Vietnam troops to save rice

Vietnam troops to save rice

HANOI (Reuters): Vietnam has sent more than 1,000 soldiers to its Mekong Delta rice bowl to help residents save 1.3 million hectares of rice hit by early floods, official media reported on Tuesday.

The Vietnam News newspaper said the operation was launched after heavy rains hit three provinces on the border with Cambodia -- Long An, Dong Thap and An Giang.

An official from An Giang's agricultural department said it was the first time in 40 years such high flood waters had come so early.

"We have around 212,000 hectares of summer-autumn crop and only 17,000 hectares have been harvested. It's very likely that the production of this crop will be affected as it will take another month for us to complete harvesting."