Professor Vo Tong Xuan: The West can produce 4 rice crops a year

The opinion was given by Professor Vo Tong Xuan (84 years old) in the context of rising rice prices. Fresh rice (OM18 variety) is being bought at 9,200 VND per kg. Average yield is 9 tons per hectare, farmers earn more than 40 million VND per hectare, nearly double compared to before. Professor Xuan is a leading agricultural scientist in Vietnam, the “father” of many high-quality rice varieties. Western farmers currently produce 2-3 crops a year.

According to Professor Xuan, the provinces of Dong Thap, An Giang, part of Kien Giang and Long An, with irrigation systems that easily bring fresh water into the fields, can all produce 4 rice crops. The above area has about one million hectares of rice cultivation, most of which have been growing three crops for many years. “With the current level of intensive farming, farmers can do 4 crops, helping people increase their income in years when rice prices peak like today,” he shared.

He said that currently each rice crop in the West usually lasts 75 days (short-term varieties) or 90 days, not including the mid-season break for land preparation of 10-15 days. During the flood season (September-November), farmers often pour water into the fields to clean, build up silt, kill pests, and let the soil rest. If farmers grow 4 rice crops, they must grow short-term varieties and not release floods.

Professor Xuan further explained that farmers can transplant rice by machine and sow seedlings when harvesting rice (in another location). When the rice is 12-14 days old, the field has been prepared and the seedlings will be transplanted. This way, they save nearly half a month compared to traditional sowing, which is 1.5 months when doing 4 crops. Therefore, the field owner grows 4 rice crops with long-term varieties, without flood or short-term varieties, with flood for more than a month.

Technically, experts confirm that it is completely possible, but special attention needs to be paid to the soil treatment stage. Because farmers have a habit of burying straw in the ground after harvesting, from here organic acids are produced. If this substance is not completely removed, it will cause organic poisoning (rice root rot) – very common when growing rice in multiple crops.

“When preparing soil, farmers need to repeatedly add water to soak for a few days and then drain the water to remove organic acids,” Professor Xuan said. In addition, the soil needs to be provided with enough nutrients, especially organic fertilizer and microorganisms. In particular, the microbial system helps rice increase resistance, reduce pests, and reduce the use of pesticides.

With this proposal, Mr. Xuan recommends that localities apply flexibly and appropriately depending on the region, soil health, and farmer level. Increasing the crop should only be carried out in years of extreme weather, where world food production is at risk of shortage, pushing up domestic rice prices.

However, some experts believe that We need to be careful when encouraging 4-crop rice farming because there are many hidden risks. Mr. Le Quoc Dien, Deputy Director of Dong Thap Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that many years ago, farmers in some areas in the province grew four rice crops but the efficiency was not high compared to three crops.

“Increasing crops will cause land resources to be exhausted. Land is a precious resource that can be used for many generations, and needs to be preserved for its fertility for the next generation in the context of a sharp decline in alluvial deposits from the upper Mekong River,” he said. Fill in and share. Since 1994, the annual amount of sediment flowing into the lower Mekong River has decreased by more than 300% – from 160 million tons (1992) to 47.4 million tons (2020), according to the Mekong River Commission.

Currently, Dong Thap is building a soil map for each region in the province to determine the fertility and nutrients in the soil, thereby serving as a basis for advising farmers to fertilize and take care of the soil properly.

“In principle, when removing a kilogram of rice from the soil, it is necessary to compensate for the exact amount of organic matter removed along with the necessary nutrients, otherwise the soil will be barren and infertile,” Mr. Dien said, adding that training and propaganda are needed. Ensuring farmers to practice correctly and protect soil health is a key issue before deciding to increase the rice crop.

In addition, according to the Department of Crop Cultivation and Plant Protection of Dong Thap province, when implementing 4 rice crops a year, it shortens the isolation time between crops, making pests maintain their life cycle and making it difficult to eradicate.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, Director of Thang Loi Agricultural Service Cooperative (Thap Muoi district, Dong Thap province), said that farmers in the cooperative are applying rice transplanting by machine with many advantages such as reducing land preparation costs and killing weeds. , kill yellow snails, shorten production time… However, the price of renting a rice transplanting machine is up to 4-5 million VND per hectare (seedling provided by the machine), many times higher than traditional rice seeding, making profits of farmers is not much left.

Economic expert Pham Chi Lan also agrees that we need to be careful when growing 4 rice crops. According to her, growing multiple rice crops will waste land and water resources, but the quality and productivity will decrease, not necessarily bringing higher profits. “When converting to the rice-shrimp, rice-crop model, profits improve significantly compared to two or three rice crops, and are good for the environment and soil health,” Ms. Lan said.

According to Ms. Lan, in the current context of food shortages due to extreme weather, many countries boosting output will affect Vietnam’s rice exports. Therefore, instead of chasing output, the state invests in improving quality like the one million hectares of rice project being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development that is sustainable and long-term. The agricultural sector needs to encourage farmers to take advantage of by-products such as straw, which also helps increase income by 30% per crop.

In 2023, the country will plant about 7.1 million hectares, producing over 43 million tons of rice (about more than 21 million tons of rice). Of which, rice distributes about 30 million tons of domestic consumption demand (about 15 million tons of rice), while exports account for 13 million tons. The rice growing area in the West accounts for 54% of the country, contributing 90% of rice exports.

Data from Customs shows that last year our country exported rice to a record level – 8.13 million tons, worth 4.7 billion USD, an increase of 14.4% in volume and 35.3% over the same period last year. 2022. Vietnam is the world’s 5th largest rice producer and the world’s third largest exporter (by output). Despite the impact of El Nino, Vietnam’s rice export output still increased.

Ngoc Tai