Land in Ninh Thuan Province is drying up because of heat and a lack of rainfall for the last 300 days.  

 

It is now the time for winter-spring crop production, but the rice fields in the communes of Thuan Nam and Bac Ai and Ninh Phuoc District in Ninh Thuan Province are not as green as imagined. 

They are yellow, the color of burnt rice stubble and and dying grass. A large area now looks like a desert, with no plants.

Dang Thi Huong, 50, in Phuoc Ninh Commune of Thuan Nam District, said everyone was worn out because of the scorching sun.

“Our family has five mouths to feed. We have been relying on two sao of rice fields (1 sao = 360 square meters). But the crop has failed because of the drought,” she said as she looked for corncobs and cut the withered grass.

“The grass will be sold to sheep farms,” she explained. “My husband earns some VND50,000 a day by working for others. That is all for us.”

It is scalding hot in Phuoc Trung, a commune in mountainous area, considered the “center of the drought-stricken area”, though it is now spring. 

Pinang Thet can be seen riding his bicycle with a sack of grass and a small bundle of firewood behind. 

The young man said he had traveled to My Son Commune, about 10 kilometers away from home to get grass and firewood. 

“The grass is for my two buffalo calves – the family’s biggest assets, while firewood is for cooking,” he said.

Most fields in Phuoc Trung Commune have been left uncultivated over many years. 

“All water sources are depleted. We don’t have water to drink, let alone the crops,” said Tran Quy Duong, chair of Phuoc Trung Commune.

He said that 550 local households in the mountainous area have been living on the water carried there from Ninh Hai District.

A report shows that 30 hectares of rice fields and 10 hectares of maize fields in Tham Du and Dong Day hamlets of Phuoc Trung Communes have withered.

Meanwhile, 3,000 sheep and 2,000 buffaloes are in danger of dying because of no grass and water.

Breeders in Nhi Ha Commune, a remote area in Thuan Nam District, had to evacuate cattle from the home area to avoid severe drought.

Thousands of buffaloes, sheep and goats have been taken to the fields at the end of Nam, Bac Canals and Lu, Cai Rivers, where breeders hope to find food and water. But there is not enough water for the animals.

NLD