The Mekong Delta is entering the flooding season with 1m of water lower than this time in other years. This signals grave challenges brought by El Nino and asks for practical solutions to fight against unpredictable weather in the near future.
Farmers in Vietnam's southern tip, Ca Mau Province, harvested more than 1.5 million hectares of winter-spring rice crop; thus, the province’s rice output topped over 10 million rice tons.
Entering April, farmers in Mekong Delta provinces are harvesting the last winter-spring rice fields of the total area of 1.5 million hectares, with an output of about 10.7 million tons. The prices of rice have declined in the past few days but remained at high levels as farmers focused on producing rice varieties to supply the high-end segment. This is considered an important change for Mekong Delta rice farmers.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) stated that although the rice-growing areas reduced, increasing rice yields, stable export of rice, and high selling prices have been beneficial for farmers at a conference to preliminarily summarize the production of the winter-spring rice crop 2020-2021, and deploy production of the summer-autumn, autumn-winter, and the winter rice crops in the South, held on the morning of March 24 in Can Tho.
The People's Committee of Kien Giang Province, on March 11, informed that from the beginning of this month, saltwater intrusion in the area has increased highly, with more than 1,234 hectares of rice being affected. Of which, there were 769 hectares of rice with damage of above 70 percent, concentrating in An Bien, Vinh Thuan, and U Minh Thuong districts.
In recent days, farmers in the Mekong Delta have been flexibly sowing the winter-spring rice crop early to avoid drought and saltwater intrusion at the end of the rice crop. Not only using high-quality rice varieties, but the percentage of farmers using certified rice varieties has also increased rapidly. These are important turning points in improving the quality of rice to enhance the value of Vietnamese rice in the international market.
From the beginning of this year, the developments in the weather were quite complicated, causing disadvantages for agricultural production. Fortunately, thanks to proactive suitable coping measures, farmers in provinces in the Mekong Delta achieved goods results in the winter-spring rice crop and now are harvesting summer-autumn rice crop with the expectation of good harvest and high price.
Saltwater intrusion and drought had damaged 16,500 hectares of winter rice crop grown on shrimp-farming land in Ca Mau Province last year; of which, 14,000 hectares of winter rice had been completely lost.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Doi, Director of Binh Thanh Agricultural Services Cooperative in Lap Vo District in Dong Thap Province, the prices of paddy in the Mekong Delta tended to decline in the past few weeks.
Amid saltwater intrusion and drought, Mekong Delta provinces still managed to maintain paddy production at 10.7 million tons, merely down around 118,000 tons. This is an impressive effort of farmers and local authorities, hereby, helping to ensure food security.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on March 27 held an online meeting to summarize preliminarily the winter-spring rice crop, deploy the production plan for the summer-autumn, winter, and autumn-winter rice crops this year in Southern and Mekong Delta provinces.
On the last days of February, farmers in the Mekong Delta have entered the peak harvest season of the winter-summer rice crop. Despite the impacts of saltwater intrusion and drought on coastal areas, most farmers have enjoyed a bumper crop and the price of paddy has also increased compared to at the beginning of the crop.
Provinces in the Mekong Delta are entering the harvest season of the winter-spring rice crop, but the export of rice might be affected by the Chinese market due to outbreaks of an acute respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). Amid such context, diversifying export market is considered as an urgent solution for the Vietnamese rice.
The Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection of Kien Giang Province on November 13 said that farmers in Tan Hiep, Chau Thanh, Giong Rieng, Go Quao and Hon Dat districts have sowed around 52,600 hectares out of 289,000 hectares of winter-spring rice crop, accounting for 18.2 percent of the plan.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a conference to review the production of the autumn-winter rice crop and the seasonal rice crop of 2019 and deploy cultivation plan for the upcoming winter-spring rice crop in provinces in the Southeast region and the Mekong Delta on October 11 in Tien Giang Province.
Provinces in the Mekong Delta have begun to harvest winter-spring rice crop with a total area of 1.6 million hectares; however, the price of paddy has continuously dropped and consumption is sluggish, raising concern among farmers.
