On September 17, Chairman of Bac Lieu Provincial People's Committee Pham Van Thieu issued a document requesting the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, People's Committees of districts, towns, cities and relevant agencies and units to urgently deploy plans to protect agricultural production areas and aquaculture areas in case of heavy rain and high tides.
The Chairman of the Bac Lieu Provincial People's Committee also directed the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with districts, towns and cities to operate the sewer system managed by the district level, the system of pumping stations and closed irrigation grids to drain water to prevent flooding, serving well the summer-autumn rice harvest and the planting of autumn-winter rice and rice on shrimp land. In particular, continue to closely monitor forecasts and warnings about heavy rain and floods, promptly and fully inform authorities and people at all levels to proactively prevent, respond and minimize damage; be ready to deploy measures to drain water and protect production.
For localities, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested coordination with districts, towns and cities to operate the sewer system managed by the district level, the system of pumping stations and closed irrigation grids to drain water to prevent flooding, serving well the harvest of the summer-autumn rice crop and the planting of the autumn-winter rice crop and the rice crop on shrimp land.
At the same time, farmers are encouraged to actively reinforce embankments, ponds and lakes; pump water to protect agricultural production areas, aquaculture areas, fruit trees and vegetables to prevent high tides and heavy rains from appearing on a large scale. Measures are deployed to prevent high tides for urban areas in the South of National Highway 1A and forces are promptly dispatched to support and help people protect production and overcome damage caused by high tides and heavy rains causing flooding.
Currently, Bac Lieu province has planted 58,898 hectares of summer-autumn rice, is harvesting 47,482 hectares, and has 11,416 hectares remaining. In addition, the province has planted 1,966 hectares of autumn-winter rice and 10,505 hectares of rice on shrimp land; the aquaculture area is 104,569 hectares.
According to many farmers, the average rice yield harvested before the storm was 6 - 6.5 tons/ha, the average selling price was 7,000 - 8,500 VND/kg, depending on the quality of the rice. The average profit was 3-5 million VND/cong (1,000m2).
After the storm, according to statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Bac Lieu province, the whole province had more than 9,700 hectares of collapsed rice fields, causing a significant decrease in productivity, rice quality and prices, causing profits to plummet, only about 2 million VND/cong. Many areas collapsed, nearly 70% or more of the area collapsed, farmers only recovered their capital. With areas that were heavily collapsed, slow to harvest, causing the rice to sprout, it was considered a heavy loss.
