Unfortunate early winter and spring rice crop

At the time, the winter-spring rice crops of 2021 - 2022 sown early in Thoi Lai, Co Do and O Mon and Thot Not districts (Can Tho City) have entered the harvesting stage. Winter-spring is the most important rice crop of the year, which determines the time of the following rice crops and also it is the rice crop that often helps farmers achieve the highest profit in the year.

Mr. Tran Thai Nghiem, Deputy Director of Can Tho City Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: In the winter-spring crop of 2021-2022, Can Tho farmers sowed over 76,000 hectares, achieving an average yield of 6.2-7.5 tons/ ha. The rice varieties used by farmers for sowing in this crop are mainly those that produce delicious and high-quality rice, accounting for over 95% of the total area. In which, Dai Thom 8 rice accounted for 62.9% of the total area, Jasmine 85 fragrant rice accounted for 13.3%, OM 380 accounted for 6.2%, OM 5451 accounted for 4.1%, OM 18 accounted for 3.6 and IR50404 accounted for 4.1%, the remaining were other varieties such as RVT, OM 4218, sticky rice… accounting for about 5.8% of the total area.

At this time, the Mekong Delta is entering the dry season, the fields are relatively dry, so the rice harvest has many advantages. In particular, drawing lessons from the past and with the support and guidance of the agricultural sector, farmers have actively drained the rice fields early in the preparation stage to keep the fields dry, suitable for mechanized machines to harvest.

Currently, combined harvesters for rice harvest are quite adequate. Besides harvesters by farmers in Can Tho, there are also machines from neighbouring provinces offering rice harvesting services. In general, the harvest of winter-spring rice in Can Tho city takes place quickly. Most farmers sell fresh rice right after harvest to traders and purchasing businesses. By now, Can Tho city has harvested 15-20% of the total area of early winter-spring rice crop.

Mr. Nguyen Van Sau, a farmer in Thanh Loc hamlet, Trung Thanh commune, Co Do district has just harvested 10 hectares of winter-spring rice early and planted Dai Thom 8 varieties said: In this year's winter-spring crop, the rice yield is 1 to 1.2 tons of fresh rice per worker, purchased by on-field traders for 5,700 VND/kg, down slightly from the same period in 2021 by about 1,000 VND/kg. This year, due to increased prices of fertilizers, pesticides and many input production costs, after deducting costs, farmers still have a profit of 1.8-2.2 million VND/worker.