Vietnam's between-crop hunger increases in 7 months

Vietnam had 234,400 households which suffered from food shortages in the first seven months of this year, up 24.7 percent against the same period last year, the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Tuesday.

Specifically, 971,300 local people suffered from food shortages between January and July, up 25.2 percent. The between-crop hunger surge was attributed to the prolonged serious drought nationwide, especially in the northern mid-land and mountainous region and the Central Highlands region, said the department.

Since the beginning of this year, Vietnam's relevant sectors and localities offered hungry households 15,400 tons of food and 590 million Vietnamese dong (over 26,000 U.S. dollars).

By the end of 2015, Vietnam had reduced its poor household rate to about 7 percent, said the country's General Statistics Office.

(APD)