Agricultural mechanization brings high effectiveness

 Applying agricultural mechanization 

According to Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development - Nguyen Chi Thien, farmers applied agricultural mechanization to bring higher efficiency in production in recent years; it contributed to implementing agricultural restructuring effectively, helped production more actively, reduced losses and costs, improved the quality of agricultural products and increased profits. Currently, for rice growing, 100 percent soil making is mechanized, 98 percent crop is mainly harvested by combine harvester; over 70 percent rice seed is dried. However, the mechanization rate in some stages has not been improved such as sowing, caring and spraying. Other crops such as dragon fruit, lemon, vegetables and livestock, poultry, aquatic products, etc. is still limited in the level of mechanization.

Director of Go Gon Cooperative (in Tan Hung district) - Truong Huu Tri said: “The application of mechanization in production contributes to reducing production costs and improving economic efficiency. Specifically, the improvement of rice-sowing and fertilizer-spraying machine helps shorten the time to sow seed from 4-6 hours per hectare compared with manual sowing, it saves labor and machine can regulate the amount of seed and fertilizer as you need. On average, each person sows or manually fertilizes 1-2 hectare per day, but by using the machine, each person can sow rice and spray from 3-4 hectares per day, this helps farmers save production costs from 500,000 -1,000,000 VND per hectare”. 

Using the machine in sowing brings effectiveness

“Cooperatives support member households to apply laser beams in soil preparation, leveling the field, applying the process of "one-must-do, six-to-reduce”, and so on to save costs, fertilizers and seeds. The mechanization of agricultural production is developing strongly. If rice is harvested manually, the current cost is more than 4 million VND per hectare, but if a combine harvester is used, the cost is only about 2 million VND per hectare.

“Putting mechanization into harvesting rice not only helps farmers harvest the crops promptly and quickly but also limits the impact on farmers' health. Soil-making and harvesting machines save costs about 4.3 million VND per hectare; drying stage saves 90,000 VND per ton of rice, etc.", Mr. Tri added.

In recent years, dealing with the situation of brown plant-hoppers harm on rice, implementing the direction of the province, growing rice at the same time to avoid pests, creating a concentrated harvest pressure in a short time, this problem affects to the stage of mechanization in production, especially the stage of harvesting before the situation of rural labor force is decreasing. Through agricultural promotion programs, it is very necessary to demonstrate, perform all kinds of rice harvesters and organize contests of combine harvester machines to help farmers determine mechanical solution in harvesting rice.

Member of Go Gon Cooperative - Mr. Vu Tuan said: “When farmers participate in cooperatives, all kinds of machines are promoted to reduce labor; standards of hygiene, environment, and labor safety are improved. Then, the production costs fell to less than 1 million VND per 1,000 square meter, while productivity of fresh rice reached 950 kilos per 1,000 square meter and was sold at a price higher than the market several hundred VND per kilo, the profit was calculated over 3 million VND per 1,000 square meter. Meanwhile, the local households are not affiliated, sow in large scale, are seriously damaged and affected by diseases, the cost of fertilizer and medicine is high, but their productivity is less than hundreds of kilos of fresh rice per 1,000 square meter, thereby profit is about 1-2 million VND per 1,000 square meter”.

Mr. Le Quang Dinh (in Binh Thanh commune, Moc Hoa district) invested nearly VND 1 billion to own a Kubota multi-purpose tractor with a large capacity, it can attach the straw rollers, tractors, rowers, soil-cultivating machines, etc. When it is time for the crops, he changes the machinery system according to his work. Mr. Dinh shared: “Mechanization investment reduces a lot of time and costs; within 30 minutes, the combined harvester can harvest 1,000 square meter of rice. When the straw is dry, the straw-winding machine collects 1,000-square-meter field within about 20 minutes and produces about 20 rolls of straw, it is also simple and easy to preserve and transport straw, so I can buy it and resell to other provinces”.

Chairman of the Executive Board of An Long Cooperative (in Duc Hoa district) - Vuong Trong Nghia informed: "Recently, the cooperative tested spraying pesticides with an unmanned aircraft over 8 hectares. The use of unmanned aircraft spraying on rice fields to save time, labor, protect the health of producers, reduce costs, avoid rice damage, avoid spreading the disease, etc. Next time, The cooperative will invest this equipment to serve production ”.

Creating a solid foundation

In order to achieve the above positive results, the Provincial People's Committee directed the agricultural sector and functional departments to implement many solutions and programs to support mechanization in serving agricultural production such as funding for farmers to buy machinery for agricultural production over the past years; organized for manufacturing companies and providing equipment to perform on the field to help local farmers to access the machinery and equipment well, in accordance with production conditions.

Mr. Nguyen Chi Thien said that the agricultural mechanization in the province has changed positively and gradually served agricultural production effectively. This is a step to create a solid foundation for the agriculture in the province to ensure the direction of commodity production and successfully implement the target of developing high-tech application agriculture in association with restructuring the agricultural sector. For rice, the province aims to implement 19 pilot models of high-tech rice production with an area of 950 hectares and mobilize to replicate the model to reach 1,650 hectares in 2019. Contents of implementing model use the certified rice varieties; laser technology in soil preparation stage to level the field, tractors, etc.; the sowing processes use row-pulling tools to sow seeds and shoulder-strap machines, etc.; caring stage, shoulder-strap machines, etc.; harvesting stage use combined harvester and then collecting straw by straw roll machine; use organic and micro-organic fertilizers and probiotics; train and guide cultivation under the process of "3-to- reduce, 3-to-increase", "one-must-do, 5-to-reduce", move towards to the process of "one-must-do, 6-to-reduce".

 By Huynh Phong – Translated by Duc Tam