Vietnam officially exported rice in November 1989. However, things could have been different if Vietnam had not controlled the brown planthopper epidemic, had not developed high-yield rice varieties, and if farmers had not been enthusiastic about going to the fields... This is also one of the greatest marks of Professor Vo Tong Xuan on the people of the West. He is known as the "commander" in fighting the brown planthopper and creating new varieties.
Back in 1977, when a new brown planthopper epidemic appeared in the Mekong Delta, it devastated high-yielding rice fields. Hundreds of thousands of farmers were left penniless, forced to leave their homes and move to other countries. At that time, Professor Vo Tong Xuan sent a telegram to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, in the Philippines), where he had been a researcher, asking for help. From 5 grams of IR36 rice variety supported by IRRI, after only 7 months, Professor Xuan and his colleagues successfully produced 2,000 kg of rice variety resistant to planthoppers. By 1978, along with the planthopper-resistant rice variety, thousands of students from Can Tho University joined farmers in the fields. The brown planthoppers were repelled and Professor Xuan's planthopper-resistant variety quickly spread throughout the West. By 1979, the brown planthoppers had officially disappeared, and the rice yielded 9-10 tons/ha.
Professor Vo Tong Xuan is one of the people who promoted the economic development of the Mekong Delta on three pillars: rice, aquaculture, and vegetables.
Professor Vo Tong Xuan was also one of the first people to contribute to opening the door to bring Vietnamese rice to the world. Before 1989, hunger was still a haunting concern in the minds of every Vietnamese person. As a leading expert on rice plants and a National Assembly delegate, Professor Xuan proposed that the Government open the door to rice exports without having to worry about food security, because Vietnam was completely proactive. In just 2 months of opening, Vietnam exported 1.4 million tons of rice. And as the Professor affirmed, from 1989 until now, national food security has never been a problem for Vietnam. There were a few times when world rice prices suddenly spiked, people rushed to buy rice to stockpile, the Government had to temporarily suspend exports like in 2008, but Professor Xuan and many experts in the industry promptly spoke up to reassure. “While other countries have to store rice in warehouses, Vietnam has natural reserves in the fields, because almost all year round in the Mekong Delta there is rice being harvested. Not only 3 crops, but Vietnam can even increase it to 4 rice crops per year if needed,” Professor Xuan explained.
After ensuring food security and having the world's leading rice export volume, Professor Vo Tong Xuan was still not satisfied. He worried day and night about how to make Vietnamese rice not only abundant in quantity but also of good quality, high price and decent income for rice growers. How to make Vietnamese rice both retain its Vietnamese identity and still meet the needs and tastes of the market. "I have wished to find among hundreds of traditional rice varieties of the Mekong Delta the most delicious rice variety to widely popularize to farmers", Professor Xuan confided.
Rice seed production becomes Vietnam's strength
To realize that aspiration, the professor assigned his students “homework”. Each student returning home for Tet had to collect 5 local rice varieties and submit them to the department. Along with the previously collected rice varieties, Can Tho University has collected about 1,000 seasonal rice varieties. Among them, many varieties have good quality, delicious rice, fragrant rice, export value, good resistance and adaptability…; but these varieties have poor resistance to planthoppers.
To shorten the research time, Professor Xuan proposed to request the 4th and 5th generation hybrid rice varieties from IRRI. From there, selected native rice varieties such as: Tau Huong, Nang Thom, Chau Hang Vo, Nanh Chon, Huyet Rong... were crossbred with valuable genes but short-term, resistant to brown planthoppers from IRRI to create new varieties. The hybridization work began in 1980 at the Mekong Delta Rice Research and Development Center of Can Tho University. Two delicious and short-term varieties, MTL233 and MTL250, were born, promoting the process of searching for delicious rice varieties from many research institutions. This was also the premise for many rice varieties to be developed later.
The history of Vietnam's rice industry cannot be without a particularly important milestone on November 12, 2019. That was the time when Vietnam's ST25 rice variety, bred by Mr. Ho Quang Cua, was honored as "World's Best Rice" in Manila (Philippines).
Professor Vo Tong Xuan was also the person who worked closely with the father of ST25 rice, Labor Hero Ho Quang Cua, and he was the first person to bring the good news from the Philippines to the media in his home country. Professor Xuan also directly introduced the superior characteristics of the ST25 variety as well as many Vietnamese specialty fragrant rice varieties to world businesses curious to learn about the "new star" of the rice market at that time.
“Thailand and India’s fragrant rice is very special, of very high quality, but the limitation is that it can only be produced once a year and the yield is not high, so the price is very high. Meanwhile, ST25 and other Vietnamese fragrant rice varieties are the opposite, with a short growing period, high yield and quality that is not inferior,” said Professor Xuan. The “miraculous” story of Vietnamese fragrant rice has attracted the attention of international traders. From then on, Vietnamese rice entered a new page, the page of countries with high-quality, high-priced rice.
Professor Vo Tong Xuan and engineer Ho Quang Cua attended the rice brand marketing experience course at ThaiFex Fair, Bangkok, Thailand.
