Binh Dinh (VNA) – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development(MARD) has called on provinces in the south central coastal and CentralHighlands regions to take measures to minimise drought's impact on theSummer-Autumn crops.

Speaking at aconference in the central province of Binh Dinh on March 13, Deputy Minister LeQuoc Doanh urged localities to review regions and sub-regions to find out waterresources that meet rice production.

It is essential toavoid cultivating rice in areas at risk of lacking water, Doanh said.

He suggested shifting to other crops that need less water, and focusing on short-time rice varieties with high yield and pushing the seasonal calendar up to 15 daysearlier to take advantage of water sources.

According to theministry, farmers will face difficulties in the Summer-Autumn crops, as thesouth central coastal and Central Highlands regions have lower rainfall thanthat in the previous years.

In such provinces asBinh Dinh, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan, the water level in many reservoirs reachesonly 10-40 percent of the designed capacity.

Meanwhile, in the CentralHighlands region, the level is about 62 percent. At present, the region hasnearly 350 hectares of crops lacking water. The total area is forecast to reach25,000-30,000 hectares due to low rainfall.

The MARD proposedcutting down 10,000-47,000 hectares of rice during the Summer-Autumn crops todeal with drought.

According to theministry, in the Winter-Spring crops 2019-2020, the two regions had over 314,200hectares of rice with estimated yield of 66.3 tonnes per hectare./.