The Husbandry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has instructed cities and provinces affected by the frosty cold over the past few days to take all necessary measures to ease the damage caused by the severe weather to the animal breeding sector.

The municipal and provincial Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development were requested to send working groups to help locals minimise losses to their animals.

Specialised agencies should swiftly and regularly update farmers with weather conditions via mass media, the Husbandry Department said.

It also asked the localities to take the initiative in using their own budgets to fight strong cold spells and overcome their consequences.

Local farmers should be guided to raise their cattle with on-the-spot feed, not let them wander during cold days and decontaminate breeding facilities in order to prevent the outbreak of diseases.

The localities were requested to put forth recovery plans and provide farmers with breeding stock and animal feed after the cold spell.

By 5 pm on January 28, the freezing weather had killed 8,913 buffalo and cows in northern and northern central provinces.

The northern mountainous province of Son La suffered the worst loss with 2,756 livestock animals killed, followed by the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien, Quang Nam province in the central region and Lao Cai province, also in the northern mountainous region.-

Deputy PM inspects recovery efforts in cold spell-hit Sa Pa

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc inspected recovery efforts in Sa Pa district, in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai on January 28 following the recent severe cold spell.

Together with Bat Xat, Sa Pa is one of the localities hardest hit by the cold, suffering temperatures as low as -4.2 degrees Celsius – the coldest in the past 60 years.

Snow blanketed 18 communes and townships, disrupting traffic and agro-forestry production.

The cold weather also killed 168 heads of cattle in more than 120 poor and near-poor households and damaged 250ha of vegetables in nearly 950 households, resulting in an economic loss of billions of VND.

Eighty percent of water pipelines in the locality have been frozen.

The Deputy PM, who is also head of the Steering Committee for the Northwestern Region, took the occasion to call for all possible resources to restore production and help locals stabilise their lives.

The Ministry of Finance was requested to providing funding for recovery efforts while the Health Ministry is to supply medicines to affected families.

He also suggested the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and the Bank for Social Policies help with funding for production and farming.

Phuc hoped that local authorities will ensure social welfare services to residents and bring them a warm and happy Lunar New Year festival.

On the occasion, the Vietnam Red Cross Society, credit organisations and local firms presented gifts worth 2.9 billion VND (131,000 USD) to the poor and affected families.

Loan extension to aid cold-spell victims

The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has announced it will provide loan term extensions for households suffering from the recent cold spell.

The extension of up to three years will be applied to families with damage reported at between 40 and 80 percent, and up to five years to households with damage reported above 80 percent.

During the extended terms, these debtors will not be required to pay interest.

The provision of additional loans will also be considered based on local demand.

By January 28, more than 5,000 people, who have borrowed a total amount of 127.3 billion VND (5.7 million USD) from the VBSP, had taken the brunt of the dreadful weather.

Their damage was calculated at 4,662 dead cattle and about 1,540 hectares of destroyed farming areas.

VNA