Ninh Binh (VNA) - Floodwater fromrecent typhoons have damaged thousands of one-to-four-year-old peach blossomtrees in Tam Diep city in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

The trees were being prepared forthe Tet (Lunar New Year) festival which falls inmid-February, but have wilted and died, creating big losses for local farmers.

There is a large area ofpeach-blossom trees in Tam Diep city. This is the time of year when farmersenthusiastically get ready for the Tet holiday. However, thetrees were submerged in flood water for a week last month, destroying 43ha outof 150ha.

Pham Dinh Thao, a farmer inVillage No 7, said that this year his family planted more than 130 peachblossom trees.

Before the typhoon, the treesgrew well and maintained beautiful postures which were expected to bring highprofits, he said.

But during the typhoons, morethan 100 trees died, and the remainder are starting to wilt.

Thao’s family estimates it losthundreds of millions of VNA (100 million VND equals 4,400 USD).

Another grower, Ninh Van Manh, asenior planter in the commune, said peach-blossom trees were very dependent onclimate, so they were easily affected in the typhoons.

More than 50 trees of Manh’sfamily were submerged. 

To limit losses, Manh’s family isputting great effort into caring for the remaining trees.

According to preliminarystatistics of the Dong Son commune People’s Committee, more than 4,000 peachblossom trees died since last month.

Chairman of the commune Farmers’Association, Le Van Sy, said peach-blossom trees were a famous product of thecommune.

Sy said that in the short term,local authorities and the association advised farmers to replace the dead treeswith new ones.

They also suggested that farmers should dig drainage ditches and earth-up the trees more to cope withthe abnormal weather.

With the remainder of  thetrees, Sy said farmers should give them more fertiliser so they would developroots. 

Aswell as destroying peach blossom trees, the prolonged typhoon last month alsocaused serious landslides in Tam Diep city, affecting more than 30 households.

Pham Dinh Cu, chairman of the Dong Son commune People’s Committee, said that in thepast, peach blossom trees had been the most valuable plant in the commune. Onaverage, local farmers sell 4,000-10,000 trees per year at prices of at least 300,000 VND (13 USD) per tree. The trees are sold in nearby provinces and citiessuch as Hanoi, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa and Nam Dinh.

Lastyear, the total income from selling peach blossom trees in the commune reached 10 billion VND (444,400 USD).

Thetrees create work for nearly 800 households with nearly 1,000 people in thecommune.

Headof the Tam Diep city Economy Division, Dinh Huy Hieu, said that to develop thetree industry, since 2015, city authorities had supported local farmers withcapital and technical guidance.-VNA