Focus on the 2024-2025 Winter-Spring rice crop

High yield but low price

In the 2024-2025 winter-spring rice crop, the whole province sowed 242,773.2 hectares, reaching 107.4% of the plan. Of which, 100,164 hectares have been harvested, the estimated dry yield is 62.29 tons/hectare (0.94 tons/hectare higher than the same period in 2024), the estimated output is 623,905.2 tons.

This year, favorable weather and farmers' mastery of cultivation techniques have resulted in high rice yields. Despite the bumper crop, farmers are unhappy because of low rice prices. This not only reduces profits but also leads to traders breaking the deal and not buying rice even though they have paid a deposit in advance.

In Vinh Hung district, in the 2024-2025 winter-spring crop, farmers sowed nearly 26,858 hectares, and they are currently focusing on harvesting. Some rice areas have achieved high yields of 8.5-10.5 tons/hectare. However, farmers are not happy because of low rice prices.

Mr. Pham Van Canh (Go Xoai Hamlet, Hung Dien A Commune, Vinh Hung District) is excited because this year's Winter-Spring rice yield reached nearly 10 tons/hectare

While harvesting 10 hectares of OM18 rice, Mr. Pham Van Canh (Go Xoai Hamlet, Hung Dien A Commune, Vinh Hung District) said: "This year, the yield is quite high, raging from 9-10 tons/hectare. It has been nearly ten years since we had such a good rice crop. However, the rice price is only 6,300 VND/kg. After deducting expenses, I do not have much profit".

Mr. Nguyen Van Gon (Vinh Tri commune, Vinh Hung district) sowed more than 1.8 hectares of Dai Thom 8 rice in this year's winter-spring crop, sharing: "After harvest, the rice yield reached nearly 10 tons/hectare. In previous years, with this yield, my family earned a profit of more than 50 million VND. However, this year, the rice price dropped to 6,300 VND/kg, so the profit was only more than 20 million VND".

Farmers in Vinh Hung district harvest the 2024-2025 winter-spring rice crop

Mr. Nguyen Van Tam (Khanh Hung commune, Vinh Hung district) confided: "This crop, my family sowed 6 hectares of Dai Thom 8 rice. Although the rice is of high quality and meets export standards, due to the drop in prices, traders did not come to buy it even though they had deposited money in advance. The family had to find traders, and finally sold rice at 6,300 VND/kg, the profit was half that of the 2023-2024 winter-spring crop".

Not only Vinh Hung, other districts such as Tan Hung, Kien Tuong town, etc are in a similar situation. In Kien Tuong town, rice prices are falling sharply, in some places, farmers are also having difficulty in consumption.

Some farmers shared that if in the 2023-2024 winter-spring crop, the average rice price was 8,000 VND/kg, in the 2024-2025 winter-spring crop it decreased to 6,200-7,800 VND/kg. The decrease in rice prices has reduced farmers' profits by 40% compared to the previous crop. At the same time, the decline in rice prices has not only happened recently but also since before the Lunar New Year of the snake 2025.

In fact, the decline in rice prices during the harvest period or traders buying rice at a lower price than the previously agreed price is not a new thing. However, in the 2024-2025 winter-spring crop, the sharp decrease in rice prices compared to the previous crop has made farmers regret losing a significant amount of profit.

Rice is transported to milling factories by large boats

According to some rice traders in Vinh Hung district, the reason for the sharp drop in rice prices is that rice processing enterprises for export can not find contracts. Only a few enterprises with previous orders or new orders dare to purchase rice to repay the contract.

To ensure the balance of domestic rice supply and demand and promote sustainable rice production, trading and export activities, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed and issued Official Dispatch No. 21 on the management to ensure the balance of rice supply and demand.

In addition to the tasks of organizing production, the Prime Minister requested the Chairmen of the People's Committees of provinces and cities to direct propaganda and mobilize farmers to continue producing the Summer-Autumn rice crop according to plan to ensure stable output. He requested that associations, corporations and rice exporting enterprises proactively seek markets, especially traditional customers, actively purchase and temporarily store rice for farmers.

