Reviving "dead land"

Not letting the fields fallow, many farmers in Thanh Hoa city have stood up to collect, contract, and invest in concentrated production, bringing high economic efficiency.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Sinh, Director of Long Anh Ward Agricultural Production Service Cooperative (left) discussed with Mr. Le Van Tuan, Quan Noi 1 Street about rice care techniques.

Long Anh Ward (Thanh Hoa City) is one of the localities with a large area of ​​abandoned fields, with over 100 hectares. The reason farmers abandon their fields is because of low income from agriculture, local children choose to work for companies, people switch to services, trading...

Mr. Nguyen Huu Sinh, Director of Long Anh Ward Agricultural Production Service Cooperative, said: To cultivate one sao of rice until harvest takes about 3 months, farmers have to pay many fees, from land preparation, planting labor, harvesting labor, seeds, pesticides, fertilizers and other additional fees for agriculture. In case of a good rice crop, farmers will make some profit, but if the crop is unlucky and the rice price is low, farmers will almost certainly suffer a loss.

Meanwhile, a month's salary as a factory worker in Hoang Long Industrial Park is equivalent to the income of an entire rice crop. In comparison, it is understandable that farmers in the area abandon their fields.

However, saying so does not mean that farming is a loss. According to Mr. Sinh, if people know how to accumulate land, produce in a concentrated manner, and increase crop productivity, agriculture is still a field that brings high value. A typical case is Mr. Le Van Tuan, in Quan Noi 1 street, in addition to receiving a contract from the locality for 18 hectares, he also received an additional 2 hectares of abandoned fields from families in the neighborhood to renovate and produce; on average, each year Mr. Tuan has an income of hundreds of millions of VND.

Originally a farmer, after many years of working away from home, Mr. Tuan returned to his hometown and saw the abandoned "rice fields", so he proposed to the local government to re-contract the 18ha area. To renovate concentrated production towards large-scale fields, Mr. Tuan has linked up with a production team from Thua Thien Hue province. Depending on the time, this production team will bring in equipment and machinery to support, from plowing, sowing, spraying pesticides by plane, and harvester.

Not only Mr. Tuan's case, Mr. Sinh also said: In the ward, there are more than 30 cases that are renting and contracting fields that people have abandoned for a long time, with a total area of ​​more than 140 hectares for investment in production. In particular, the concentrated rice production model has affirmed its advantages compared to traditional farming methods. Specifically, the investment cost of 1 sao of rice when implementing concentrated production will be reduced by 15%, the economic efficiency is about 25% higher than small-scale, fragmented production.

Also according to Mr. Sinh, recently the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province has directed the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa city to reorganize production for the agricultural production land area located in the planning of the expanded Hoang Long Industrial Park, in Long Anh ward. After the announcement, the locality has renovated and reproduced 40 hectares. Regarding the area that has not been renovated and reproduced, although the Long Anh Ward Agricultural Production Service Cooperative wants to receive it back, it has encountered many difficulties. This is the area that has not been produced for a long time, the land has been fallow, to renovate it requires a large cost, not to mention the irrigation canal system as well as the internal traffic here has seriously degraded, irrigation is facing many difficulties.

Mr. Luong Ba Nam, a civil servant of the Land and Construction Department of Long Anh Ward People's Committee, added: The increase in rice cultivation area in 2024 is partly due to the high price of rice in the market, people tend to switch to ineffective crops to grow rice. In addition, the agricultural land area previously recovered to implement industrial projects is now assigned to the locality for re-production. In order to improve the efficiency of agricultural production, especially for long-abandoned areas, in the coming time, the local government will encourage individuals and collectives to lease, contract, produce, and cultivate in a concentrated direction, and at the same time, soon have a plan to reinvest in the irrigation canal system and intra-field traffic to meet production needs.

Article and photos: Dinh Giang

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/hoi-sinh-dat-chet-223367.htm