In recent years, the impact of climate change has been present in all aspects of life in the Central Highlands region with the appearance of extreme weather phenomena such as prolonged drought and unusually heavy rain.
With a series of 5 articles on “Adaptation to climate change for sustainable agricultural development in the Central Highlands”, VNA addresses the impacts of climate change on agricultural production in the Central Highlands, especially in the field of Central Highlands. crop; At the same time, they raised the effective solutions that localities in the Central Highlands have been implementing to limit the damage caused by natural disasters and maintain efficient and sustainable production.
Climate change – a challenge to the Central Highlands agriculture sector
For agriculture, climate change not only causes immediate damage but also breaks the law of crop development, threatening the agricultural economy, which is considered the main force of the region. This makes the agricultural sector, scientists and farmers have to rethink the production process to have appropriate farming policies and solutions to adapt and develop production.
The Central Highlands is increasingly affected by drought and extreme weather events such as floods, tornadoes … This is the result of deforestation, as well as the inability to control and implement planning for agricultural crops. At present, the difficulty of the Central Highlands is that the high-value crops are able to adapt to unusually low climates and vice versa.
The weather is increasingly extreme
Dak Lak is a province with potentials and strengths in developing crop production with key crops that bring high economic efficiency such as pepper, coffee, rubber … However, with the impact of climate change With many objective reasons, the staple crops such as coffee, pepper, cashew, fruit trees … have unsustainable development.
According to Vu Duc Con, Deputy Director of Dak Lak Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in recent years, Dak Lak people have clearly seen the impact of climate change on crop production. Extreme weather events such as prolonged drought, unusually heavy rains have caused severe damage to many crops, especially major crops such as pepper, coffee … Even at the same time Point in Dak Lak province recorded both weather patterns as rain, flood and drought.
| Prolonged drought in M’Drak district (Dak Lak) has caused nearly 500 hectares of wet rice to die dry and lose white, the remaining over 500 hectares of rice are seriously lack of water. Photo: Tuan Anh – VNA |
The typical pattern of unusual weather in Dak Lak is in early August 2019, while Buon Don, Ea Sup, Krong Ana and Lak districts must experience historic floods in M'Drak and Ea Kar districts. prolonged drought has caused severe damage. In the rainy season and drought in early August alone, 16,163 hectares of crops were inundated, more than 1,000 hectares of crops were damaged by drought, and some areas were burned dry because they could not be found. irrigation water, causing damage of several billion dongs to Dak Lak cultivation.
Phan Thi Thanh, village 18, Cu M'ta commune, M'Drak district, said that even in the rainy season of Dak Lak province, farmers of M'Drak district still had to struggle to find water to combat drought, save crops. . Although drought occurred in the middle of the rainy season in previous years, in 2019 this situation becomes more severe. For months without rain, the dams also ran out of water, farmers helplessly stood to watch many areas of dry rice in the dry drought.
Mr. Y ’Bhung Ayun, a farmer from Cuôr Dang B, Cuôr Đăng commune, Cu M’gar district, said that climate change is becoming more complex and directly affecting farmers' crop production. The family has more than 1,000 business posts, in 2018, erratic weather and rain made the whole area ready to be harvested again and again, and until the 2019 crop year, the pepper will only sprout without sprung. as many flowers as in previous years reduces productivity. According to Mr. Y ’Bhung Ayun, the weather abnormality led the plant's growth process to not follow the normal rules, which caused many surprises and difficulties for farmers during cultivation.
In the rainy season in 2018, many farmers in Dak Song District, Dak Nong Province stood still and still because it rained every day. Farmers worry that heavy and prolonged rainfall in complex terrain and steep hills will lead to flooding, causing the plant's growth to turn upside down, causing many epidemics to be difficult to handle. In fact, the consequences of the months-long rains were heavier than what pepper farmers in Dak Song and Dak Nong province had planned. Around November to December, when the rain stopped and entered the dry season, a series of pepper gardens died in just a few weeks. And the billionaire dream thanks to the type of agricultural product known as the “black gold” of thousands of shattered farmers, leaving only billions of debt of unknown billion to pay. The issues surrounding the pepper industry may be the clearest evidence of the effects of climate change on agricultural production and the life of every farmer in Dak Nong today.
