The Vientiane Agriculture and Forestry Department recently accepted new irrigation channels built by Dongphosy Irrigation Construction, with funding provided by the government of Vietnam. The first phase of this project began in 2000 at a total cost of 138 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) and was completed in 2005.
However, some of the machinery used for irrigation was damaged and some channels were buried in mud following flooding. In 2018, the department asked the government of Vietnam to finance repairs. Vietnam provided 61 billion VND for the second phase of the project and the Lao government contributed the equivalent of more than 7 billion VND.
The handover ceremony for the new irrigation system was attended by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr Thongphat Vongmani, and representatives of the government of Vietnam. The Vientiane Agriculture and Forestry Department set a target for farmers to grow rice on 5,230 hectares this past rainy season, with an expected yield of 236,000 tonnes. Farmers in the capital planted 5,220 hectares of rice, equal to 99.7 percent of the target area. Vientiane authorities are now helping farmers with their dry season crop over the period November to April. Next year, the department plans to expand the area under cultivation by 1,530 hectares to meet growing demand and make up for the losses suffered in this year’s floods. Almost 600 irrigation projects in Laos were affected by flooding during tropical storms Son-tinh and Bebinca.
Information source: Vientiane Times.
