On the golden rice fields

Less happy with early rice season

Following the rural road deep into Vinh Thanh commune (Chau Thanh district), we met people harvesting rice. Stopping to ask, we learned that at the beginning of this crop, the price of rice had dropped to 5,500 VND/kg, making farmers unhappy. Farmer Cao Minh Dien (56 years old) said that the price of rice at the beginning of this winter-spring crop was very low, while the cost of fertilizers and pesticides was high. Therefore, farmers did not make a profit. Sitting waiting for traders to weigh the rice, Mr. Dien said: "Winter-spring is the main crop of the year, because the weather is very favorable, rice is easy to sell to traders. However, with such low prices, everyone is sad because of the high investment costs and the effort of taking care of it for more than 3 months."

In the 2024 autumn-winter crop, Mr. Dien produced 7 hectares of cut rice with the OM380 variety, with a yield of 1 ton/hectare. Traders came to the field to buy at 7,100 VND/kg. After deducting expenses, Mr. Dien still made a profit of about 4 million VND/hectare. Mr. Dien said that this is a popular rice variety grown by farmers in the commune. The growing time to harvest is about 3 months, the cultivation technique is quite simple, saving time and costs for growers. However, the land inside the embankment is currently barren due to many crops produced in a year, so farmers spend a lot of money on fertilizer to grow rice with high yield. "Currently, 1 bag of nitrogen fertilizer costs 1.1 million VND, not including the cost of buying pesticides. My field has to be fertilized with 2 bags/hectare each crop. This winter-spring crop, I can consider my rice production as breaking even" - Mr. Dien lamented.

Harvesting rice in the field

Sharing the same sentiment as his brother, Mr. Cao Minh Kha (54 years old), cultivates more than 30 hectares of OM380 rice, with a yield of over 1 ton/hectare (cutting range). The yield remains stable, but the price of rice has dropped sharply, Mr. Kha can only sell for 5,600 VND/kg. He said that this winter-spring crop is not profitable, because fertilizers, pesticides, plant nutrients, labor, seed costs... have all increased in price. For farmers who rent land for production, it is considered a heavy loss. Mr. Kha expressed that in recent years, the land has been "hardened", disease has attacked, and rice cultivation has been difficult. In addition, during the production process, there was a problem of "rice smut" (rice that is mixed up), so he had to hire someone to cut it for 1 million VND/hectare...

Looking at the heavy bags of rice being carried down to the boat by hired workers to be weighed for traders at low prices, Mr. Dien's brothers felt regretful, because after 3 months of hard work and care, they had no profit. The farmers planned that if the price of rice did not increase, they would leave the land empty and not produce rice, because the summer-autumn crop had heavy rains, rice was prone to falling over, and the yield was low, leading to losses. "I will let the land rest, and I will also rest and find other work to do. Wait until the autumn-winter crop to start tilling the land, fertilizing... growing rice will be profitable" - Mr. Dien said.

At the end of the season, rice prices "look up"

The National Highway 91 bypass passes through the fields of Chau Doc City, with heavy golden rice grains on both sides, and farmers are busy harvesting rice for traders. For a long time, the rice fields along this bypass have been known to tourists from afar as beautiful golden fields like a countryside painting. When visiting Ba Chua Xu of Sam Mountain, tourists can see with their own eyes the vast fields, very pleasing to the eye and hard to find anywhere else. The midday sun shines directly down on the fields, "drying" the golden rice grains, which is also the time when farmers hire combine harvesters to run into their fields. Farmers harvest rice in the afternoon, because at this time the rice dries naturally without needing to be dried, which is very popular with traders.

In the Vinh Te commune field, farmer Nguyen Van Be is holding a bundle of rice bags and running behind a combine harvester. The rice dries quickly in the sun, the rice grains are shiny and of high quality, and traders do not force farmers to pay higher prices. “In the morning, the rice is still wet with dew, so farmers are not satisfied with the harvest. Having been in the field for many years, we have experience in harvesting, so we can sell at a higher price,” Be explained. This winter-spring crop, farmers in the Vinh Te, Vinh Chau and Nui Sam commune fields are sowing rice later than in neighboring areas. Thanks to late sowing, this crop, farmers are harvesting a few weeks later, and the price of rice is “looking up” compared to the beginning of the crop.

Meeting Mr. Tran Van Hien walking on the edge of the field, we asked about the price of rice this crop. Mr. Hien excitedly said that he cultivated 2 hectares of OM18 rice, traders bought fresh rice at the field for 6,900 VND/kg. With this price, Mr. Hien earned about 2 million VND/cong after deducting expenses. In recent years, farmers have been worried about every rice crop because they depend on the export market. The refrain of "good harvest, low price" still happens frequently without end. At the beginning of this winter-spring crop, rice prices fluctuated from 5,300 - 5,500 VND/kg, farmers were very worried. "Luckily, at the end of the winter-spring crop, rice was harvested in many places, but this field was harvested late, rice prices increased again, farmers were excited" - Mr. Hien happily said.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dong (rice trader) said that when rice prices increased again, both farmers and traders were happy. When rice prices increased, farmers could sell easily and traders could buy easily. Now, rice farmers are less miserable than before thanks to the application of mechanization in the fields from sowing to harvesting. “Rice is transported to the dike and traders come to weigh it. Farmers receive cash in the field, everyone is happy. Hopefully, in the coming summer-autumn crop, rice prices will be stable, and farmers will have profits to continue reinvesting in production,” Mr. Dong shared.

LUU MY

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/tren-dong-lua-vang-a418619.html