Removing difficulties in rice consumption

Currently, SA rice is in the harvest season

Difficulty in transportation and consumption

According to statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) of Long An province, in the SA rice crop in 2021, the whole province sowed over 220,470 hectares, of which nearly 118,000 hectares were harvested, the dry yield is estimated at 51 quintals per hectare, output over 600,000 tons; The remaining unharvested area is mainly concentrated in the districts of Moc Hoa and Thanh Hoa. Due to the complicated situation of the Covid-19 epidemic, the southern provinces and cities had to implement social distancing, so the purchase and transportation of rice have faced many difficulties. Therefore, the rice price is low, some traders even cancel their contracts.

Currently, rice IR50404 is from 4,600-5,000 VND per kilo, rice OM5451 is from 4,600-4,800 VND per kilo, rice ST24 is from 6,100-6,200 VND per kilo, rice Dai Tho 8 is from 6,000-6,100 VND per kilo; sticky rice IR4625 is from 4,200-4,600 VND per kilo.

Head of the Division of ARD of Thanh Hoa district - Nguyen Kinh Kha shared: "The district will harvest rice crop in about 15 days, while local traders can only buy about 30 percent of the area, the rest traders is mainly come from other places, but it is presently difficult to travel and transport goods between localities, so traders do not come to buy. Facing this situation, the district suggests that localities must have an agreement on the types of documents, conditions for transportation and trade of goods and support farmers to consume rice”.

Moc Hoa district has 21,600 hectares of SA rice, of which nearly 11,000 hectares have been harvested, the remaining area is in the harvesting stage. As noted, the situation of rice consumption in the district is presently also facing many difficulties. The price of rice at the beginning of the crop ranged from 6,000 to 6,200 VND per kilo, now it is only over 5,000 VND per kilo, etc.

Facing the above situation, Deputy Director of the Department of ARD - Dinh Thi Phuong Khanh asked the Provincial Department of Transport to host and coordinate with the Department of Health, the Department of ARD, the Department of Industry and Trade, the Public Security and relevant agencies and units to guide and create favorable conditions for people and means to participate in agricultural production, harvesting, purchasing, transporting and consuming agricultural products, and supplying agricultural materials in the condition of social distancing according to Directive No. 16/CT-TTg of the PM to ensure the harvest and consume agricultural products.

Particularly, the province's agriculture sector is proposing to ministries and central branches to propose the Government to direct the national reserve agency to purchase rice and temporarily store rice urgently and need a policy to support 100 percent of loan interest rates for temporary rice storage businesses. The State Bank needs to have documents guiding specific procedures. If there is no timely solution, it will affect the production plan of Autumn-Winter and Winter-Spring crops and affect the growth of the sector in 2021.

Linking to create the stable output

Although the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic makes it difficult to consume SA rice, some cooperatives in the province can harvest and consume rice easily because they have signed contracts to buy rice products and take the initiative in human resources before the locality implements social distancing.

Specifically, Huong Trang Cooperative (Binh Hoa Trung commune, Moc Hoa district) at the beginning of the SA rice crop has signed with 2 enterprises to consume about 1,700 hectares, OM18 variety, the price noticed before 15 days is 6,200 VND per kilo. Before the local implementation of social distancing, the Board of Directors of Huong Trang Cooperative contracted 4 combine harvesters in Tien Giang province, a loading team of about 30 people and a team of boats. Accordingly, the cooperative organizes the registration of laborers, organizes periodic quick tests; at the same time, makes a certificate with the Commune People's Committee for the workers to harvest rice.

Representative of Huong Trang cooperative - Tran Van Sua shared: "Currently, the cooperative has harvested more than 60 percent of the area, with the price of 6,200 VND per kilo, the average yield is 6.8 tons per hectare, the remaining rice is expected to be purchased at the price of 5,700 VND per kilo, about 500 VND per kilo higher than outside. In addition to the members' product consumption, the cooperative also buys about 2,000 tons of rice from outside farmers to join hands with the local government to support farmers in rice consumption.

And Go Gon Agricultural Cooperative (Tan Hung district) has harvested nearly 460 hectares of SA rice with Dai Thom 8 variety, yielding 6.5 tons per hectare. Like Huong Trang Cooperative, Go Gon Agricultural Cooperative has no difficulty in harvesting and transporting rice. Director of Go Gon Agricultural Cooperative - Truong Huu Tri shared: “During the complicated situation of the Covid-19 epidemic, the cooperative decided to only use local workers, with an average of 5 people per team; at the same time, organize for each team to work separately to ensure epidemic prevention and control".

With the initiative, flexibility and timely response of cooperatives, especially the link to consume products, it has facilitated the purchase and transportation of SA rice in the epidemic situation. And this is the "bright spot" in the consumption of agricultural products and contributes to raising the product's value./.

By Kim Ngoc – Translated by Duc Tam

Source: https://baolongan.vn/go-kho-trong-viec-tieu-thu-lua-a119773.html