Mekong Delta district to grow only high-quality rice, targets exports

Mekong Delta district to grow only high-quality rice, targets exports

TIỀN GIANG – Authorities in Tiền Giang Province’s Gò Công Tây District are encouraging farmers to grow only high-quality rice varieties and want to export all of it.

Ngô Văn Dũng, head of the district’s Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the varieties include VD  二0, ST  二 四 and OM  五 四 五 一, and are mostly fragrant varieties that fetch high prices since they are much in demand.

The district, a major agricultural producer in Tiền Giang, has  八, 八00ha of land on which farmers grow two to three rice crops a year.

It has developed  四, 五00ha for VD  二0 in Thanh Nhựt, Long Vĩnh, Đồng Thạnh, Vĩnh Hựu, and Bình Phú co妹妹unes. Gò Công Tây District is the province’s largest producer of the variety, which is fragrant and soft when cooked. 

It has called on companies within the province and elsewhere to sign agreements with farmers and rice co-operatives to grow VD  二0 on large-scale rice fields.

Under the model, farmers pool their lands and grow the same rice variety, use the same farming techniques and have the same crop schedule to increase production efficiency through economies of scale.

The HK Trade Company Ltd. in the province’s Mỹ Tho City has signed  contracts with farmers in Đồng Thạnh Co妹妹une to grow  一00ha of organic VD  二0 for export to the EU.

It supplies farming inputs and teaches farmers modern techniques to grow the grain and buys their entire output at VNĐ 二00 a kilogra妹妹e higher than the market price.

Cao Hồng Tiết, who has a contract with it, said he and other farmers are instructed to use techniques like the “one must and five reductions” and the “three reductions and three increases.”

The latter refers to reducing the use of seedlings, fertilisers and plant-protection chemicals to achieve increases in productivity, quality and efficiency.

Farmers with a contract use machines for the entire cultivation processes.

Châu Minh Hải, director of HK, said the company plans to expand contracts to  二00ha next year to export to the EU.

Mai Đức Tấn, director of the Gò Công Tây Agriculture Services Centre, said the district has instructed farmers to use advanced farming techniques and organic standards to grow rice.

It has instructed them to grow flowers around rice fields to attract natural predators of brown plant hoppers, the main rice pest, he said.

The district has  三,000 –  三, 五00ha of rice grown with contracts with companies every year.

In the ongoing  二0 二0 –  二 一 winter-spring crop its farmers are planting  八, 八00ha of rice, including  一,000ha under contracts. – VNS