Farmers despair as virus attacks rice fieldsFarmers in Giao Thuy District, Nam Dinh Province, examine infected rice plants they have pulled out of the field. In 2009, this disease had spread to 19 provinces in northern Viet Nam, where it had damaged 42,000ha of rice. Nguyen Huy Dien, deputy director of Nam Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said 16,000ha of rice fields in the province have been affected by the disease. What is more worrying, Dien said, is that the areas of seriously affected rice fields could continue to rise in the coming time because Nam Dinh still has some 10,000ha of rice fields that have not come to the heading stage, the time when the disease’s symptoms are more visible. So the virus, which has been appearing in Viet Nam since 2009, had the chance to come back strongly,” Bao said.

Source: VietNamNet News October 01, 2017 07:18 UTC