Upholding sugar cane production

In the 2021 - 2022 crop year, the purchase price of sugar cane increases by about VND 100 - 200 thousand per ton, along with favorable weather helps bringing in high yield, farmers have a "sweet" sugar cane season.

Good yield, price rise

In Ninh Hoa town these days, the main sugar cane growing area in Khanh Hoa province, farmers begin the harvest season 2021 - 2022.

As the weather has been favorable throughout this crop, sugar cane plants grow and develop well. In fields that sugar cane began to be cut down, the average yield is around 60 tons per hectare, an increase of 5 - 6 tons per hectare compared to last year. For the young sugar cane in good care, the yield can be around 100 tons per hectare.

Currently, the purchased price set by factories in the area for sugar cane is over VND 1 million per ton (quality index 10 CCS), an increase of about VND 100 - 200 thousand per ton compared to last year. That help farmers being very excited.

Pham Van Dinh, a farmer in Suoi Sau village, Ninh Tan commune has finished harvesting 5 sao of sugar cane (1 sao is equivalent to 500 square meter), yielding 31 tons. The profit after deducting expenses is about VND 20 million.

The sugar cane in Dinh’s field has been harvested many times in 2 - 3 years, so the yield is not as high as the new sugar cane fields. But Dinh is still glad that the sugar cane is "sweet" again after years of unprofitable investment.

Phan Dung, a farmer in Bac hamlet, Ninh Tan commune has more than 1 hectare of sugar cane with the expected yield is up to 60 tons per hectare. With the current price of sugar cane at above VND 1 million per ton, he calculates that the family will have a good profit.

“In the last three years, sugar cane cultivation has not been profitable, so people are not interested. But this year, sugar cane has a good yield, the price of sugar cane has increased, so farmers are likely to return planning sugar cane,"said Dung.

Vo Ngoc Phi Vu, Chairman of Ninh Tan Commune People's Committee, said that in the period 2012 - 2014, the area of sugar cane was up to 1,800 hectares. However, from 2016 onward, due to the inefficiency of sugar cane, the area decreased sharply, in the crop year 2021 - 2022 has only 300 hectares. Thanks to favorable weather and the farmers’ investment, it is expected that the average yield in this crop will range from 55 - 60 tons per hectare (last year, the yield was only about 45 tons per hectare on average). With the current high purchase price of sugar cane, farmers will make a profit of about 40% after deducting expenses.

Bien Tan An, Deputy Director of Bien Hoa - Ninh Hoa Sugar Company Limited, said that in this crop, Ninh Hoa sugar cane area is assessed to have an average yield of nearly 60 tons per hectare, an increase of 5 - 6 tons per hectare compared to last year. Currently, the price of sugar cane is collected by the factory at VND 1,070 million per ton (10 CCS). However, if calculating the total cost of this sugar cane crop of the Company invested for farmers before including planting seeds, fertilizing, etc., the average sugar cane price must be from VND 1,110 to 1,120 million per ton.

With the above yield and purchase price of sugar cane, the average profit of farmers is not less than VND 25 million per hectare. However, sugar cane growers with good investment and care will earn a profit of VND 35 - 40 million per hectare. In particular, there are households that take good care and intensive farming, sugar cane yield reaches 170 tons per hectare, and the profit is VND 50 - 60 million per hectare.

Returning to sugar cane

According to the Deputy Director of Bien Hoa - Ninh Hoa Sugar Company Limited, previously the company's sugar cane material area was over 10,000 hectares, then the area gradually decreased year by year due to many reasons.

However, in the last 2 years, with the company's reasonable investment policy, farmers have gradually returned to sugar cane. In this sugar cane crop, the company invested nearly VND 5 million, including seeds, microbiological fertilizers, biological products, plowing trenches, etc. to help farmers grow new crops. Along with that is the policy of insurance for price of sugar cane at VND 900,000 per ton (10 CCS).

In order for farmers to continue to grow sugar cane confidently, as well as to expand the area of sugar cane on the inefficient rice crop in the near future, Bien Tan An says, the company will continue to introduce many policies to help farmers with sugar cane cultivation.

Firstly, the company will implement a policy on converting inefficient rice land to sugar cane, with an income insurance of about VND 10 million per hectare, VND  3 million higher than the one-crop growing rice. Along with that, the price of insurance for growing sugar cane in one-crop paddy land will also be VND 50,000 per ton higher than in normal land.

The cultivation of sugar cane on rice land will certainly give a high yield, ranging from 80 - 90 tons per ha or more due to many reasons such the moisture or the quality of the soil.

Secondly, the company will also develop sugar cane on hillside land, specifically, support VND 10.4 million per ha including seed, fertilizer and expenses for trenching. Like last year's harvest, the company invested 30 hectares in Ninh Son and Ninh Xuan communes with a yield of over 90 hectares per ton, profit from VND 40 - 50 million per hectare.

Thirdly, the company continues to use drones in combination with spraying biological products for sugar cane to support farmers. Last year, the company supported spraying inoculants for about 1,000 hectares of sugar cane and this year set the target to 2,300 hectares. Therefore, if the weather is favorable, the yield of the next crop is expected to continue to increase by 10 - 15% and farmers will have more profitable.

Fourthly, in this crop, the company has 2 harvesters that are harvesting sugar cane to put directly on trucks, with a support price of VND 170 - 180 thousand per ton, 70,000 - 80,000 VND lower than harvesting manually.

Therefore, if the average yield of sugarcane is 60 tons per ha, the farmers will gain an additional VND 4 million per hectare.

The Bien Hoa - Ninh Hoa Sugar Company Limited in Ninh Hoa currently has only 5% of the total sugar cane material area suitable for harvesting by machine, equivalent to about 300 hectares. The mechanization in sugar cane harvesting is now an urgent requirement to reduce labor costs and significantly increase profits for sugar cane growers.

Luong Kim Ngan, Deputy Head of Khanh Hoa Plantation and Plant Protection Sub-Department, said that in the sugar cane crop year 2021 - 2022, the whole province has more than 10,300 hectares of sugarcane, of which Ninh Hoa town has 6.530 hectares. The expected yield for this crop is 55 tons per ha, much higher than last year. Farmers have harvested about 1,500 hectares. With the price of sugar cane being bought now increased by about VND 200,000 per ton compared to every year, most farmers have quite good profits.