Task forces, hotlines help farmers consuming farm produce in Mekong Delta

The establishment came after many localities in the region have faced difficulties in harvesting, processing and transporting farm produce because the localities’ administration has applied a range of measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Giang Province has asked the districts to set up hotlines to receive information on the transportation, harvesting and consumption of farm produce in the province.

The hotlines have been announced on the mass media. Local businesses, co-operatives and local farmers have been informed about the hotlines so that they could contact if needed.

Nguyen Sy Lam, Director of the province’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department said things seemed very smooth since the province established a task force and a hotline to support local farmers and businesses to consume farm produce.

It helped in removing shortcomings in farm produce consumption as well as bringing traders and businesses to purchase farm produce like before the pandemic, he said.

In Long An Province, the Agriculture and Rural Development Department has also set up a hotline to support local farmers in selling their farm produce.

The hotline 0943864445 is in charge by deputy director of the department Dinh Thi Phuong Khanh.

In Dong Thap Province, the agriculture sector has also announced the hotlines in an attempt to fix shortcomings in production, harvesting and consumption of farm produce during the social distancing.

Accordingly, local farmers can contact directly to Huynh Tat Dat, Deputy Director of the department via the phone number 0904.722.743; email: htdatdongthap@gmail.com or Nguyen Hoang Minh Tam, Chief Office of the Department via the phone number 0913.537.179; email: minhtam80dt@gmail.com to report problems related to production, harvesting and consumption of farm produce in the province.

The Office of the People's Committee of Hau Giang Province has also operated hotlines to receive feedbacks and recommendations on issues related to the pandemic in the province, including two hotlines to deal with agricultural issues.

Therefore, local farmers could seek helps by contacting to 09186681155 or 0903644013.

Difficulties

Due to the pandemic, localities in the region have faced numerous difficulties in both production and business.

An Giang is one of the provinces in the delta having the latest summer-autumn rice harvesting area compared to neighbouring provinces.

As of July 27, the province only harvested 35 per cent of the total area of 228,479 hectares. The average yield is 5.8 tonnes of rice per ha. About 461,738 tonnes of rice have been consumed so far.

Lam said the province now only had still met difficulties in seeking the output for two farm produce of lemon and corn.

Currently, lemon and corn were in the harvest season, the prices had dropped sharply because there were no traders coming to buy, he said.

The price of corn is currently only VND4,000-6,000 (17 cents-26 cents) per kilo, about VND1,500 (6 cents) lower than the same period last year.

The price of lemon has dropped very deeply, only VND2,000 (8 cents) per kilo, about VND5,000 - 6,000 (22-26 cents) lower than before.

As usual, these two farm produce were mainly supplied for wholesale markets in Ho Chi Minh City. However, since the wholesale markets closed, farmers met difficulties in seeking the output for the two farm produce, he said.

In Bac Lieu Province, Luu Hoang Ly, Director of the provincial Agriculture and Rural Development Department said about 330 million of shrimp post-larvae had been sold as of July 27.

It was expected that 1.6 billion of shrimp post-larvae would be sold until the end of August, he said.

However, the quantity of shrimp post-larvae that were ordered by customers in other provinces had dropped sharply by about 60 per cent over the same period due to social distancing time under the Government’s Directive No 16, he said.

In August, the province is scheduled to harvest 53,000 tonnes of seafood, including about 4,300 tonnes consumed in the province.

Thus, it can sell to other provinces’ market about 48,700 tonnes of seafood. Only in Hong Dan District, the supply capacity of giant freshwater shrimp is up to three tonnes daily.

Currently, the capacity of local facilities, enterprises, and farm-produce processing factories has been reduced by 50 per cent due to the pandemic’s impacts.

It is very slow to transport the source of materials to the factories and the products to areas for consumption.

The factories are stagnant with raw materials due to a shortage of workers or reducing the number of workers because of social distancing.

Employers are also facing difficulties in setting up quarantined zones for their workers at the factories.

The source of materials has been decreased because the farming households reduced the scale of the crop while agents have had difficulties in transporting materials for production.

Workers at the factories have yet to access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Restricting people to go out from 6pm to 5am also affects the working hours of workers (three shifts each day).

Many companies and businesses are managing to get permits to build and assemble temporary houses for workers to eat, rest and work at the factories as orders of the provinces’ administration.

Ly suggested that it was necessary to create favorable conditions for local workers to access the COVID-19 vaccine.

At the same time, it should take appropriate measures for workers and drivers who transported, collected and delivered goods to help businesses and factories to maintain enough workers to operate during the pandemic, he said.