QUANG TRI (VNS) — Quang Tri Province, among the localities hit hardest by the prolonged heatwave and drought in the central region, received heavy rains, saving part of the withering crop, and cheering farmers.
It has been raining in the province since early yesterday morning, with the locality receiving an average 40mm of rain, the province's centre for hydrometeorological forecasting said.
The centre said rains have come with the arrival of Typhoon Kujira (whale in Japanese) over the East Sea, which is expected to bring rain to the entire country in the next few days.
The rains helped to save thousands of hectares of rice and vegetables that had been withering because of temperatures of 37 to 42 degrees Celsius and drought in several parts of the locality.
Earlier, local agricultural authorities said some 10,000ha of rice and vegetable crops had withered because of drought, while 3,700ha of farmland had dried up and been left uncultivated.
Farmers were delighted with the rain, saying their farms could now be saved. "The showers have revived my rice and vegetable crops," Nguyen Thi Dan, a farmer in the province's Cam Lo District, said.
The central region's hydrometeorological forecasting unit said rainfall of 45mm to 212mm in many places in the region would temporarily reduce the intensity of drought, which is expected to last till September this year. — VNS