Southeast Asia drought forces farmers to leave fields unplanted

A severe lack of rain and higher-than-normal temperatures in parts of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have caused some farmers to leave their fields and rice paddies unplanted, sources inside the developing Southeast Asian countries said.

Farmers in Ha Tinh province in central Vietnam have been forced to leave their fields unplanted because of the drought, said a farmer surnamed Dan from Kỳ Anh, a rural district in the province.

“We have to wait for the rain to grow the crops,” he told RFA’s Vietnamese Service. “Normally, the main crop grows around May in the spring, but because there is no rain, we have had to leave the fields empty.”

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