Vietnam is being crippled by its worst drought in nearly a century

[Mr.Cyan]

Vietnam is being crippled by its worst drought in nearly a century
http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/1939522/vietnam-being-crippled-its-worst-drought-nearly-century


Excerpts from the article:

Vietnam’s breadbasket southwestern region has been hit by the worst drought in 90 years, badly damaging the nation’s economy.

The Southeast Asian country saw a huge slowdown in economic growth in the first quarter as agriculture output dropped sharply. GDP growth slipped to 5.6 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter, down from 6.7 per cent in 2015, according to statistics cited by a Capital Economics team led by Gareth Leader.....

Moreover, a report from the UN found that nearly 393,000 acres of rice in Vietnam have been lost, and an additional 1.24 million will likely be damaged by mid-2016. Those losses have already had huge effects on production:

The first quarter of 2016 saw rice output fall by 6.2 per cent year-over-year, which reduced Vietnam's total agricultural production
by 2.7 per cent, according to figures cited by Bloomberg.

And the immediate future for rice doesn't look much brighter. The chief executive officer of Intimex Group, a Vietnamese exporter of agricultural products, told Bloomberg that rice exports from Vietnam could drop by 10 per cent this year.

Not only does this affect the livelihoods of the Vietnamese farmers, but it also affects the biggest buyers of Vietnamese agricultural goods.

“People in Indonesia and the Philippines will go hungry if the Thais and Vietnamese don't produce enough rice,” Richard Cronin, director of the Southeast Asia Programme at the Stimson Centre in Washington, told Bloomberg. “This is a preview of the longer-term effect of development and climate change to the Mekong Delta.”

Was recently in Kaeng Krachan national Park in Thailand in February - and the drought in that area of Thailand was also really severe. All the rivers in the park had dried up - and the remaining waterholes were attracting all the rare animals and birds not normally seen in their dire search for water. It looks like the drought is getting worst in Indochina, and food production is now being affected.

 

[Bobo08]

Yes. Vietnam has been hit hard this year by Earth/climate changes. There is historic droughts in the rice basket south and the central regions. The north had a particularly harsh winter too. So the rice crop and cattle are badly affected. In the last few weeks, there has also been mass fish kill affecting a large section of the coast in the central region.

People are worried. What is infuriating is everything is being blamed on the Chinese It will probably take even more severe earth changes for them to see what's happening.

 

[treesparrow]

The story was carried by Sott last month -

https://www.sott.net/article/313387-Vietnam-hit-by-the-worst-drought-in-90-years