Tree grows 40 different fruits

The Cái Lớn sluice is being built in Kiên Giang Province.  VNA/VNS Photo Lê Sen HCM CITY — Saltwater intrusion in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta will continue to increase in March and April, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorology Forecasting. The peak of saltwater intrusion will occur during high tide on March 12 -16, March 27 – April 1, April 9 – 14 and April 24 – 30. The delta, the country’s largest rice, fruit and seafood producer, is facing a higher than normal level of saltwater intrusion from the sea through river mouths in the ongoing dry season. However, it is not as severe as the level of the previous dry season. The delta’s provinces have dredged irrigation canals to store more water and upgraded and built dams and sluices to prevent saltwater intrusion and store fresh water. Nguyễn Thiện Pháp, head of the Tiền Giang Province’s Irrigation Sub-department, said the province has built eight dams to store fresh water for agricultural production and supply daily use water for 800,000 households. Farmers in Tiền Giang, the country’s largest fruit producer, have stored irrigation water in their orchard ditches for fruit and other crops. In Cà Mau Province, farmers have stored fresh water in containers and have switched to growing drought – resistant crops. The delta sowed the ongoing winter-spring rice one month earlier than normal to avoid a shortage of irrigation water at the end of the crop. Farmers are now harvesting the winter-spring rice and have had a bumper harvest. The harvest of the winter-spring rice is expected to be completed in May. Largest irrigation system Kiên Giang Province is speeding up the phase one construction of the Cái Lớn – Cái Bé irrigation system to serve agricultural production and local households. The irrigation system, which is the largest of its kind in the delta, connects the Cái Lớn River and the Cái Bé River and is expected to improve agriculture and aquaculture and …

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Grey-shanked douc langur s at the Hon Do mountain in Nui Thanh's Tam My Tay commune (Photo: VNA) Quang Nam (VNA) – Efforts are being made toward a goal of expanding the habitat of the grey-shanked douc langur in central Quang Nam province’s Nui Thanh district to 150ha by 2030. The goal is set in a local project to preserve the endangered grey-shanked douc langurs. A study conducted in October last year by GreenViet , a non-profit organization, showed that natural forests on 30ha in Nui Thanh’s mountains are home to six families of grey-shanked douc langurs with a total 68 individuals. This is the sole visible population in the world. According to Vice Chairman of the district People’s Committee Ngo Duc An, the current priorities are to implement strict protection over the natural forest and restore 30ha of native plants to ensure food supplies and living conditions for the endangered creature. The project worth more than 64 billion VND (2.78 million USD) will work to tranform 60 ha of production forest into special-use forest and establish a natural reserve for the langur in Nui Thanh’s Tam My Tay commune. According to the project, all fields are still owned by locals thus suitable regulations will be built to ensure the rights, interests and responsibilities of people involved, with special attention paid to growing large trees and native plants to create a habitat for the langur as well as a natural ecosystem for ecotourism. As such, the conflict between human’s livelihoods and endangered fauna and flora’s habitats will be eased. Chairman of the Quang Nam People’s Committee Le Tri Thanh said the expansion of habitats and diversification of food sources for rare species are an urgent but long-term work. Quang Nam is determined not to let economic development make strong impact on or cause the loss of these precious animals, he underscored. By 2025, Quang Nam authorities are trying to change at least 150 ha of production forest to …

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Harder to make a living with sugarcane The harvest of sugarcane in sugarcane growing-areas in Ninh Xuan and Ninh Tay communes in Ninh Hoa Town was quite subdued. Many sugarcane fields are stunted and unhealthy because farmers neglect to invest in care. Interlaced between stunted sugarcane fields is vacant land. The sugarcane growing-areas in Ninh Hoa no longer show the lush green of the heyday of sugarcane. Even in the harvest season, the gloomy atmosphere hovers over sugarcane fields. According to local sugarcane farmers, the current price of material sugarcane purchased by local sugar refineries ranges from VND920,000 to VND950,000 per ton for sugarcane with 10 percent of commercial cane sugar. This is considered a high price compared to those in recent years, but farmers are not as excited as the time when sugarcane helped them to make a fortune. For instance, in Ninh Tan Commune, five years ago, sugarcane helped many farmers to escape poverty and become well-off, thanks to large-scale sugarcane cultivation. However, in recent years, sugarcane has no longer brought them a prosperous life anymore. Visiting the 1.5-hectare sugarcane field of Vo Thi Hau Phuong, a farmer in Trung Village in Ninh Tan Commune, whose sugarcanes are of high quality in the area and are being harvested to sell to the factory of Vietnam Sugar Company, she said that in this crop, sugarcane yield was about 40 tons per hectare, with commercial cane sugar percentage at above 10. It is because her family invested and taken care of their sugarcane field carefully. Meanwhile, many surrounding stunted sugarcane fields will undoubtedly give very low productivity. Despite high yield, high commercial cane sugar percentage, and high sugarcane selling price in this crop, she reckons that the profit is small. Le Minh Tuan's household in Bac Village in Ninh Tan Commune has more than 3 hectares of sugarcane. With nearly 20 years of experience in growing sugarcane, he estimated that the total …

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