Dong Thap Muoi farmers increase income by selling straw

LONG AN After harvesting rice, farmers roll up the straw and bring it ashore to sell to traders. Some people earn several million dong per day.

Farmers in Tan Hung district ( Long An province) are busy baling straw to sell to traders. Photo: Bach Thanh.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dung from Tan Hung district (Long An province) said that the demand for straw is increasing for many purposes. After harvesting the rice, the straw is rolled into bales of about 20kg by machine and transported to the shore to be sold to traders from various places who then take it elsewhere for consumption.

According to local residents, the demand for baled straw for farming and livestock has increased significantly in recent years, making baled straw from the Dong Thap Muoi region of Long An province increasingly sought after. Currently, straw is purchased at around 17,000 VND per bale, and when transported to other provinces, the selling price ranges from 22,000 to 25,000 VND per bale, sometimes exceeding 30,000 VND per bale.

A machine can bale 600-700 bales of straw per day. After deducting expenses, the machine owner earns approximately 2-3 million VND per day, while those who transport the straw and traders who buy and resell it earn significantly more.

However, the biggest worry for those involved in collecting and trading straw is that straw is highly flammable; even a cigarette butt can ignite it, causing significant damage. In Tan Hung district (Long An province), a straw storage warehouse caught fire during the dry season last year.

To date, farmers in Tan Hung district have harvested nearly 16,000 hectares of the 2024-2025 winter-spring rice crop. Many areas have already been harvested, and farmers are baling the straw to sell to traders.

However, some households still burn straw directly in the fields. Currently, it is the dry season, and the weather is hot, so burning straw in the fields will increase the risk of fire.

Source: https://nongnghiep.vn/nong-dan-dong-thap-muoi-tang-thu-nhap-nho-ban-rom-d747101.html