Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
NinhThuan (VNA) - The south-central province of Ninh Thuan has to stop farmingon over 15,000 ha of land in this year’s summer-autumn crop due to a serious shortageof water.
Duringthe 2019-20 winter-spring rice crop, farming had to be stopped on nearly8,000ha because of lack of water.
Luu Xuâan Vinh, chairman of theprovince People’s Committee, said there has been seven years of drought in thelast 10 years.
Inmany places, farmers have had to stop farming for a long time because ofdrought, he said.
To mitigate the effects ofdrought, the People’s Committee has ordered localities to identify clearly andzone areas for crops and animal husbandry.
Priority will be given tohigh-value crops that require less water, the People’s Committee said.
The country’s driest provincehas 21 reservoirs with a combined capacity of 194 million cubic metres ofwater, but they only contained nearly 30 million cu.m of water now, with some runningdry.
Tomitigate the effects of drought, the People’s Committee has ordered localitiesto identify clearly and zone areas for crops and animal husbandry.
Priority will be given tohigh-value crops that require less water, the People’s Committee said.
The province plans to develop12 hi-tech vegetable growing areas on a total of 1,640ha, four hi-tech grapeand jujube growing areas on 700ha, two hi-tech cow breeding areas on 150ha andtwo hi-tech goat and sheep breeding areas on 250ha by the end of this year, accordingto the department.
The province will develop threehi-tech aquaculture areas.
In the last three years, NinhThuan has spent more than 2.3 trillion VND (98 million USD) to upgrade 63irrigation works, increasing the total irrigated area to 53.7 percent, up 4.1percentage points from 2015.
Besides switching to othercrops on rice fields, the province also plans to switch to two rice crops a yearfrom three to save water./.
