Farmers in Chat Binh commune head to the fields to sow and plant spring rice.

Right in the early days of Spring in the Year of the Dragon 2024, taking advantage of favorable weather, farmers in Chat Binh commune (Kim Son district) have been busy planting rice for the Winter-Spring crop. The bustling and lively atmosphere across the fields promises another bountiful harvest for the farmers here.

In the fields of Hamlet 9, even though it was almost 11 a.m., the farmers were still diligently planting rice. Hearing our greeting, Mr. Tran Van Tho stopped planting. When asked about the situation of planting rice for the Winter-Spring crop, Mr. Tho happily said: "This season, my family is planting more than one acre of rice. In the days after the Lunar New Year, the weather was very favorable, so my whole family took advantage of the opportunity to plant rice in time for the planting season as announced by the cooperative."

To ensure adherence to the planting schedule, Mr. Tho's family proactively prepared the land, seeds, fertilizers, and biological pesticides before the Lunar New Year. As one of the households registered to cultivate ST25 rice organically, his family paid special attention to land preparation to minimize weeds, rats, golden apple snails, and rice diseases.

"This is the sixth time my family has planted the ST25 rice variety. Last season, with one acre of land, my family harvested 26 quintals of rice. After selling it to traders who came to buy it directly from the field, my family earned over 15 million VND. The advantage of the ST25 rice variety is that it is easy to care for and quite suitable for the soil in the commune, so the rice plants grow and develop well. On the other hand, we cultivate it organically, so the quality of the rice is guaranteed, and it is easy to sell, so the economic efficiency is twice as high as planting the Bac Thom No. 7 rice variety before," Mr. Tho added.

Farmers in Chat Binh commune head to the fields to sow and plant spring rice. — Taking advantage of favorable weather conditions, farmers in Chat Binh commune are focusing on planting spring rice to ensure the best possible timing for the planting season.

Currently, farmers in Chat Binh commune mainly use the traditional method of transplanting rice seedlings, with very few households using broadcast sowing. In addition, to increase the speed and efficiency of rice transplanting, agricultural cooperatives have also boldly invested in and purchased rice transplanters to serve agricultural production.

Mr. Hoang Ngoc May, Director of Cong Thanh Agricultural Cooperative, said: "The type of rice transplanter we use is the Van Lang transplanter. This is one of the machines that the cooperative received support for according to Resolution 38/NQ-HĐND dated March 31, 2022, of the Kim Son District People's Council on approving the Kim Son District Agricultural Economic Development Project for the period 2022-2025."

The Van Lang rice transplanter has the advantage of being small and compact, making it quite convenient. Its transplanting capacity reaches approximately 2 hectares per day, equivalent to the work of 6-7 people transplanting manually. Therefore, the progress of the winter-spring rice planting of the cooperative is ensured. By the end of February 21, 2024, the cooperative had planted 120 hectares out of 153 hectares under its management.

In recent years, Chat Binh commune has been a "bright spot" in Kim Son district in rice cultivation; starting from the successful experiment and expansion of the ST25 rice variety, to the current application of organic rice farming methods. This has improved the economic efficiency of rice cultivation and reduced the abandonment of agricultural land.

Comrade Nguyen Canh Duong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Chat Binh commune, said: This year's winter-spring crop saw the entire commune planting 337 hectares of rice. High-quality rice varieties accounted for 95% of the area, with ST25 being the main variety, and the remainder being Bac Thom No. 7 and LT2; only a small portion of the area was planted with hybrid rice varieties to serve livestock farming.

To prepare well for this year's winter-spring crop, in December 2023, the People's Committee of the commune directed the two agricultural cooperatives, Cong Thanh and Hop Thanh, to mobilize manpower and machinery to plow and harrow 100% of the rice-growing land; and to ensure sufficient water supply for production and planting. At the same time, they surveyed the demand for seed sources from the people and directly contacted the Soc Trang Plant Seed Center to ensure the timely supply of over 9 tons of ST25 rice seeds with "Certified 1" standard to farmers.

During the rice seedling sowing period (from January 12th to 18th, 2024), the weather was quite unfavorable with a severe cold spell. The People's Committee of the commune and the cooperatives directed and guided farmers to implement measures to prevent cold damage and strengthen care to ensure the quality of the seedlings.

Following the Lunar New Year holiday of the Year of the Dragon, the commune continued to urge cooperatives and production teams to expedite the planting of the winter-spring rice crop. Starting from February 15, 2024, farmers began planting rice. By the end of February 21, 2024, 80% of the area in the commune had been planted, striving to complete the planting of the winter-spring rice crop before February 24, 2024, in order to shift the focus to caring for and protecting the rice crop.

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