By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam for IPS
MEKONG DELTA, Vietnam, Mar 18, 2010 (IPS) – He has worked this land for half of 64 years and is known among his fellow farmers in Kien Giang province here in the Mekong Delta as ‘lao nong’, or the old master of rice.
But even a highly experienced and hardworking rice farmer like Nguyen Tu is finding it a great challenge to grow crops in the Mekong Delta these days.
“I spent a whole day and whole night pumping water into the rice field, but the little amount of freshwater I got could hardly wash the five hectares of rice immersed in saltwater,” Tu tells IPS.
“Every year, I have to wash off saltwater (from our field), but things become worse year after year,” he adds, complaining about the build-up of salt on the soil as a result of the intrusion of saline water into the rich river area. “Last year, I got more freshwater for a smaller contaminated area.”
Like other South-east Asian countries, Vietnam has a wet and a dry season. In the last decade or so, the dry season seems to have been coming earlier each year – and then staying far longer.
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