The central province of Nghe An’s Plant Protection Agency has invited experts from Sydney University, Australia, to save the province’s watermelon patches.

Australian experts will go to Nghe An this April to make surveys and devise measures to rescue watermelon fields there.

Dozens of hectares of watermelon in the province have died because their roots have rotted in recent months. Local farmers have never experienced such a disease.

Previously, watermelons died because of rotten roots due to bacteria. This year, local experts made tests and said that the plants had died because of a fungus, which also exists in the soil.

Farmers have tried various kinds of pesticides but the fungus is still killing hundreds of hectares of watermelon patch. The local government, therefore, decided to invite foreign experts.

In many areas in Nghe An, watermelon is the major crop. This kind of produce can yield much higher income than rice.

N. Son