Autumn-winter rice crop may serve export demands

The River Delta will sow 700,000 ha, the output is estimated at 3,864 million tons next crop. The entire output of autumn-winter rice can be served for export without sharing for domestic demands.

It is forecasted that the weather conditions for the autumn-winter crop 2021 will be very favorable. Photo: LHV.

At the Conference on a preliminary review of summer-autumn crop production and production plan for the autumn-winter crop in 2021 in southern provinces and cities, it is reported that Mekong Delta provinces had a successful summer-autumn rice crop.

To prepare the coming autumn-winter rice crop, the conference also mentioned some tasks and suggestions to pay attention to.

For the structure of rice variety, the Department of Crop Production recommended putting priority on some fragrant rice varieties, which account for 30% in variety structure including Jasmine 85, ST variety group, Nang Hoa 9, VD20, Dai Thom 8 among others. The main force rice variety must take the proportion of 50-60% namely OM5451, OM6976, OM18, OM 7347, OM4900 among others. Limit sowing of sticky rice and medium quality varieties of IR 50404, OM 576.

Some experts said that the Mekong Delta should reduce the area of autumn-winter rice and switch to a different crop and livestock structure, Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production Nguyen Thanh Tung said that the price of Vietnamese rice higher than those of Thailand, India, and its export prospects are still optimistic.

“During the period 2010-2020, the autumn-winter rice area was stable at 700,000 ha, showing that the problem of safe production in the flood season was still guaranteed. Notably, from 2010 onwards, the yield of autumn-winter rice has increased by 1 ton per ha. Autumn-Winter rice is harvested at a time when the world was in shortage of rice, so rice plant prices were high, businesses also boldly sign rice export contracts for next years. The entire output of autumn-winter rice can be exported without having to share it with domestic demand," Tung said.

For the situation of water source serving for the autumn-winter rice crop, Director of the Southern Institute of Water Resources Research Nguyen Duc Dung forecasted that the area in the rainy season, with rainfall and water sources for production expected to be quite favorable. With the inconsiderable flood water level at the beginning of the crop, the system of dikes and mezzanines ensures a safe level for production. However, localities also need to review critical embankments and develop response plans in case of happenings.

Besides the conference, Can Tho province can be taken as an example to focus on enhancing rice production. A representative of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the provincial agriculture industry is promoting series of solutions to help farmers link their production and create products with large-scale goods, associated with planning and promoting the development of centralized production according to each product line for each region.

To improve the value of the rice industry, it is necessary to continue to strengthen linkages and promote the role of the agricultural sector, local authorities, cooperatives, and cooperative groups in the process of linking to create a new large region of raw materials meet the standards, serve domestic and export demand as well as affirming the Vietnamese rice brand.

At the conference, the Minister of MARD Le Minh Hoan acknowledged that in the face of high prices of fertilizers and pesticides, production efficiency is not only about output but also needs to take into account input costs. The dependence on input materials from imports also poses a problem to take into account the autonomy of these materials. Besides, the models of shrimp - rice, fish - rice or replace rice with shrimp and fish crops also need to be replicated to have integrated thinking in production.

Minister Le Minh Hoan also pointed out that the planting area code will integrate seasonal information, through which to transform and change the behavior of producing better quality agricultural products. Therefore, the agriculture sector must promote the development of a growing area code to digitize data and master statistics to make analysis and recommendations in production. Since then, avoiding stories like growing pepper, the area has doubled compared to the production orientation.