DOCUMENTS OF PROFESSOR-DR. VO TONG XUAN
But it does not stop there, the position of Vietnamese rice has been raised to a new level, the position of a rice powerhouse with global food security. Remember in 2023, when the world fell into a rice supply crisis due to unusually dry weather. To ensure domestic food security, India, the world's number 1 rice exporter, issued a ban on white rice exports. Some countries also restricted sales through tariff barriers and a series of countries increased imports for reserves. With the responsibility of a rice powerhouse, Vietnam has boosted exports, for the first time reaching a record output of 8.1 million tons. In the first 7 months of 2024, Vietnam's rice export output exceeded 5 million tons and it is forecasted that this year's exports will continue to exceed 8 million tons. Notably, in recent years, Vietnam's market share of fragrant, high-quality rice has always accounted for about 40% of the total rice export structure. Vietnam's fragrant rice varieties have penetrated the most demanding markets in the world such as Japan, EU or the US...
Good quality means higher prices. Even in the popular 5% broken rice segment, Vietnamese rice has the highest price in the world; at some points, it is 50-100 USD/ton higher than the same quality of Thai rice. At present, the price of 5% broken rice from Vietnam is 578 USD/ton, while Thailand is 563 USD/ton and Pakistan is 542 USD/ton.
Even due to the strong development of Vietnamese fragrant rice in the international market and its outstanding advantages in the fields, for about 2 years now, Thai farmers have gradually switched to growing Vietnamese fragrant rice varieties instead of native varieties.
The “homework” for students during the Tet holiday has now become the rice seed bank of Can Tho University with over 3,000 varieties, divided into 3 main collections: seasonal rice, upland rice, and high-yield rice. Of which, over 1,988 samples of seasonal rice varieties, 700 samples of upland rice varieties, and about 200 samples of imported varieties.
From our village's rice, Vietnamese rice has reached out to the world, becoming a global rice exporting powerhouse.
But the biggest concern of Professor Vo Tong Xuan is how to help farmers not only escape poverty but also get rich on their own gardens and fields. “He said that the lack of dollars is more important than the lack of rice. And by combining rice and shrimp, we have both dollars and rice,” Labor Hero Ho Quang Cua remembers Professor Xuan’s words when he discovered the wonderfulness of the rice-shrimp model in the coastal areas of the West 40 years ago.
In his later years, Professor Vo Tong Xuan was also one of the most active advocates for smart rice farming models suitable for each ecological zone of the Mekong Delta as well as the 1 million hectare high-quality, low-emission rice project. Although the country is the 2nd-3rd largest rice exporter in the world, over the past decades, rice farmers have not been able to get rich due to fragmented and small-scale production. On the other hand, the Mekong Delta is one of the 3 largest deltas in the world that is most severely affected by climate change and rising sea levels.
Professor Xuan and many experts who are passionate about this land have tried to promote a "natural" production model suitable for the ecological sub-regions in the Mekong Delta. Accordingly, the Mekong Delta is divided into 3 regions, including the upstream area of the Mekong River including Dong Thap, An Giang, and Kien Giang provinces. This region has fresh water all year round and can produce 3 rice crops, enough to ensure national food security and have surplus for export. The middle region includes Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Can Tho and part of Hau Giang, Long An, which can combine rice and fruit trees. The remaining part is the coastal area, which can grow seasonal rice combined with shrimp farming.
According to Professor Xuan, food security does not only require rice to fill the stomach but also meat, fish, and vegetables to ensure nutrition. Therefore, to help farmers in the Mekong Delta get rich from agriculture, it is necessary to solve the overall economic problem based on market demand and the natural ecological characteristics of each sub-region. The monopoly position of rice should not be maintained. Large-scale solutions for preventing salinity and storing fresh water should not be applied. Based on research, the Professor pointed out that in coastal provinces, rice-shrimp is an excellent model. In particular, the ST25 rice variety is very suitable for this model, bringing great economic efficiency...
On the journey of Vietnamese rice, there is never a time without the footprints of Master Vo Tong Xuan.
In 2017, the Government issued Resolution 120 on sustainable development of the Mekong Delta, adapting to climate change, which many people call the Resolution "following nature". As a result, in recent years, rice farmers have been happy because of good harvests and good prices; fruit growers such as jackfruit, banana, mango, coconut and especially durian have brought in high economic profits. Meanwhile, the strength of aquaculture, especially shrimp and pangasius, is recovering after a year of facing the world economic crisis. The Mekong Delta economy is being formed on three pillars: rice, aquaculture and vegetables.
Professor Vo Tong Xuan is also the one who actively promotes the smart, low-emission production model through the application of scientific and technological advances to help Vietnamese rice become "greener" as well as to fulfill the Vietnamese Government's commitment to a Net Zero agriculture. At that time, Vietnamese rice and agricultural products will go further, into more demanding markets in larger quantities. Professor Xuan said that is the new position that Vietnamese rice needs to establish.
On November 27, 2023, the Project "Sustainable development of 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030" was approved by the Government. This model is currently being strongly implemented in the Mekong Delta, although Mr. Xuan has stopped it.
It can be said that the journey of Vietnamese rice plants and grains is closely linked to the life journey of Professor Vo Tong Xuan. Although he has passed away, his footprints on the fields of the Western region and his mark on the country's agricultural sector are still present and continue.
Professor Vo Tong Xuan and journalist Hong Hanh, Thanh Nien Newspaper. He is a great friend of Thanh Nien Newspaper, always devoted to the newspaper.
Although Professor Vo Tong Xuan has passed away, his passion and achievements will forever remain with agriculture as well as the people of the Western region in particular and the whole country in general.
Thanhninen.vn
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nguoi-mang-khat-vong-gao-viet-ra-the-gioi-185240824203442513.htm
Comment (0)