Shifting focus to spring rice care

The agricultural sector and localities are focusing on directing farmers to organize pruning and fertilization, combined with the first round of top dressing to help spring rice grow and develop well.

Farmers in Dong Hung district take care of spring rice.

Concentrated planting season

This spring crop, Kien Xuong district planted 11,000 hectares of rice, of which approximately 4,530 hectares were planted by machines, accounting for 41% of the total cultivated area, making it the leading locality in the province in terms of machine planting rate. Thanks to good preparation of seeds and agricultural materials from the beginning of the crop and promoting mechanization, sowing and planting according to the crop schedule, up to now, the spring rice fields in the district are in the rooting and greening stage.

With 3 transplanters, this spring, Mr. Vu Ngoc Ha's family in Kien Xuong town planted 130 hectares, of which 30 hectares were rented or borrowed by the family; 100 hectares were used as a transplanting service for people. Mr. Ha said: The rice field area is large, so the family focuses on maximizing human resources and means for timely planting, prioritizing the fields of the people to plant first. The fields are broken into small plots, forming large plots, so farmers limit the work of weeding the banks, we also save labor and fuel to move the machines, convenient for simultaneous planting.

According to the assessment of the agricultural sector, the whole province concentrated on sowing from February 10 to 20. In general, in the 2024 spring crop, farmers basically followed the crop schedule and sowed quite concentratedly. By February 22, the whole province had basically completed sowing 74,384 hectares of rice, of which the high-quality rice group was about 40,600 hectares, accounting for 55% of the total sowing area, including the following varieties: Bac Thom No. 7, Dai Thom 8, T10, RVT, N97, Japanese rice...; hybrid rice 3,523.5 hectares (accounting for 4.74%), including the main varieties: CNR36, Thai Xuyen 111, Nhi Uu 838, Nhi Uu 63...; The rest are purebred rice varieties with high yield: BC15, TBR1, TBR225... Early rice is concentrated in the two districts of Dong Hung and Hung Ha, which are in the tillering stage, while mass spring rice is taking root, recovering and growing new leaves. Agricultural product prices, especially rice prices, are high, profits in agricultural production are increasing, positively impacting the idea of expanding agricultural production, especially large-scale crop production. The whole province has 120 communes with a field area linked to production and product consumption with a total area of 5,604.75 hectares, of which the linked rice area is 5,170.57 hectares. Farmers in localities in the province have actively used organic fertilizers, organic microbial fertilizers such as Que Lam, Sumitri, Truong Son Bio, Azotobacterin... to improve the soil and limit the occurrence of pests and diseases.

Shifting focus to caring for and protecting spring rice

After completing the planting of 35 hectares of his family's rice fields, Mr. Duong Cong Vinh, Quynh Trang commune (Quynh Phu) is busy moving to the care stage. Mr. Vinh said: These days, taking advantage of favorable weather, we go to the fields to trim and replant the rice areas planted before Tet. At the same time, we bring water to the foot of the fields to apply fertilizers for the first time to help the rice plants recover quickly and grow strong tillers. In the spring crop, "rice uses water as a coat", so we always keep the water level shallow and even throughout the field to help the rice grow good tillers, especially the newly planted rice quickly takes root and turns green. Along with that, we simultaneously carry out measures to kill rats and golden apple snails to protect the spring rice.

According to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, from mid-March to the end of March, the weather in the North will turn warm and hot in the last 2 weeks of the month, with some places reaching the threshold of hot weather. This is the time when spring rice is in mass tillering, early-season rice can shorten the growth and development period, and some rice areas can flower in an unsafe frame, reducing productivity and value.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: The agricultural sector assigned units and officers to coordinate with localities to assess the growth of rice fields and closely monitor weather developments to have specific care measures. For large-scale rice fields that have taken root and started to grow new leaves, it is necessary to apply specialized NPK fertilizers with high nitrogen content to help the rice grow tillers smoothly and in a concentrated manner; apply top dressing to the rice before March 20. For early-season rice fields, it is necessary to divide the amount of fertilizer into 2 top dressings to avoid the phenomenon of rice flowering in April. Regularly maintain a shallow water level during the tillering stage to help the rice grow tillers early, strong and concentrated; do not let the fields dry out, affecting the growth of the rice plants. When the rice tillers cover the soil, drain the water to crack the roots to help the rice roots grow deep, which will increase the plant's resistance to lodging; in the following stages, it is necessary to keep enough water for the rice plants to grow panicles and grains. Farmers should not fertilize or use pesticides on crops when temperatures are below 15 ^degrees Celsius.

Currently, leaf blast disease appears on weeds, the disease is predicted to appear early on rice and the level of damage is more severe than previous spring crops. The agricultural sector recommends that farmers increase field inspection to detect early leaf blast disease, white-backed planthopper, black-striped dwarf disease, proactively prevent and control it even when it is still small.