sadness covers the peach capital for Tet
These days, traveling along the Red River in Hong Ha ward, instead of the image of the green, fertile peach gardens being cared for and waiting for Tet, is a desolate, desolate scene. A series of ancient peach trees, old peach trees worth tens, even hundreds of millions of VND, are now just dry, bare trunks after many days of being soaked in flood water.
Rapidly wiping away the sweat on her forehead, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy - a long-time peach grower - sadly shared about the heavy damage to her family.
"In the past two years, the Red River water level has risen unusually. During the recent flood, the water was deep, in some places up to more than 2 meters, and the peach trees were flooded, Ms. Thuy said in shock.
When the water receded, her peach garden was left with only deadly vegetation. The roots of the trees that have been soaked in water for a long time have rotten, making it impossible for the trees to be saved.
Ms. Thuy's family lost almost the entire peach garden with about hundreds of trees. This is not only an asset but also the entire effort and capital of the whole family that has been poured into taking care of her over the past year.
"The damage is not only calculated by the value of the lost peach trees, but also our entire investment capital and care efforts throughout the year, from fertilizer and pesticide prices to labor costs," she sadly said.
In the same situation, many other farming households in Nhat Tan are also facing the risk of losing everything, when the passionate peach trees that have been around for many years suddenly wither into dry firewood.
Racing against time, planting short-term flowers to save Tet
Not letting sadness sink, Nhat Tan farmers are racing against time to recover capital for the upcoming Tet crop. Instead of meticulously striping leaves and bending branches for the peach, now all the fields are the scene of people rushing to handle lime, plowing up the soil and urgently planting short-term flower beds.
"With the peach garden completely damaged, this year's Tet crop is considered to have nothing left to harvest. Now we can only start from scratch, plot the land to plant other types of replacement plants," Ms. Ngan, a local resident, shared while making the land.
Her family decided to switch to growing flowers with short growth times such as chrysanthemums, herbs, and violets to sell in time for Tet. These flowers only take about 2-3 months to harvest, although their economic value cannot be compared to peaches, but they are the only solution at this time.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hanh said that this is the second consecutive year that Nhat Tan peach growers have encountered this situation.
"This is the second consecutive year we have had to suffer from flooding. When the main peach crop was gone, we were forced to change direction, growing short-term vegetables and crops to serve the Tet market, and hoping for the peach trees, we had to put them aside until next year," said Mr. Hanh.