Mr. Le Hoang Vinh, Head of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dak Song District, said the 2018 rainy season lasted a record. In some areas, farmers noted that it rained every day for 4 months. The main heavy rains have inundated and caused many dead pepper area to die. In addition, farmers improperly dispose of fertilizers, leading to the spread of germs in adverse weather conditions.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Huan, Head of Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, Hydrometeorology Station of the Central Highlands, in recent years, due to climate change, the Central Highlands is a region with a relatively large increase in temperature. Annual precipitation tends to decrease. For the Central Highlands region, the drought situation in the dry season is increasingly complicated, extreme weather can occur at any time, for example, heavy rains in some provinces in early August 2019. , or prolonged drought during the 2016 dry season; In some places, the number of rainy days has significantly affected the production and daily life of people.
Challenges to agriculture in the Central Highlands
Dr. Phan Viet Ha, Deputy Director of Tay Nguyen Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, said extreme weather events such as prolonged hot weather, unseasonal rain, high intensity rain all affected the ability. growth, development as well as the flowering and fruiting features of all crops. The most obvious effect is that the early rainy season, combined with late rains, causes early and unfocused coffee plants to affect productivity; the dry season is long. For example, in the 2016-2017 dry season, according to preliminary statistics, the area of coffee without irrigation water amounted to 100 thousand hectares, the most serious was Dak Lak and Gia Lai with more than 40% of the coffee area affected. affected by lack of irrigation water. For pepper, though the impact level is assessed to be less serious due to the different crop characteristics compared to coffee, the prolonged drought and lack of irrigation water also affect the productivity of the orchard. In addition, excessive rainfall in a short period is also a major cause for the development of dangerous diseases such as rapid death, slow death in pepper plants. For coffee and cashew trees, an increase in extreme temperatures during the dry season also affects pollination, fertilization and fruiting.
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| Ea Kpal Irrigation Reservoir dried up due to drought. Photo: Tuan Anh – VNA |
According to Dr. Phan Viet Ha, not only affects the growth of crops, climate change also degrades land and water resources, reduces production efficiency, negatively affects workers. Typically, the phenomenon of unseasonal blooming flowers on pepper, coffee or unusual heavy rain causing loss of flowers on avocado and durian is gradually spreading, even on the main crops of Dak Lak province such as coffee, pepper in the harvest period is harvesting, flowers bloom again.
These phenomena not only cause immediate economic damage but also make it difficult for farmers to take care of crops. In addition, in the dry season, irrigation water for crops is increasingly difficult when the groundwater level of the Central Highlands is falling for various reasons, this also has a significant impact on crops. .
According to Mr. Vu Duc Con, economic losses due to climate change are becoming more and more severe. More dangerous, in the long run, climate change can disrupt the development rules of crops that have formed in Dak Lak. In fact, in the last 3 years, the phenomenon of coffee, pepper has been out of season in some growing areas, the main reason is due to erratic rain, sunny weather, not following the rules. as usual as before.
In recent years, agricultural production in the Central Highlands has been facing many problems such as precarious prices, rising labor and input prices, especially the effects of climate change conditions. Harsh climatic conditions in the dry season have greatly affected sustainable agricultural production in the Central Highlands, especially for key industrial crops such as coffee, pepper, cashew, fruit trees, and Other crops …
It can be seen that climate change has caused serious consequences for the crop industry, breaking the rules of crop development in the region. In fact, it requires local governments, departments and agencies to do well the forecasting work, and at the same time support people to change production methods and find appropriate directions to adapt to climate change.
P.V.
Source: Vietnam + / TTXVN
