VietNamNet Bridge – Witches' broom disease is blighting longan crops around the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, causing disastrous losses to farmers.

Nguyen Van Muoi of Ke Sach District's Ba Trinh Commune in Soc Trang Province said longan was the main fruit in his area, but a witches' broom epidemic had hit harvests.

The cause of the disease was still not known and there were no effective measures to prevent or control it, he said.

Witches' broom causes an abnormal brush-like cluster of drafted, weak shoots arising from or near the same point on branches, affecting fruiting.

In Chau Thanh, a district in Dong Thap Province famous for longan cultivation, almost the entire 3,680ha of the fruit had been infected by the disease, the local Agriculture and Rural Development Office said.

In Tan Nhuan Dong, Phu Huu, An Nhon and Tan Phu Huu communes, most orchards have been affected, reducing longan output by 70-90 per cent.

Huynh Van Nho of An Nhon Commune's An Hoa Hamlet said he had spent VND1 million (US$49) on medicines for his longan plants but to no avail.

The only solution was cutting down diseased longan trees and growing something else, he said.

Longan farmers in Chau Thanh said there was no treatment for the disease that first appeared in 2008.

In Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Tra Vinh provinces, the disease has spread rapidly.

In the delta, around 11,570ha have been blighted by the disease, figures from local agriculture departments show.

Longan cost around VND10,000 a kilogramme on the farm and a ha normally yielded around 15,000kg a year.

Nguyen Minh Chau, head of the Southern Fruit Research Institute, said witches' broom spread quickly and caused extensive damage.

But farmers' awareness of this disease remained low though his institute had dispatched officials to Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Tra Vinh and Vinh Long to educate them about it, Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper quoted him as saying.

Another major concern was that few farmers had cut down diseased trees and branches, making it difficult to contain the spread of the disease, he added.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News