Kien Giang Switching to organic rice production not only increases economic value, farmers also pay off their environmental debt after a long period of using chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Find ways to pay off environmental debt
One afternoon, visiting the rice fields in the maiden stage with members of the 339 Agricultural Cooperative (Thanh Phuoc Commune, Giong Rieng, Kien Giang), everyone clearly felt the changes in the environment from soil, water to air. Thanh Phuoc Commune was chosen by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Giong Rieng District to implement the organic rice production project.
Members of Agricultural Cooperative 339 are looking for ways to repay their environmental “debt” due to the long-term use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides that have caused pollution and soil degradation. Photo: Trung Chanh.
On a field of more than 122 hectares, 29 households of Agricultural Cooperative 339 have boldly converted to organic rice production with the support of functional agencies and businesses. Accordingly, before the production season, farmers participated in training courses on technology transfer and experience exchange in organic rice production. At the same time, policies were implemented to support essential supplies, with the goal that in the first crop, farmers would use over 70% organic fertilizers and biological pesticides to gradually replace chemical pesticides.
Kien Giang Organic Production and Trade Investment Company Limited is the winning bidder to provide technical support throughout the cultivation process, commit to rice productivity equivalent to the average productivity of the area where the model is implemented, and at the same time purchase all rice output from farmers.
Farmer Bui Van Chin, a member of Agricultural Cooperative 339 with 5 hectares of organic rice production, said: “Although all farmers here have experience in growing rice, they mainly follow their own practices and experiences. People invest a lot to achieve high productivity but pay little attention to economic efficiency. The abuse of fertilizers and chemicals also causes an environmental “debt” that we are now trying to find a way to repay before we have to pay the price.”
Director of Agricultural Cooperative 339 - Mr. Nguyen Van Kich excitedly said that thanks to the good application of organic rice cultivation process, "1 must 5 reductions", timely and proper pest management, farmers in the model have limited the number of times of spraying pesticides compared to outside the model, which is 2 times/crop. In addition, applying the technique of alternating flooding and drying, drying the fields to increase the amount of oxygen, release toxins in the soil, increase the mineralization process, help the rice roots grow deep, strengthen the plants, limit falling, and facilitate mechanization in care and harvesting.
According to the assessment, the yield of organic rice reached 8.5 tons/ha, equivalent to the yield of mass-produced rice outside of 8.6 tons/ha. The total revenue for rice in the organic rice production model was 68 million VND/ha, 0.8 million VND lower than outside. However, thanks to reduced investment costs (more than 3.1 million VND/ha), the model had output linkages so the selling price was 100 VND/kg higher, achieving a profit of 49 million VND/ha, higher than outside by more than 2.3 million VND/ha.
Support organic rice development
Mr. Do Van Dong, Vice Chairman of Thanh Phuoc Commune People's Committee, said that as a remote commune, Thanh Phuoc farmers mainly grow rice 3 crops/year. The whole commune has an area of over 4,080 hectares of rice land, in 2023, more than 10,200 hectares/3 crops were sown, rice output reached nearly 69,300 tons. Although rice productivity and output met the set target, most farmers still cultivate according to traditional practices, pay little attention to economic efficiency and reduce environmental pollution, and spend a lot of unreasonable investments on production, leading to waste and high costs.
Participating in organic rice production, members of Agricultural Cooperative 339 have raised awareness of environmental protection, collecting pesticide packaging for disposal. Photo: Trung Chanh.
Implementing the construction of advanced and exemplary new rural areas, especially production organization criteria and environmental criteria, Thanh Phuoc has selected Phuoc Nguyen Cooperative and Agricultural Cooperative 339 to participate in the organic rice production project implemented by the district. Rice production according to standards and the application of scientific and technical advances have helped reduce input material costs, reduce emissions that cause environmental pollution, and improve rice quality to meet the high requirements for rice exports in potential markets such as Europe, the United States, etc.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Giong Rieng district, the organic rice production project was implemented in the district from the summer-autumn rice crop in 2023 with an area of 185 hectares. With the results, farmers have invested in expanding organic rice production to nearly 500 hectares in the autumn-winter crop of 2023 and continued to increase to over 686 hectares in the winter-spring crop of 2023 - 2024. Along with transferring the organic rice production process, Giong Rieng district also focuses on building growing area codes associated with linking rice consumption at farmer organizations participating in the project.
To promote the conversion of rice production to organic, Giong Rieng district has implemented support policies for farmer organizations participating in the project with a rate of 30% of input material costs (about 3.4 million VND/ha), including organic fertilizers and biological pesticides.
Source: https://nongsanviet.nongnghiep.vn/trong-lua-huu-co-de-tra-mon-no-moi-truong-d396507.html
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