Farmers receive additional aid to cope with disasters

VietNamNet Bridge – Farmers who have been affected by natural disasters or by crop or livestock epidemics will now receive financial support from the Government at double previous levels in order to help them recover their production.

Under a Government decision which took effect on Sunday, farmers suffering livestock losses would receive VND10-20,000 per head of poultry (up from the previous amount of VND7-15,000) and VND750,000 (US$35) per pig (up from the previous level of VND500,000).

Aid for lost cattle would increase from VND2 million ($95) to VND4 million ($192) per head.

Under the new decision, aquaculture farmers would be paid at a rate of VND10 million ($480) per hectare for fish, VND30 million ($1,440) per hectare for shrimp and tra fish, and VND60 million ($2,880) per hectare for oysters.

Previous support was only VND3-5 million per hectare. Nguyen The Luong, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Storm Prevention and Control Office, said that prior rates set back in 2009 were too low for hard-hit farmers to resume production, especially those who worked in aquaculture.

The new policy would cost the State budget an estimated VND750 billion ($36 million) annually, with aquaculture receiving about VND350 billion ($16.8 million) of the aid, Luong said.

Nguyen Van Tuan, a shrimp breeder in the northern province of Nam Dinh's Giao Thuy District, said that his 3-hectare shrimp pond was completely destroyed by Typhoon Son Tinh in October, causing him losses of VND200 million ($9,600).

"The old support level of VND3-5million ($144-240) per hectare was not enough to enable me to resume production," he added, noting that shrimp was worth about VND180,000 ($8.50) per kilo on the market at that time.

"I could have earned hundreds of millions of dong," Tuan said.

Tuan said the new level of about VND30 million per hectare was not enough for the hardest-hit farmers but would at least help them purchase new breeding shrimp.

Through October, about VND513 billion ($24.6 million) has been disbursed to help farmers affected by natural disasters and epidemics, with Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh benefitting the most.

Hoang Thai, director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in the northern mountainous province of Cao Bang, said that farmers in the province frequently suffered losses in the winter due to low temperatures.

Last year, three cold spells lasting for a cumulative total of 33 days resulted in the loss of 32,750 livestock. The support policy has helped farmers to overcome difficulties, Thai said.