Old farmer tells story of planting 10,000 pots of rice to make Vietnam's Rice Road

Bringing the world's best rice varieties to the Festival to introduce to the people

Five rice varieties including OM 5451, RVT, Dai Thom 8, OM 18 and ST25 were grown by old farmer Tran Van Trieu (58 years old, Vi Tan commune, Vi Thanh city, Hau Giang ) in 10,000 pots to serve the exhibition "Vietnam's Rice Road" within the framework of the 2023 International Rice Festival taking place in Hau Giang province.

Mr. Trieu takes care of rice in preparation for the Festival. Photo: Ta Quang

Mr. Trieu said that right after receiving the seeds from the organizers, he and his wife started making the growing medium, sowing and taking care of them meticulously every day.

According to Mr. Trieu, among the selected rice varieties is ST25, recognized as the best rice in the world, and he grows 500 pots here.

"I am very excited to wait for the festival because I can exhibit "Vietnam's Rice Road" to people, so that everyone can see many types of rice, especially the ST25 variety, how it flowers, what the rice plant looks like,...", Mr. Trieu happily shared.

Regarding rice growing soil, Mr. Trieu also said that he took it from the field and processed it according to the process, then composted it with organic fertilizer. After soaking the rice seeds for enough days, he divided the soil into pots and sowed the rice seeds into the prepared pots. He sowed 2-3 seeds in each pot.

Up to now, the rice plants have grown strong. Photo: Ta Quang

According to Mr. Trieu, growing rice in pots was his first time doing it, so he encountered many difficulties. When sowing rice in the rainy season, the pots were flooded, affecting the uneven germination of the rice. On the other hand, when fertilizing 10,000 pots of rice, he had to be careful, monitor every day, and observe the color of the rice leaves to handle diseases promptly.

In addition, because all the rice in the field had been harvested, rats entered the rice pots and bit them a lot, so he had to use nets to surround the rice growing area.

10,000 pots of rice ready to serve the Festival

Mr. Trieu added that the rice pots above are nearly 50 days old, many pots already have rice flowers, ready to be moved to the display location on December 11.

Mr. Nguyen Binh Trung - Agricultural Extension Officer of Vi Thanh City informed that according to the plan on December 11, the 10,000 pots of rice above will be transported by waterway to the exhibition site and handed over to the decoration unit, arranged into a rice road.

Mr. Trung (left) and Mr. Trieu check the quality of rice plants. Photo: Ta Quang

"Through inspection, we assessed that the rice grown in pots grew well, quite evenly and in time to serve the upcoming festival. The selected rice varieties have long and short days, so when displayed, visitors can see a variety of rice growth processes to vividly recreate, bringing real emotions to viewers," said Mr. Trung.

"Vietnam's rice road" will be a model showing the development process of Vietnam's rice industry from primitive agriculture, small-scale economic agriculture, industrial agriculture, and modern agriculture 4.0.

Accordingly, each model shows the houses displaying tools and instruments for rice production, each model also shows "on the wharf, under the boat" the typical river features of the people of the Southwest region in different periods.

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