Natural disasters in the central, Central Highlands and Mekong River Delta regions in 2016 are said to be the most serious ever, causing major losses for agricultural production and for the economy.

Drought and salt intrusion is considered the most serious ever. (Photo: LDO)

Reports by the Department of Agricultural Economy under the Ministry of Planning and Investment showed that the agricultural and fisheries sectors have been seriously affected by drought, salt intrusion and massive fish die-off.

Statistics revealed that in the south-central region, production on nearly 23,000 hectares of rice land had to stop due to water shortages. The figure is forecast to increase to 57,100 hectares.

Serious drought left negative influence on industrial tree production in the Central Highlands and southeastern regions, with the areas affected reaching 15,823 hectares and 28,000 hectares, respectively.

The estimates calculated by the Department of Agricultural Economy also showed that as of late May, 288,259 families faced water shortages in daily use, together with losses for 249,944 hectares of rice, 18,960 hectares of vegetables, 30,522 hectares of fruits, 149,704 hectares of industrial trees, and 6,857 hectares of fisheries, leading to a total estimated loss of VND15.183 trillion.

The drought and salt intrusion were said the most serious in history, which led to a reduction in the World Bank forecast on Vietnam’s GDP growth in 2016 from 6.5% to 6.2%.

Regarding the massive fish die-off in the central region, the Department of Agricultural Economy said that the situation had affected fishing productivity. Accordingly, fishing productivity in May was estimated at 247,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.5%.

In May, total fishing and aquaculture productivity reached 614,200 tons, bringing the total fishing and aquaculture productivity over the past 5 months to 2.45 million tons./.

( Compiled by VNF )