Prolonged droughts have affected over 100,000 hectares of rice fields, which would have produced 400,000 tons of unhusked rice worth VND2.5 trillion ($131.6 million), in the central region of Vietnam. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bui Ba Bong announced the figures at a meeting in Hanoi on June 25. As many as 60,000ha of rice fields have been uncultivated due to water shortage, even though the time for planting summer-autumn crop had nearly ended, Bong said. Tran Huu Luc, deputy director of Nghe An Province’s Department of Agricultural and Rural Development, said rainfall in June declined sharply and a hot and dry westerly wind blew in from Laos for two weeks. The situation is likely to be worsening as Bui Minh Tang, director of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasts, predicted that the drought and heat would continue until early July. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat, asked provinces to closely manage water resources. In places where rice could not be planted, farmers should grow other farm produces, he said.
