Central provinces receive seeds to restart farming after floods

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has allocated nearly 39 tonnes of maize and vegetable seeds from national reserves to certain central provinces, to help them recover farming after the recent devastating floods.

Farmers in Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Binh, Ha Tinh, and Quang Tri provinces will be the primary beneficiaries.

Nguyen Nhu Cuong, Director of MARD’s Department of Crop Production, noted that localities in central Vietnam still need to survey their entire rice and crop areas so that MARD can propose additional seed support from the Government.

They should also focus on resuming poultry farming in order to have products for sale in the Lunar New Year holiday and improve their earnings, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien said.

As of November 10, MARD had mobilised assistance totalling nearly 150 billion VND (6.5 million USD), including crop seeds, livestock breeds, and animal feed and medicine, for provinces hit the worst by recent flooding.

Figures show that in order to recover agricultural production, central provinces need 5,600 tonnes of rice seeds, 225 tonnes of maize seeds, 44.2 tonnes of vegetable seeds, 560,000 doses of vaccine, and 140,000 litres and 105 tonnes of chemical disinfectants.