Three weeks after storm No. 3 made landfall, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan (Tuan Viet commune, Kim Thanh district, Hai Duong province) still has not finished cleaning up nearly 2 hectares of banana garden destroyed by the storm.
Mr. Tuan said that more than 200 banana bunches worth over 100 million VND have now been completely lost. A large number of dead banana trees, trunks and roots were dug up and there was no place to destroy them, so they had to be chopped up, piled up, and used as fertilizer.
“The price of bananas this Tet will probably increase because the entire banana growing area in Kim Thanh district and other places has been severely damaged, causing banana shortages,” Mr. Tuan shared.
Ms. Nguyen Thi My (Tuan Viet commune, Kim Thanh district, Hai Duong province) confided that her main source of income for the Lunar New Year was a banana garden of more than 1 hectare that was broken and felled by the storm. She could not replant it in time, it would take at least 1 year for the banana garden to recover.
"Now the only way is to temporarily plant short-term crops like Malabar spinach (which only takes a month) to harvest to temporarily overcome the economy and prepare to restore the banana garden next year," Ms. My shared.
Mr. Ninh Van Khanh - Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuan Viet Commune, Kim Thanh District, Hai Duong said that banana is one of the two main agricultural products of the locality. The total banana growing area in the commune is nearly 50 hectares.
Damage caused by storm No. 3 to the commune’s agriculture was nearly 140 billion VND, of which banana trees suffered more than 22 billion VND. Many farmers lost everything after the storm and fell into debt.
Currently, the Commune People's Committee is advising people to take advantage of the clear weather to clear up fallen crops, and plant short-term vegetables such as garlic, mustard greens, soybeans, and various vegetables... on the damaged banana area to temporarily restore the economy. At the same time, protect the seedlings that have been planted and replant them when the weather conditions are favorable.
According to information from the People's Committee of Kim Thanh district, more than 220 hectares of bananas were damaged in the district. Tuan Viet commune is the locality with the largest area of damaged banana gardens in the district.
