Harvesting early summer-autumn rice after flooding.

In recent days, as water levels in the La Nga River and irrigation canals have dropped, water has receded from the rice paddies, and the weather has become less rainy and sunny, farmers in Tanh Linh district are taking advantage of the opportunity to harvest the early-sown summer-autumn rice crops that have ripened, as well as the areas that were flattened by rain and floods at the end of July.

In the fields of Lac Thanh town today, households with ripe rice have hired combine harvesters to harvest their crops. Mr. Tran Van Bay, from Lac Hoa 1 neighborhood, was watching the combine harvester harvest his family's 3 sao (approximately 0.3 hectares) of summer-autumn rice. He said: "This season, the rice has been less damaged by rats, and there are fewer pests and diseases compared to previous years. The rice plants are developing quite well. If it weren't for the flood at the end of July, each sao would have yielded about 6 quintals of fresh rice. However, due to flooding and some plants being flattened, the yield is only about 3-4 quintals per sao." Pointing to the neighboring rice fields, Mr. Bay said that for the rice plants that were flattened and lying close to the ground, and were just sprouting, the combine harvester couldn't harvest them, resulting in a total loss. "I'm still less affected than other households," Mr. Bay said.

In the fields of Duc Phu, Gia An, and Bac Ruong communes, we observed many combine harvesters harvesting early summer-autumn rice. Local farmers reported that fields unaffected by lodging yielded 5.5-6 quintals per sao (approximately 1000 square meters). Fields that were flooded or lodged yielded only 1-2 quintals per sao. The current selling price ranges from 6,000 to 6,500 VND per kilogram. Despite the high price, the low yield means negligible profit.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tanh Linh district: This year's summer-autumn crop saw farmers throughout the district cultivate 9,086/8,225 hectares, reaching 110.47% of the plan. Approximately 2,000 hectares of early-sown crops are currently being harvested. Over the past few days, the Provincial, District, and commune/township Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue Commands have conducted on-site inspections to assess the extent of the damage. Based on this assessment, they will submit recommendations to higher authorities for consideration of support measures to help affected farmers resume production in the upcoming crop season.

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