The most read Vietnamese newspaper
Edition: International | Vietnamese
© Copyright 1997 VnExpress.net. All rights reserved.
Faced with the destruction of his high-value off-season crop, Quyen and a team of 20 neighbors improvised a desperate rescue mission. Unable to use boats due to the orchard’s dense concrete trellises, they turned to an unlikely tool: inflated truck inner tubes.
For hours the men waded and swam through the murky, rushing current, clinging to the rubber tubes which acted as floating platforms for their harvest baskets.
The flooding, triggered by heavy rains and reservoir discharges across Vietnam's south-central coast, has devastated farmlands and crops. In Ham Thuan Nam Commune, a big dragon fruit producer, the deluge left farmers with a stark choice: risk their safety to salvage their crop or watch it rot.
The rescue operation was grueling but undertaken with precision. Quyen’s team worked in pairs, one used the tire for buoyancy while navigating the current, while the other dove underwater to reach the submerged fruit.
The conditions were treacherous. In the deeper sections of the orchard, the harvesters had to take deep breaths and submerge themselves completely in the freezing water.
Gia Quyen’s team used truck inner tubes to collect dragon fruit near Bridge 37 in Ham Thuan Nam Commune, central Lam Dong province, on Dec. 4, 2025. Video by Gia Quyen
With zero visibility amid the brown silt, they harvested entirely by touch, running their hands over the vines to find the ripe fruit. "Everyone is exhausted," Quyen said, after hours in the water.
"But this is an off-season crop grown using artificial lighting. The cost of electricity and fertilizers is massive. We had to encourage each other to keep going and salvage whatever we could."
By the end of the day the team had managed to save about 80% of the crop, abandoning the rest after the water level exceeded two meters and the current flowed dangerously fast toward the river.
 |
|
Residents of Ham Thuan Nam Commune, Lam Dong province use truck inner tubes to harvest dragon fruit on Dec. 4, 2025. Photo by Gia Quyen |
But not all farmers were as lucky as Quyen. A short distance away in Lap Nghia town, Duong Hung Phong stood helplessly watching his 5,000-square-meter orchard disappear under the floodwaters.
It was the second time in a month his land was flooded, this one being worse by far. Unlike Quyen’s crop, Phong’s fruits were still two days away from maturity, and harvesting them would mean picking green, unsellable fruits.
"If the fruits had been ripe enough, I would have grabbed a tire or a basket and swum out there myself," Phong said.
He is likely to suffer a total loss. Beyond the immediate crop, prolonged submersion also threatens to rot the cactus-like trees' roots. If the roots die, it will take two years to replant and reach productivity.
Phong’s 5,000-square-meter dragon fruit orchard in Ham Thuan Nam Commune, Lam Dong Province, was submerged by floodwaters on Dec. 4, 2025. Video by Duong Hung Phong
With off-season dragon fruit wholesaling at roughly VND20,000 ($0.80) per kilogram, Phong estimates his family has lost VND80 million (USD $3,030), a devastating blow for a farming household.
According to Nguyen Thi Minh Hoang, the Ham Thuan Nam Party secretary, the flooding was caused by a combination of heavy rainfall and water discharge from upstream dams. "The water has begun to recede, and local authorities are currently assisting residents with cleanup and damage assessment."
The National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting described the flooding, caused by a tropical depression, as unusual for this time of year.
The weather has caused widespread damage across the region, including in neighboring Lam Dong Province, where floods have claimed at least one life and submerged over 3,300 homes and thousands of hectares of farmland.
