Change crop plants to improve land-use efficiency

The crop-converted areas bringing higher income is the motivation for An Giang to implement the plan 'Higher conversion in the next year than the previous'.

The average agricultural production value in An Giang in 2020 is VND 192 million/ha, an increase of VND 72 million compared to 2015. Photo: Le Hoang Vu.

Due to many years of inefficient rice production, Mr. Ngo Minh Dat in An Thi hamlet, An Thanh Trung commune, Cho Moi district, had boldly converted the crop, invested in experimental planting of 0.25 ha of perilla leaves on farmland to serve exportation to Korea.

Many years of growing perilla have paid off with signs of true economic efficiency, and so now the current perilla cultivation area of Mr. Dat's family has increased to 3.7 ha. Many businesses have come to underwrite, making the output very stable.

It is the economic efficiency from the crop conversion that farmers in An Giang province are excited about and boldly switch from inefficient rice land to fruit, vegetable, and other crops.

During the conversion process, the province carried out 15 demonstration models of corn varieties of all kinds on inefficient rice-growing land with a scale of 0.2 ha/model, at the same time organizing 18 technical training courses on growing corn of all kinds (hybrid corn, white corn, growing corn for stem, young corn, etc.) for technical staff and farmers to implement the conversion.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hien, Director of An Giang Plantation and Plant Protection Sub-Department, said that in accordance with the 2021 plan An Giang will convert nearly 10,000 ha of inefficient rice land into land for vegetables, fruit trees and other crops (2,698 ha for vegetables, 3,958 ha for fruit trees, 2,404 ha for crops).

In order to find a stable output for the converted area, especially the main mango crop that An Giang is currently paying close attention to developing for export. Accordingly, An Giang Sub-Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection has coordinated with relevant units to promote the issuance of planting area codes, instructions for manual recording, and standard planting techniques.

According to Mr. Tran Anh Thu, Vice Chairman of An Giang People's Committee, the crop conversion on rice land aims to both improve the efficiency of land use and maintain the land fund for rice cultivation, ensure national food security, increase people's income, contribute to poverty reduction, political and social stability as well as environmental protection and adaptation to climate change.

The provincial People's Committee requires the transformation of plant structure to be consistent with the planning on development of plant varieties in each locality: Converting but not losing the suitable factors for rice cultivation in order to return to rice cultivation when necessary without having to make a big investment.

Converted crops must have a consumption market, full of competitive advantages with higher economic efficiency than rice cultivation. Restructuring crops on rice land must be suitable with the current situation of traffic and irrigation in the local fields. Large investment should be limited and associated with new rural construction.