Focus on taking care of the crop

In addition to the harvested rice fields, the whole province also has more than 140,000 hectares of 2024-2025 winter-spring rice in the tillering to ripening stage, the provincial Department of Agriculture recommends that localities and farmers focus on taking care of the fields. In particular, the southern districts and Tan An City need to proactively monitor the developments of drought and saltwater intrusion to promptly respond and protect production.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, currently the area of ​​pests on 2024-2025 winter-spring rice has decreased compared to last week. In particular, the diseases of leaf blast, leaf blight, rice leafhopper, stem borer and brown planthopper have decreased significantly because farmers have actively visited the fields regularly, effectively prevented and controlled them, and the current rice stage is not suitable for these diseases to arise and cause damage.

In particular, diseases such as neck blast and grain sterility have increased at the heading and ripening stages, mainly concentrated in districts in the Dong Thap Muoi region.

Farmers visit the fields regularly to promptly detect and effectively prevent pests and diseases

Specifically, leaf blast has an infected area of ​​806 hectares, a decrease of 468 hectares compared to the previous week, with an infection rate of 5-10%, mainly appearing on rice at the tillering and heading stages, concentrated in the districts of Tan Hung, Thanh Hoa, Duc Hoa and Kien Tuong town.

In addition, there are other harmful organisms such as leaf blight (535 hectares), neck blast disease (435 hectares), rats (170 hectares), grain sterility disease (86 hectares), yellow leaf disease (38 hectares), rice leaf hopper (10 hectares) and brown planthopper (10 hectares), etc, causing damage to rice fields at the heading and ripening stages in most districts, Kien Tuong town and Tan An city.

According to forecasts, in the coming time, instar and adult brown planthoppers will appear sporadically. Pests such as leaf blast disease, brown planthoppers, rats, rice leaf hoppers, etc will decrease in the infected area on rice fields at the tillering stage. Pests such as leaf blight, brown planthoppers, neck blast disease, grain sterility disease, etc will increase in the infected area on rice fields at the heading and ripening stages.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment - Dinh Thi Phuong Khanh, to proactively prevent and combat drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion in the dry season of 2024-2025, the Department organized an inspection of preparations for prevention, combat, and response to drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion in the dry season of 2024-2025 in the districts of Thu Thua, Tan Tru, Can Duoc, Can Giuoc, Ben Luc, Thanh Hoa, Tan Thanh, Chau Thanh and Tan An City.

Along with that, the Department also coordinated with localities to inspect weak dikes, embankments, and key sluices to promptly detect incidents and repair, fix, and handle them from the beginning, not allowing saltwater to leak or infiltrate into the fields, affecting the quality of fresh water sources to ensure salt prevention and fresh water storage for production and people's lives; regularly check water sources in the fields to coordinate with localities to determine water usage needs and properly operate the sluice gates to take additional water when salinity is still permissible.

“The provincial Department of Agriculture recommends that farmers focus on visiting the fields to promptly detect and effectively control pests and diseases. Along with that, farmers in the southern districts and Tan An City need to closely monitor the development of the meteorological and hydrological situation to proactively respond to drought and salinity, ensuring the success of the 2024-2025 winter-spring rice crop,” Ms. Dinh Thi Phuong Khanh recommended./.

In the past week, in general, the price of rice (fresh) was stable compared to the previous week, specifically: IR4625 sticky rice from 7,600-7,800 VND/kg, IR50404 rice from 5,400-5,500 VND/kg, Dai Thom 8 rice from 6,400-6,500 VND/kg, OM18 rice from 6,300-6,500 VND/kg.

By Bui Tung - Translated by Q. Thien

Source: https://baolongan.vn/tap-trung-san-xuat-vu-lua-dong-xuan-2024-2025-a191917.html