Mekong Delta farmers destroy thousands of hectares of sugarcane

In recent days, although it is entering the new crop of sugarcane, many farmers in the Mekong Delta provinces have chopped down thousands of hectares of sugarcane due to ineffective and loss-making production to switch to grow other crops.

The area of sugarcane in the Mekong Delta is reduced sharply. (Photo: SGGP)

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tra Cu District in Tra Vinh Province on April 9 said that due to the impacts of saltwater intrusion and drought and low prices of sugarcane, farmers were no longer interested in sugarcane.

In the last sugarcane crop, the district grew more than 2,478 hectares of sugarcane but in this crop, the district plans to grow only 1,800 hectares of sugarcane, a decrease of more than 678 hectares. Although the area of sugarcane decreases sharply, up to now, farmers have just grown a few hundred hectares of sugarcane, much slower than the plan.

In Cu Lao Dung District, the key sugarcane growing area in Soc Trang Province, many farmers also simultaneously said goodbyes to sugarcane as sugarcane cultivation takes lots of time but the efficiency is low, or even losses. According to the People’s Committee of Cu Lao Dung District, the districts had more than 8,500 hectares of sugarcane at its peak, but this year, farmers abandoned sugarcane simultaneously so the remaining area of sugarcane is roughly 3,900 hectares. In the new sugarcane crop, many sugarcane fields will continue to be replaced by other crops.

In Hau Giang Province, where sugarcane is grown earliest in the Mekong Delta, the area of sugarcane merely reached 5,900 hectares up to now. Of which, the area of sugarcane in Nga Bay City decreased by 390 hectares compared to the previous crop; Vi Thanh City dropped up to 590 hectares; especially, farmers in Phung Hiep District reduced more than 1,260 hectares of sugarcane to switch to grow durian, pomelo, and seedless lime.