Applying mechanization to production has brought many achievements to the agricultural sector. In particular, for current rice production, cluster sowing by machine is a relatively new method in Binh Thuan. Therefore, in the coming time, Binh Thuan Agricultural Extension Center will apply it to the high-quality rice production program adapting to climate change from the 2024 crop season...
Rice production model applying effective cluster sowing
In mid-August, the fields at the Ma Lam Town Rice Seed Farm (Ham Thuan Bac) were filled with the joyful laughter of delegates and farmers as they looked at the golden, heavy summer-autumn rice fields. Farmer Le Van Hiep (Ma Lam Town) excitedly shared: “This summer-autumn crop, my family produced 1.4 hectares of rice using the cluster sowing method following the model of the Binh Thuan Agricultural Seed Center. I and many other households in the area are very excited because transplanting and cluster sowing bring advantages, reduce seed costs, do not have to spray pesticides ourselves, and increase profits compared to conventional transplanting.”
Sharing the joy with the people, Ms. Tran Thi Vu Phuong - Director of the Provincial Agricultural Seed Center said: This summer-autumn crop, the center implemented cluster sowing with an area of 20.79 hectares in Ma Lam. Applying cluster sowing instead of transplanting has the advantage of being proactive in the season, reducing the amount of seeds sown per unit area. Notably, at the end of the summer-autumn crop in the district, there were heavy rains and whirlwinds that caused some areas of ripe rice to fall, but the yield was higher than in 2023.
At the scientific workshop on "Results of research on breeding new rice varieties, associated with economic efficiency of applying cluster sowing, towards variety transfer, synchronous mechanization and carbon emission reduction production" held recently, MSc. Ngo Thai Son - Deputy Director in charge of the Provincial Agricultural Extension Center informed: The Center has been monitoring the cluster sowing model since last year's Winter-Spring crop in Tanh Linh. From the beginning of 2024, the center signed a contract with Dai Nong Co Gioi Company Limited to implement the model.
Accordingly, the center's orientation is to arrange high-quality rice models in the direction of "1 must 5 reductions", especially reducing the amount of seeds, through cluster sowing. The provincial Agricultural Extension Center coordinates with the Binh Thuan Agricultural Seed Center to monitor cluster sowing at the Ma Lam Rice Seed Farm, starting to sow from May 8, 2024. During the stages, regularly monitor, record and update images and results to properly assess growth and development.
At this workshop, delegates and farmers all assessed that, although the amount of seed sown was only 80 kg/ha, the yield reached 8.6 - 8.7 tons/ha of fresh rice (equivalent to about 7.3 tons/ha of dry rice). With the price of 8,200 VND/kg at the time of the workshop, the average profit from cluster sowing was 32 million VND/ha, 15.7 million VND/ha higher than that of broadcast sowing. Compared to the broadcast sown rice fields next to it, the yield of the model was superior, the phenomenon of lodging was insignificant, and the economic efficiency was twice as high as that of broadcast sown fields.
Specifically, through monitoring by the Agricultural Extension Center, in the Summer-Autumn crop of 2024 at Ma Lam Rice Seed Farm, cluster-sown rice with sowing densities of 70, 80 and 100 kg/ha was more effective than the control field of 200 kg/ha of broadcast sowing... In terms of production costs (excluding the cost of removing the mixed seed), the fields of 70 and 80 kg/ha had lower costs than the 200 kg/ha of broadcast sowing. The theoretical yield in the 80 kg/ha field was the highest with 86 quintals/ha of fresh rice, 26 quintals/ha higher than the 200 kg/ha of broadcast sowing. The expected profit (calculated by commercial value) in the 80 kg/ha cluster-sown field was the highest.
The leaders of the Provincial Agricultural Extension Center assessed that initially, when applying the same fertilizer process, cluster sowing will help reduce input costs for seeds and increase productivity. Thereby increasing economic efficiency for rice farmers compared to the traditional broadcast sowing method. The best cluster sowing density on the land of Ma Lam Seed Farm is 80 kg/ha. Compared to the previous transplanting method, cluster sowing significantly reduces labor costs in the transplanting stage (reduced by more than 3.5 million/ha) and reduces the cost of seedling preparation.
Will continue to expand
Implementing the plan of the Provincial People's Committee on developing high-quality rice areas, the Agricultural Extension Center will deploy more than 200 hectares of model rice in 5 key rice-growing districts: Duc Linh, Tanh Linh, Ham Thuan Bac, Bac Binh, Tuy Phong. In addition, the center will structure about 11 types of high-quality rice varieties, all models will conduct cluster sowing in the direction of "1 must, 5 reductions"... However, in reality, the current state budget only supports a part, so the Agricultural Extension Center always calls on cooperative systems, community enterprises, and people in rice areas to continue to invest in the cost of buying cluster sowing machines, or automatic spraying drones combined with widespread service provision activities. From there, strongly synchronize the application of mechanization on rice plants.
It is known that currently, some rice growing localities such as Ham Thuan Bac, Duc Linh, Tanh Linh have applied a cluster sowing rate of 70 - 120 kg/ha. Thereby, it helps save a lot of seeds compared to conventional broadcast sowing methods (with a sowing rate of 180-300 kg/ha). In addition, cluster sowing with modern machinery also combines burying basal fertilizer, and reduces seed drift and seed concentration when it rains by creating small embankments around the seed clusters... This is the premise to reduce the amount of water for rice plants, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to rice fields that are regularly flooded, aiming for negative emissions and increasing income for rice growers thanks to selling carbon credits in the coming time.
Reducing the amount of seeds appropriately will lead to reducing the amount of chemical fertilizers, reducing the use of pesticides, and reducing environmental pollution. The distance between each cluster of rice is clear and even, helping the rice fields to promote the advantages of the rice cultivation solution with the edge effect, so the rice fields grow and develop well, with few pests and diseases, deep roots to prevent lodging, especially in the rainy season, helping the rice plants to have high yields and better quality rice grains.
According to Mr. Phan Van Tan - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in order to increase production efficiency, it is necessary to call on enterprises with strong capacity to cooperate in developing concentrated rice seed production areas. At the same time, build high-quality commercial rice production areas, aiming to build a value chain of high-quality rice and branded specialty rice. The province strives to stabilize the area of high-quality commercial rice production area of more than 17,000 hectares by 2025, while synchronously applying technical advances in intensive rice cultivation, improving information and propaganda work, implementing demonstration models of rice production according to VietGAP standards or equivalent to change farmers' awareness and production techniques, creating a shift from old production methods to new production methods applying science and technology, adapting to climate change.
Cluster sowing by machine is a sowing method in which seeds are sown in clusters, in which the number of seeds is fixed according to the adjustment level of each cluster with 1 to 20 seeds/cluster to help all clusters have the same density. The distance between rows is fixed (usually 20cm) and the distance between clusters can be adjusted to 13cm or 20cm. Currently, in addition to sowing rice on cluster sowing racks, it is also possible to combine burying basal fertilizer; combining with spraying herbicides at the beginning of the season helps reduce labor and save a lot of costs.
Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/hieu-qua-kinh-te-tu-ung-dung-phuong-phap-sa-cum-tren-lua-123108.html
Comment (0)