A rare, out-of-season downpour on the first day of the Lunar New Year brought welcome relief to crops and saved thousands of coffee-growing households in Kon Tum a costly round of irrigation.
On the afternoon of February 19—the first day of Tết—a sudden heavy rain swept across the province, soaking fields and delighting local farmers. In Đăk Hà District, Kon Tum’s main coffee-growing area with more than 7,000 hectares under cultivation, the rain began around 5 p.m. and lasted nearly an hour.
Thanks to this timely shower, most coffee growers can skip the second scheduled irrigation of the dry season. Each hectare of coffee will save roughly 4.8 million VND in fuel and hired-labor costs.
Along with Đăk Hà, parts of Sa Thầy District and Kon Tum City also received the unexpected rainfall. It was the province’s first off-season rain of this year’s dry spell—truly a “gift from heaven,” as farmers welcomed the Lunar New Year with hopes for a season of favorable rains and gentle winds ahead.