Summer-autumn rice crop is not good as expected

Low in both yield and selling price

Having harvested 6,000-meter squares of summer-autumn rice crop 2021, Ngo Cong Sinh, Tan An commune, Tan Hiep district, Kien Giang province felt disappointed due to the low profit that it brought. Several farmers in the locality also shared the same mood, far different from the joy of bumper harvest, high prices for winter-spring rice.

Sinh calculated: “Rice yield is low so it cannot be sold at a high price. For this early summer-autumn rice, each farmer can only earn about VND 3 million. But the cost of this crop is quite high, after subtracting, farmers only earn a little profit left." The rice productivity of Sinh and neighboring households is only 600 - 650 kg per 1,000 meters square, the price is around VND5,000 per kilogram, lower than the winter-spring crop by from VND 1,000 to 1500 per kilogram (depending on variety).

Following the quite bumper harvest of winter-spring rice crop, 2020-2021 with large sowing area, high yield, and selling price, many farmers have enlisted to sow the 2021 summer-autumn rice crop early in the hope of high rice prices. However, in the past few days, the price of rice has continuously decreased, now down to less than VND5,000 per kilogram of fresh rice harvested by machine.

Kien Giang is a province with the largest area of sowing area for summer-autumn rice 2021 in the Mekong Delta, 280,000 hectares as planned. Director Tran Quang Giau of the Sub-Department of Cultivation - Plant Protection of Kien Giang said that localities with large rice sowing areas in the province have all completed their plans to sow summer-autumn rice 2021 up to now.

“Currently, the area of summer-autumn rice crop 2021 in the province is around 100,000 hectares, which are in the period of ripening and harvesting. By the end of this June, farmers in the province have done harvesting nearly 46,000 hectares of early sowing, the average yield is estimated at 5.6 tons per hectare," said Giau.

Production costs soar

The localities where summer-autumn rice has been harvested with a high number are Giong Rieng, Giang Thanh, and Tan Hiep districts and scattered in Chau Thanh and Hon Dat districts. Head Nguyen Thanh Duoc of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Giang Thanh district, said that so far, farmers in the district have harvested more than 11,000/29,000 hectares of summer-autumn rice that has been seeded. Most of the early-harvested area produced low yield, only from 5.5 to less than 6 tons per hectares.

Not only the fairly low yield, but the selling price of series of fresh rice harvested by machine also plunged.

The paradox in this summer-autumn crop is that the price of rice has decreased, but most agricultural inputs have increased, especially fertilizer prices. Tran Thanh Dien residents in Phu Loi commune, Giang Thanh district, said that the price of nitrogen fertilizer (urea) from the beginning of summer and autumn so far has been at over VND 600,000 per 50 kilograms bag,  the price of NPK fertilizer is around  VND 70,000 per bag (depending on the type) while that of DAP fertilizer is up to nearly VND 900,000 per bag.

“Due to the soar in fertilizer, unfavorable weather, and pests during summer-autumn rice cultivation, the production cost is also pulled up. Specifically, this summer-autumn crop, my family invested up to about VND 19 million per hectare, an increase of about VND4 million per hectare compared to the last winter-spring crop. Mainly because the price of fertilizer increased too sharply, some escalated nearly doubled,” Dien said.