Looking at the 2023 autumn-winter rice crop: The lower region prepares to 'open the field'

The umbilical flood area is filled with joy

The Mekong Delta granary has opened the field for the 2023 autumn-winter crop. The early rice fields have had a good harvest, bringing a profit doubling that of last year. Wherever we go, we can feel people’s excitement because, for many years, there has never been such a price-winning rice crop.

In the western districts of Tien Giang province, such as Cai Be, Cai Lay, Tan Phuoc, and Cai Lay town, there are only a few scattered fields with late harvests. Because the sowing schedule here is often earlier than in lower regions, and traditionally, rice must be harvested before the flood season comes.

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Looking at the 2023 autumn-winter rice crop: Unprecedented success

The field of My Quoi Cooperative (located in Hau My Bac B commune, Cai Be district) has just harvested 160 hectares of OM18 rice and 70 hectares of ML232 rice. This is almost the field with the latest rice harvest in the commune. According to farmers, the ML232 rice variety is the most successful, with a yield of about 6.5 tons/ha and a selling price of VND 7,900/kg. OM18 rice has a lower yield, reaching about 5.5 tons/ha, and a selling price of VND 8,200/kg. After deducting costs, farmers earn a profit of VND 25–30 million/ha.

According to Mr. Phan Van Ngoc, Deputy Director of My Quoi Cooperative, early rice fields have a higher yield, about 7 tons/ha. That is partly due to the weather at flowering time and partly to the concentration of birds and mice. However, the average rice yield of the whole commune can reach 6 tons/ha or more. Compared to last year, profits are two times higher. Farmers are very excited to prepare to soak the soil, waiting for the sowing schedule for the winter-spring rice crop of 2023–2024.

Mr. Vo Van Men, Director of the Tien Giang Sub-Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, said that in the 2023 autumn-winter crop, the province’s western districts sowed about 25,000 hectares. By this time, farmers have almost finished harvesting, with only a few lowlands in the dike left. However, the remaining rice fields are also safe from high tide. The fresh rice yield is temporarily estimated at about 6 tons/ha. This year, the rice production cost is about VND 3,400/kg. With the current rice price, farmers earn an extremely good profit.

Journeying along the Tien River from the umbilical flood area of Dong Thap, Tien Giang downstream to Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, the rice fields are in the stage of growing from flowering to ripening. In Nguyen Van Thanh commune (Binh Tan district, Vinh Long province), last year, the price of materials increased rapidly, while the price of rice was extremely low, so many farmers were discouraged and left their fields or cultivated ratoon rice (which grows from the roots of harvested rice from the previous crop) to raise ducks. But, in this year's autumn-winter crop, farmers sowed 50 hectares more than planned, reaching a total area of 3,750 hectares.

Although the weather was not favorable with a lot of rain, there was no rice falling. Currently, the autumn-winter rice field here has been harvested. The price of fresh rice in the field ranges from VND 8,100 to VND 8,300/kg, nearly VND 3,000/kg higher than the same period last year. Productivity reaches 6 tons/ha or more.

Mr. Le Van Gom in Hoa Hiep hamlet (Nguyen Van Thanh commune) has just finished harvesting 1 hectare of OM18 rice, yielding 6 tons. According to Mr. Gom, this year there are many advantages, such as high rice prices, reduced fertilizer prices, and fewer mouse attacks due to mass sowing. Mr. Gom as well as other farmers in this field received deposits from traders early, when the rice price had just reached VND 7,500/kg. However, he is still happy because, after deducting costs (from VND 20 to 22 million/ha), the profit still reached more than 50%, even higher than the previous winter-spring crop.

Sharing the joy, Mr. Nguyen Huu Tan sowed more than 4 hectares of the OM18 variety with a very good yield, reaching 6 tons/ha. He expressed his excitement that this year's rice harvest is good and the price is extremely high.

In Vinh Long province, in this year's autumn-winter crop, farmers in the province sowed seeds on 35,000 hectares. Early autumn-winter rice fields in Binh Tan and Vung Liem districts have currently been harvested on over 1,600 hectares, with an estimated average yield (dry rice) of 5.77 tons/ha. The rice area about to be harvested is about 13,000 hectares. In general, compared to the 2022 autumn-winter crop, the profit of this year's fall-winter crop is very high, so farmers are very excited and have more conditions to reinvest in production before entering the main winter-spring rice crop of 2023–2024.

The lower region is preparing to open the field

In Tra Vinh, only Cang Long district is currently entering the autumn-winter rice harvest, while other areas are just in the flowering-greening stage. Rice farmers are very excited because traders previously deposited high prices, ranging from VND 8,000 to VND 8,200/kg.

Mr. Nguyen Van A, Head of the Cang Long Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that currently, farmers in the district have entered the mass harvest of autumn-winter rice with a total area of nearly 8,300 hectares. Most of the farmers’ rice has been deposited by traders. According to assessments, the estimated average yield is about 5.5 tons/ha. After deducting costs, farmers earn a profit of VND 25 million/ha.

To serve the export market, the locality recommends that farmers focus on choosing high-quality, well-priced rice varieties such as Dai Thom 8, OM5451, ST24, and ST25 in this year's autumn-winter crop.

However, farmers also have many worries, especially when the price of agricultural materials such as nitrogen fertilizer, NPK fertilizer, etc. is still high. To reduce production costs, Mr. Tran Van Chung, Director of Phat Tai Agricultural Cooperative (Chau Thanh district, Tra Vinh), said that farmers have expanded organic rice cultivation and used organic and microbial fertilizers. This helps reduce costs by about 40% compared to using chemical fertilizers. If rice prices remain at the current level, farmers earn a guaranteed profit of VND 23 million/ha or more.

Mr. Truong Hoa Thuan, a farmer in Phuoc Hao commune, Chau Thanh district, shared his experience: farmers need to pay attention to the period of September–October (on the lunar calendar) because this is the period when mice grind their teeth, so their object is not only ripe rice but also young seedling fields. Farmers have currently increased mouse trapping work and mobilized members to clear the surrounding bushes.

In this year's autumn-winter crop, in addition to recommending the use of high-quality seeds, the Tra Vinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development also encourages farmers to implement effective farming measures such as "3 reductions, 3 increases" and "1 must 5 reductions" while using organic fertilizers and bio-products and applying mechanization in rice production to reduce costs and increase profits.

According to Mr. Le Van Dong, Deputy Director of the Tra Vinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the unit has directed its dependent units to coordinate with localities to disseminate and recommend farmers strictly comply with the seasonal schedule. Farmers also focused on sowing seeds early, classifying each region and each field. Thanks to that, the total area of autumn-winter rice sowing in Tra Vinh this year reached nearly 68,300 hectares.

The Agriculture and Rural Development sector of the provinces forecasts that stormy weather and light fog in the early morning, combined with autumn-winter rice entering the flowering-ripening stage, are suitable conditions for blast disease, grain smut disease, and bacterial leaf blight disease to arise and develop. Therefore, farmers need to regularly visit fields to promptly detect pests and diseases in order to proactively and effectively prevent them.

Although the irrigation system has basically served production well, with the current high tide, farmers need to increase visits to fields and check and reinforce sluices, dams, dike systems, and embankments that are at risk of landslides. In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to the appearance and damage of mice in fields where rice is in the flowering-ripening stage.