The 1.7ha rice field of Mrs. Phan Thi Lan's family, Tan Hiep commune, Tra Cu district completely lost 1ha due to drought and salinity.

Facing the drought and saltwater intrusion that is going on, Tra Vinh Provincial People's Committee directs the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to establish 5 working groups to coordinate with localities to support farmers taking measures to protect plants and animals to minimize damage.

According to the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tra Vinh province, Pham Minh Truyen, after established, working groups are working closely with the locality to conduct a field survey of the extent and ability to forecast damage about rice, vegetables, fruit trees and domestic animals in each region.

The staff of the working group also checked all the intra-field canals to assess the ability to supply fresh water to propose human and material resources to pump fresh water into the field.

Up to now, 5 working groups have cooperated closely with local leaders to organize 14 training courses on measures to cope with and prevent drought, salinity in rice, vegetables, fruit trees, together with advice farmers to convert crops on damaged Dong Xuan rice areas.
Besides, the working groups also coordinated to carry out many news broadcast on radio in localities; distributing more than 3,000 leaflets guiding techniques for rice and fruit cultivation in drought and saline conditions ...

Mr. Pham Minh Truyen said that in more than 2 months, Tra Vinh province has urgently dredged 43 irrigation canal works, with a total length of nearly 38 km and mobilized forces to collect water hyacinth on the surface of level II canals to clear the flow, guide fresh water to irrigate rice and vegetables.

However, drought and salinity intrusion into Co Chien and Hau rivers is nearly 70km, causing great damage to agricultural production and people's life.

Up to now, there are 6,710 households in Tra Vinh province with total losses of 5,177 ha of Winter-Spring seasonal rice; in which most are in Chau Thanh and Tra Cu districts, the rest in Cau Ngang,  Duyen Hai, Cau Ke and Tieu Can districts, the damage level is 30-70%.

In the key fruit tree area of Cau Ke district, many orchards without closed embankments have been partially submerged nearly 73 ha of oranges, grapefruit ... leading to wilting and defoliation, the rate is 10-15 %.

Particularly, more than 1,710 ha of food crops and more than 9,330 ha of short-term industries plans are using fresh water reserves have not been damaged.

However, if the drought and salinity situation persists for more than 30 days, there is possibility that these crops will also be damaged as there is not enough fresh water for irrigation./.