A farmer in Thanh Hoá Province in her dried rice field. — Photo vov.vn

THANH HOÁ — Central provinces of Thanh Hoá, Nghệ An and Hà Tĩnh continued to suffer high temperatures, badly affecting local production and daily life.

Thousands of hectares of rice have been lost because of the prolonged hot weather, while many rice fields have been abandoned due to lack of water.

Saline intrusion was affecting many areas.

“We could not produce in the extremely hot weather. Grass was burned under the sun so the rice could not grow,” said a farmer in Thiệu Hoá District of Thanh Hoá Province.

Thanh Hoá Province had planted more than 112,000ha of rice out of total 116,000ha.

According to the Thanh Hoá Irrigation Department, water levels in 241 out of 610 reservoirs have fallen, with some reservoirs drying up.

At present, 7,500ha of rice lacked water. The local authorities had to install hundreds of pumps to save the crops.

In coastal districts of Quảng Xương and Tĩnh Gia, the saline intrusion occurred along the Ý and Hoàng Rivers.

Pumping water from the rivers to rice fields was risky.

In the difficult situation, the farmers were asked not to continue planting rice on the remaining fields.

Đặng Tiến Dũng, vice director of Thanh Hoá Province’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department, said: “The remaining water was just used for the current rice fields.”

“For areas at high-risk of water shortage, the local farmers should change to other crops,” said Dũng.

Meanwhile, in Hà Tĩnh Province, the hot weather and drought had caused many crops to wither.

Hương Khê and Hương Sơn districts are the localities facing the worst drought.

The local government and agriculture and rural development department had carried out measures on drought control such as dredging canals and digging wells.

Similar to Thanh Hoá and Hà Tĩnh provinces, Nghệ An Province had faced seven bouts of hot weather since earlier this year.

In May and June, temperatures hit 39.5 to 41.5 degrees Celsius.

The heatwaves caused severe drought and water shortages, causing difficulties for residents.

So far, about 13,000ha of rice crop had lacked water because hundreds of dams, lakes and reservoirs was drying up.

The risk of crop loss was very high, said Nguyễn Thành Trung, vice chairman of Đô Lương District. —  VNS