Hundreds of hectares of rice were destroyed
Along the rice fields of Tam Thang commune and the rice granaries of Tam Ky city, Quang Nam, many farmers are rushing to dig caves, set traps, and spread biological feces in the hope of saving the crop.
Mr. Tran Van Tam (52 years old, Tam Thang commune) lamented: "My family has nearly a sample of a field, but more than a third of the area has been bitten by a rat. After just one night, many rice fields were left bare and no longer had a single flower. If this continues, it is considered a total loss.
Not only Tam Ky, many other localities such as Dai Loc, Dien Ban, Duy Xuyen, Hoi An, Thang Binh... are also facing the same situation.
According to statistics from the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection of Quang Nam, in the first week of March alone, at least 27 hectares of rice were damaged by mice, bringing the total affected area to 472 hectares, an increase of 189 hectares over the same period last year. More alarmingly, in many areas, the damage rate is up to 10 - 20%, causing farmers to be extremely worried.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai (45 years old, Binh Nguyen commune, Thang Binh) said that since the beginning of the season, she has tried many ways to kill mice but it has not been effective. "We have set traps, dug caves, and even used biological drugs, but the number of mice is too large. Every day when I go to the fields, I see dozens of rice plants being grazed. It took so much effort to take care of it, now I feel heartbroken every time I see the rice being destroyed.
Farmers struggle to protect crops
In that situation, the Quang Nam agricultural sector has implemented many measures to support farmers in dealing with rat bites.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cam - Director of the Thang Binh Agricultural Technical Center - said that the district spent nearly 200 million VND to buy 176kg of Racumin biological drug to support people in beating and killing mice.
Meanwhile, in Hoi An, the city government has provided nearly 50 million VND to buy 450kg of 0.2GB of Gimlet biological medicine to help farmers protect crops; Dai Loc District People's Committee issued funding for the district's agricultural sector to buy 16,825kg of biological bamboo shoots and 6,680 tablets of herbicide to support people in killing mice... Duy Xuyen District also actively mobilized farmers to launch many campaigns to destroy 11,700 mice.
Although the authorities and the people have implemented many preventive measures, the rat continues to breed, seriously threatening the crop's output.
According to agricultural experts, to achieve high efficiency, farmers need to coordinate simultaneously in large-scale rat poaching, combining many methods such as biological traps, rat poaching, and natural natural enemy protection.
Currently, local farmers are still struggling with rat bites every day to protect the remaining rice fields. Without more timely and effective measures, it is very likely that this season many families will suffer from crop failure, putting the already difficult life of farmers in an even more precarious situation" - Mr. Nguyen Van Muoi - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Tam Thang commune worried.
