Bac Ninh farmers busy harvesting young rice to escape historic floods

Since the afternoon of October 7, due to the impact of storm No. 11 (storm Matmo) and rising floodwaters on the Thuong River, many villages and hamlets along both sides of the river in Bac Ninh province have been severely flooded.

According to statistics from the People's Committee of Tien Luc commune (Bac Ninh), as of 4:00 p.m. on October 9, more than 750 hectares of rice were flooded. Local authorities are conducting statistics in the coming time.

According to Dan Tri reporter on the afternoon of October 9, floodwaters continued to rise, invading residential areas and rice fields nearing harvest time, causing many farmers to worry.

On the same afternoon, when floodwaters were discovered to have overflowed the road and flowed down to the fields of Dong Tham and Tay Lo villages, the local authorities quickly mobilized harvesters and, together with the people, quickly harvested the rice with the motto "it is better to be green at home than to be old in the fields".

The flood water rushed in and rose high, making people extremely surprised and worried about the fields that had not been harvested yet.

Mr. Nguyen Van Chien, Head of Dong Tham village, said that since the afternoon of October 7, the locality has mobilized harvesters and called on people to harvest rice early, but because the rice is still unripe, many families have not harvested yet.

"This afternoon (October 9), when we saw floodwaters flowing across the road into the fields, we had to quickly mobilize harvesters and villagers to harvest the rice. If we didn't harvest quickly, it would be flooded in just 3-4 hours," said Mr. Chien.

Faced with the risk of flooding their fields at any time, many people in Tien Luc commune have harvested unripe rice to escape the flood.

Mr. Hoang Van Tuan, Chief of the Office of the People's Committee of Tien Luc Commune, said that by 4 p.m. on October 9, floodwaters had caused two structures in the commune to collapse; 8,000 poultry and waterfowl died; 870 hectares of rice, crops, and fruit trees were submerged. The area of aquaculture submerged was over 70 hectares.

Many people shared that it was about 10 days before harvest time, but because the floodwaters came so quickly, they had to harvest the unripe rice.

Harvesters are working at full capacity to help people escape the flood.

"If the rice is ripe and soaked in flood water for 1-2 days, it will be considered a total loss. Every year, to have rice, we have to face pests and diseases, but this year we have to face harsh weather and natural disasters," said Ms. Nguyen Thi Tham (42 years old, living in Dong Tham village, Tien Luc commune).

Steps such as harvesting rice, packing rice into bags, and transporting it home are all done very quickly to avoid the flood.

Under the sweltering sun, many people harvest through noon to be able to harvest all of their family's rice.

"My husband and I skipped lunch to harvest quickly. If we weren't quick, we would have been submerged in floodwaters within 2-3 hours," said Nguyen Thi Luyen (57 years old, residing in Dong Tham village, Tien Luc commune).

Farmers waded through water to urgently harvest rice in flooded fields.

Crowds of people carrying rice home, helping each other harvest rice,...

Mr. Nguyen Van Chien, walks along the roads around the village fields to monitor the rice harvest.

"We will harvest where the water flows in. We will harvest first in flooded areas and later in dry areas," said Mr. Chien.

At the Ben Pha village cultural house (Tien Luc commune), soldiers of Battalion 14, Division 3, Military Region 1 participated in clearing rice to help people.

Mr. Hoang Van Tuan, Chief of Office of Tien Luc Commune People's Committee (Bac Ninh), said that as of 4:00 p.m. on October 9, the entire commune had 19 flooded villages (the whole commune has 61 villages and hamlets) with about 8,000 people affected.

Currently, local authorities have coordinated and supported the transportation of more than 7,000 essential necessities (food, drinking water, medicine, etc.) to isolated areas, ensuring that people do not go hungry or lack water for daily activities while waiting for the water to recede and for temporary traffic repairs.

Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/thoi-su/nong-dan-bac-ninh-tat-bat-gat-lua-non-chay-lu-lich-su-20251010005726379.htm