VietNamNet Bridge – Rubber growers in central Quang Tri Province’s Vinh Linh District are devastated after some 1,000ha of their rubber plantations were damaged by tropical storm Sonca.

A farmer of central Quang Tri Province’s Vinh Thuy Commune in his rubber planting area. The area has been destroyed by storms twice, once in 2013 and now in 2017 by tropical storm Sonca that hit the province on Tuesday. — Photo nongnghiep.vn

Sonca is the fourth storm to hit Viet Nam this year.

Some 300 out of 1,000ha are the most damaged, with 20-70 per cent of the rubber trees planted on the land on average knocked down by the storm, the Nong Nghiep (Agriculture) online newspaper reported.

The plantation of Doan Quang Luat of Vinh Thuy Commune’s Trai Ca Village is the worst affected in the village, with some 600 rubber trees destroyed, equivalent to a loss of VND600 million (US$26,400), since each tree can provide rubber latex worth VND1 million ($44). The trees have been grown for a decade.

Resident Hoang Van Duong of the same village earned VND2 million ($88) per day selling rubber latex, but the storm destroyed some 300 rubber trees. This is the second time Duong’s 2ha rubber plantation has been damaged by a storm – the first time was in 2013 – after which he spent VND15 million ($660) recovering the plantation.

One hundred per cent of rubber plantations of households in Vinh Thuy Commune’s Tan Thuy Village have been affected by the storm, with the number of trees destroyed ranging from 50 to 400, village head Nguyen Quang Hanh said.

Since damaged rubber trees give only as much as 10-15 per cent of the total quantity of rubber latex that they can produce when healthy, residents of the district have requested the removal of rubber trees to grow either new rubber trees or peppers, chairman Tran Huu Hung of the district People’s Committee said.

Tropical storm Sonca hit the central province on Tuesday afternoon, blowing away roofs of 57 houses, damaging 213 business establishments and submerging some 1,000ha of paddy fields in the districts of Hai Lang, Trieu Phong and Gio Linh, vice chairman of the province’s People’s Committee Ha Sy Dong said. 

Source: VNS