Heavy rains hit Da Nang late last month and the wet weather lingers until now. Therefore, prolonged rainfall has caused damage to vegetables and flowers grown in the city, which has stirred up worry amongst farmers in the face of Tet being around the corner.

Many farmers touting for business in the La Huong vegetable growing area suffered loses caused by recent heavy rains.

Many farmers touting for business in the city-based popular La Huong vegetable growing area, Hoa Tho Dong Ward, Cam Le District, suffered losses caused by pesistent heavy rains.

The bad weather ravaged a large volume of crops owned by Le Thi Xao in this dedicated organic vegetable growing area. Such vegetables as mustard greens and water spinach did not survive the prolonged and torrential rains of recent days.

“My nearly 1,000m² vegetable garden was totally damaged. The loss of seeds and fertilizer is less, but it takes lots of efforts to re-prepare good seedbeds, free of weeds and with proper soil-surface textures available for seed sowing. There is nothing more distressing than seeing ready-to-harvest crops stunted and destroyed by bad weather”, sadly said Xao.

Meanwhile, Mr Tran Van Hoang, the Director of La Huong Organic Vegetable Production Cooperative, said only a few of his cooperative members suffered rain-triggered losses.

Starting from the 23^rd of this ongoing lunar month, many vegetable growers will simultaneously embark upon cultivating new crops. Hoang’s cooperative has already urged the Hoa Tho Dong Ward administration to give green-light to the construction of anti-landslide embankments along the La Huong growing area as soon as possible.

During the recent heavy rains, Tet flower growing areas across the city were not flooded, but erratic weather change with rain squalls alternating with sunshine has been helped the pests and disease-causing fungii continue thriving, hereby hampering the growth of flowers. Large amounts of chrysanthemum have turned wilted, stunted or even dead.  

A luffa farm in the La Huong site was damaged by unfavaourable weather

At a flower growing area located on Nguyen Huu Tho Street, more than 200 large pots of chrysanthemum turned wilted. Its owner, Tran Binh, a resident in Hoa Cuong Bac Ward, Hai Chau District, said, “We have been growing these flowers for nearly 2 months, but the unfavourable weather has badly affected them. If downpours soak the city for a long time, there will be many waterlogged flowers”.

Flower growers now hope for favourable weather conditions to gear up their production and taking care of their products in order to offer the best to their customers at Tet.

Nguyen Van Ly, Head of the Hoa Vang District Agriculture and Rural Development Office, most of the crops in this location were all grown in high places, so the damage caused by the recent heavy downpours was very low.

In the near future, this suburb district will deploy the production of the winter-spring crops comprising of more than 45 hectares of specialised vegetable cultivation and over 300,000 flower pots of all kinds to serve the upcoming Lunar New Year.

Director of the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Phu Ban said functional bodies are currently reporting losses of crops due to the effects of recent heavy rains.

In the face of complicated weather patterns, so it is highly recommended that farmers take new cultivation plans into account to avoid possible losses. The Department is also urging relevant units to carefully prepare the organisation of the winter-spring crop production.