Winter-spring rice harvest and good price, farmers are excited

In late April, farmers and agricultural cooperatives in the province focused on harvesting the 2023-2024 winter-spring rice crop. This crop, farmers are excited because rice productivity has increased.

Good harvest, good price

In the 2023-2024 winter-spring rice crop, farmers in the province mainly planted high-yield, good-quality rice varieties such as Dai Thom 8, Bac Thinh, Ha Phat 3, BDR27, BDR999, DV108, OM269-65, PY10. Many areas of early winter-spring rice and main-season rice in Tay Hoa, Phu Hoa, Tuy An, Dong Xuan districts... have been harvested.

Currently, rice prices range from 8,000-10,000 VND/kg, 1,500-2,000 VND/kg higher than the same period last year. According to many farmers, although there were some pests and erratic weather at the beginning of this year's rice crop, thanks to timely warnings from the Department of Agriculture and proactive prevention by farmers, the yield at the end of the crop was not affected.

In the nearly 10-hectare field in Quang Hung village, Hoa Quang Nam commune (Phu Hoa district), from early morning, three combine harvesters were working together through the golden ripe rice fields, and behind each harvester were rows of straw lying neatly arranged.

Holding in his hand a heavy rice stalk, the rice grains are long and evenly packed on the stalk, Mr. Phan Van Lang excitedly said: This is a bumper crop for my family and many local rice farmers when the rice is in season and has a good price. The rice yield is about 8 tons/ha. Currently, traders buy at 8,500 VND/kg, with this price, after deducting expenses, farmers make a profit of 40-50%.

Sharing the joy, Mrs. Tran Thi Suong in Lac My village, Hoa Phu commune (Tay Hoa district) shared: My family cultivates 7 sao of rice ( ^3,500m2 ), sowing BDR27 and Ha Phat 3 varieties. This crop, the rice fields are evenly yellow, the rice stalks do not fall over, the rice ears are full of grains, and there are few empty rice grains; on average, 1 sao yields 10-12 bags, the best is 13 bags, the lowest is 9 bags, estimated at about 400-420kg of rice/sao, an increase of more than 50kg/sao compared to last winter-spring crop.

According to Mr. Pham Tan Tho, Director of Hoa Hoi Agricultural Service Cooperative (Phu Hoa district), the rice varieties in the winter-spring crop all have high yields, so farmers are very excited. Up to now, 100% of the cooperative's rice area has been harvested, with a yield of over 80 quintals/ha, each quintal of rice is bought by traders at 850,000 VND.

“The previous rice crops often had a good harvest but low prices, or good prices but a bad harvest. In addition, the prices of materials and fertilizers also increased, making farmers worried about losses. But this crop had a good harvest and good prices, so everyone was happy and had more motivation to stick with the fields for production,” said Mr. Tho.

Farmers are excited because traders buy their rice at high prices after harvest. Photo: NGOC HAN

Favorable rice harvest

Currently, many winter-spring rice areas in the province are entering the peak harvest period. Thanks to the hot weather and lack of rain, it has created favorable conditions for farmers to harvest and dry their rice.

In the fields of Tuy An district, farmers and agricultural cooperatives are mobilizing all their family labor to harvest and dry rice to sell to traders. Combine harvesters are operating at full capacity to harvest according to the people's registration list.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Hung, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tuy An district, said: Cooperatives have proactively reviewed and grasped the situation of combine harvesters and signed contracts with machine owners to provide rice harvesting and straw collection services. Because the time between the winter-spring harvest and preparation for the summer-autumn crop is approaching, people have determined where to harvest, freed up land, cleaned the fields, and prepared enough seeds, materials, fertilizers, etc. to be ready for the next crop.

In the rice fields in Dong Hoa town, farmers have harvested more than 1,500 hectares. According to farmers, thanks to favorable weather, the rice did not fall over, so the price of renting a harvester did not increase (120,000 VND/sao), only 1/3 of the previous price of hiring workers to cut rice. Therefore, the investment cost for this crop is lower than previous crops.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tien in Hoa Hiep Bac ward said: “Although my family still has about a week to harvest rice, traders have set the price at 10,000 VND/kg for Dai Thom 8 rice variety. I am very happy because the price of rice has never been so high. I hope that from now until harvest, the price of rice will not fluctuate much so that the sale of rice will be smooth.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Minh, Head of the Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development), through field inspections and synthesizing initial reports from the local agricultural sector, the average rice yield in the province this winter-spring crop is estimated at 7.2 tons/ha.

“Determining winter-spring as the main crop, the agricultural sector has focused on propagating and instructing farmers in localities to produce the entire area, in accordance with the sowing schedule; at the same time, doing a good job of soil treatment and field sanitation, especially farmers applying row sowing and sparse sowing methods, reducing the amount of sown seeds, increasing the rate of using certified seeds, short-term seeds, drought-resistant, salt-resistant, disease-resistant varieties, etc., so this year's rice crop is beautiful and productivity is high,” Mr. Minh informed.

According to the Phu Yen Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection, up to now, the whole province has harvested 13,793/26,630 hectares of winter-spring rice 2023-2024, with an estimated average yield of 7.2 tons/ha, priced from 8,000-10,000 VND/kg.

NGOC HAN

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