Expanding rice cultivation area by machine

With many advantages: helping to free up labor, reduce costs of agricultural materials (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides), increase productivity; limit weedy rice..., in recent years, the area of rice transplanted by machine in the province has been constantly expanding. If in 2021, the area of machine transplanted rice in the whole province only reached 1,252 hectares (75.9% of the plan), accounting for 2.2% of the cultivated area, by 2022 it reached 4,654.5 hectares (145.4% of the plan), accounting for 8.1% of the cultivated area. In 2023, the area of machine transplanted rice in the whole province reached 9,644 hectares (192.9% of the plan), accounting for 16.8% of the cultivated area. In the spring crop of 2024, the area of machine transplanted rice reached 5,837.3 hectares, reaching 108.2% of the plan.

In the 2022 winter-spring crop, Nhan My Agricultural Cooperative (Ly Nhan) started to put the rice transplanting machine into production on an area of 5 hectares. By the harvest season, the yield and quality of rice transplanted by machine were much higher than the sown area of the same variety. Recognizing the positive benefits of the machine transplanting model, in the spring of 2023, the Cooperative continued to promote propaganda and mobilize to expand the machine transplanting area to 25 hectares. By the 2023 winter-spring crop, the Cooperative's machine transplanting area reached 35 hectares. Notably, in the spring of 2024, the Cooperative's machine transplanting area increased to 72 hectares.

Ms. Tran Thi Hoa, Director of Nhan My Agricultural Cooperative, said: Machine transplanting has proven to be effective in the fields. Specifically, machine transplanting helps to free up labor, reduce the amount of fertilizers and pesticides, limit the harmful effects of weeds, and improve productivity and quality (depending on the variety, 30-40 kg higher than sowing)... In the coming time, the Cooperative will step up propaganda and mobilization to continue expanding the area of machine transplanting to improve the economic efficiency of crops.

Going to the field to take care of the 2024 spring rice area that was transplanted by machine and is growing well, Mr. Nguyen Phu Dinh, Cu Xa village, Liem Phong commune, Thanh Liem district shared: My family has been transplanting by machine for many seasons now, the productivity of machine transplanting is higher than sowing (from 20-30kg/sao, depending on the variety). Machine-transplanted rice has fuller grains and better quality. In the coming seasons, my family will continue to transplant by machine on our family's cultivated land.

**The area of machine-transplanted rice in Liem Phong (Thanh Liem) is growing well.** Photo: Thanh Chau

In order to promote the mechanization of the sowing and planting process, contribute to the synchronous implementation of mechanization in agricultural production, help liberate labor, reduce agricultural material costs, improve crop efficiency... in recent times, the area of machine planting in the province has been continuously expanded. In 2021, the total machine planting area in the province only reached 1,252 hectares, accounting for 2.2% of the sowing and planting area, by 2022 it reached 4,654.5 hectares, accounting for 8.1% of the sowing and planting area. In 2023, it reached 9,644 hectares, accounting for 16.8% of the sowing and planting area. Thanh Liem district has the fastest expansion rate of machine planting area (in 2023 it reached 4,940 hectares, accounting for 43% of the sowing and planting area); Binh Luc, Kim Bang, Ly Nhan districts, and Phu Ly city all achieved and exceeded the plan. In the spring crop of 2024, the area of rice transplanted by machines in the whole province will reach 5,837.3 hectares, of which Duy Tien town will have 350 hectares; Kim Bang district will have 580.6 hectares; Ly Nhan will have 970 hectares; Binh Luc will have 1,220 hectares; Thanh Liem will have 2,538.7 hectares; Phu Ly will have 178 hectares. Up to now, the whole province has 326 transplanters, of which 262 are hand-held transplanters and 64 are seated transplanters.

It can be affirmed that the promotion of using rice transplanters in the fields has contributed to solving the difficulties of labor shortage in many localities. Along with that, farmers are freed from hard labor, and their health is improved. Rice transplanting by machine also helps reduce costs, reduce labor, and improve production efficiency (rice productivity by machine is 15-20% higher, equivalent to 7-10 million VND/ha compared to other planting methods); protect the ecological environment; handle weedy rice; overcome the situation of abandoned fields...

In addition, during the implementation of the model, farmers have access to science and technology to gradually change backward production practices, increase income, contribute to the construction of new rural areas, advanced new rural areas, and model new rural areas in the locality. In particular, from the introduction of transplanting machines into the fields, a chain of links between transplanting service groups has been formed, contributing to promoting other chains in agricultural production.

Through practical research in localities, the effectiveness of rice transplanting by machine has been confirmed, however, the introduction of rice transplanting machines into the fields still faces certain difficulties. These include erratic weather, complicated pest situations; the price of fertilizers and other agricultural materials compared to the price of rice is still high, affecting investment in intensive production. Some people are not used to transplanting by machine at a lower density than direct sowing or hand transplanting, which leads to anxiety and additional planting, affecting growth and development, rice yield, as well as increasing labor.

Due to high initial costs (machine and seed costs about 300,000 VND/sao), farmers in some localities have not yet boldly applied science and technology to production, the sowing area still dominates due to low initial costs and not much pressure on labor. The land for building warehouses, workshops to store machinery, substrates, and gathering seedling trays for service teams is still facing many difficulties, the organization of production in many localities is still limited, so it is not possible to build a concentrated machine planting area. The source of raw materials for substrates to make seedling trays in the province is not proactive, still have to buy substrates from Thanh Hoa, transportation costs are high, so the cost of producing seedling trays is still high...

Machine planting is an inevitable direction in the synchronous implementation of mechanization of production stages. In our province, the mechanization of land preparation and harvesting has reached a high rate (land preparation reaches 100% of the area, harvesting reaches over 95% of the area), the rate of sowing and planting is still low (reaching nearly 17% of the area).

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Cua, Director of the Agricultural Extension Center (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development), to expand the area of time-machine-transplanted trays to all levels, functional sectors and localities need to continue to pay attention, create favorable conditions, and at the same time promote propaganda and mobilization work so that people understand, grasp and implement machine-transplanted rice in the fields. Along with focusing on guiding and organizing scientific and technical training for farmers and users of transplanting machines, localities need to re-plan fields, form specialized and concentrated production areas, complete the transportation and irrigation systems, and build fields with the motto "one field - one variety" to facilitate the application of mechanization in the sowing and planting stage.

In addition, create favorable conditions for service groups to build warehouses, workshops to store machinery, substrates, and gather seedling trays; proactively connect and regulate with machine-planted tray service groups inside and outside the province to meet the expansion of machine-planted areas. Strengthen trade promotion activities, connect with organizations and businesses to build a chain of purchasing rice from machine-planted tray models to increase farmers' income...

Pham Hien

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