biggest concern is the amount of water fern and garbage from upstream that is flowing down with floodwaters, filling up the canals and getting stuck in the dam’s battery pillars, obstructing the flood flow.
Currently, the Cooperative is arranging human resources to coordinate with Irrigation Enterprise 4 (a unit under Binh Dinh Irrigation Works Exploitation Company) to collect duckweed to clear the flow," said Mr. Ho Ngoc Dung.
Also according to Mr. Dung, from November 20th until now, the irrigation force of Phuoc Son Agricultural Cooperative, consisting of 6 people (including the person in charge), has been working non-stop, every day wading in canals and dams to overcome landslides and collect duckweed to clear the flow.
In places where the water fern is a meter thick, the cooperative has to hire excavators because human power is not enough. For example, the TX6 canal from My Cang dam down to Loc Thuong dam is flooded with water fern, blocking the canal bed, obstructing the flow with a total length of 1,270m, the dredged area is 2,540m2.
Water hyacinth from upstream clogged the irrigation system, forcing Phuoc Son Agricultural Cooperative to hire a bulldozer to clean it up. Photo: V.D.T.
In addition, the Cooperative also carried out land filling for the banks that were eroded by floods, such as the Loc Thuong underground bank that was eroded both inside and outside with a length of 86m, the volume of earth filling the bank was 103m3; the Duong Thien underground bank that was eroded had a length of 58m, the volume of earth filling the bank was 130m3; the Quy Bac bank adjacent to Phuoc Hoa canal had a length of 46m, the volume of earth filling the bank was 105m3; the Nam Cai Son bank had a length of 20m, the volume of earth filling the bank was 97.5m3... The total cost of collecting duckweed and overcoming the erosion was more than 100 million VND.
“The cooperative has 1,184 hectares of rice production area. This flood will certainly have many areas that have been eroded by silt and water, but because the flood has not completely receded and the land has not been exposed, it is not possible to make statistics. The People's Committee of Tuy Phuoc Dong commune has a plan to overcome the situation of silt and water to serve production in time, including the help of the military and police forces. As for repairing the irrigation system, the cooperative is not "strong enough" to handle it because of limited resources. The cooperative has made a report to submit to the authorities for support,” said the Director of Phuoc Son Agricultural Cooperative.
Irrigation workers of Phuoc Son Agricultural Cooperative coordinated with irrigation workers of Irrigation Enterprise 4 to remove duckweed and clear the flow. Photo: V.D.T.
“Phuoc Son Agricultural Cooperative produces rice seeds and has prepared enough rice seeds to supply to farmers for the 2025-2026 winter-spring crop. Although this flood has damaged a lot of rice seeds in households, the Cooperative has announced the supply of rice seeds so farmers do not have to worry about a lack of seeds. The commune has a policy that after this flood, the areas where the water recedes first will be prepared for sowing first, and the areas where the water recedes later will be sown later to be on time for the season,” said Mr. Ton Ky Hai, Vice Chairman of Tuy Phuoc Dong Commune People's Committee.
Source: https://nongnghiepmoitruong.vn/hoi-sinh-nhung-canh-dong-bi-sa-boi-thuy-pha-d786010.html
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