Choose "flood-avoiding" and drought-resistant varieties

(Baonghean) - In agricultural production, especially for rice and corn, the weather depends heavily on the crop. To cope with climate change, choosing short-term varieties that can avoid floods and are drought-resistant will significantly reduce damage and are considered prerequisites for a successful crop.

Hung Trung (Hung Nguyen) is a low-lying commune located at the end of the Le canal and Thanh Huong river, so every time it rains heavily, water from the river rises and flows down, turning this place into a giant water bag. From August to October (DL) every year, just 2-3 days of rain combined with water flowing from the source will flood most of the production area of ​​the whole commune (flooding about 320ha/380ha of summer-autumn rice). Due to frequent flooding, and being too familiar with the scene of rice fields reaching the time of grain filling, just one night of flooding will turn everything empty, so the people of Hung Trung are not interested in the summer crop; the commune's annual production plan often fails to meet the set targets.

Previously, in the summer-autumn crop, Hung Trung structured the rice varieties Khang Dan, NA2, and glutinous rice 352 (with a growth period of 95-100 days), but after many crops, they all "lost their business" due to early flooding. Faced with this situation, the Party Committee and the People's Committee of the commune decided to find short-term varieties and had to allocate time, select varieties to adjust the crop season right from the spring crop to harvest before May 20 and by June 30, the summer-autumn crop had to be completed. In particular, in the summer-autumn crop of 2013, the long-term rice variety was converted to the extremely short-term rice variety P6 mutant in the fields of Tung Nay, Tung Cam, and Dong Dien in hamlets 10, 11, 12, and 13 with a total area of ​​60 hectares.

Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoan - hamlet chief of hamlet 6 (Hung Trung commune) said: "Last summer-autumn crop, after only 15 days of planting the mutant P6 rice, we encountered drought. From June 18 to 25, there was a flood, I thought I had lost 3 sao. But after the water receded, the rice recovered very quickly and after only 75 days of care, we had a harvest; the average yield was 1.2 - 1.4 quintals/sao". The outstanding feature of the mutant P6 variety is delicious rice, the summer-autumn crop growth period is from 80 - 85 days (about 20 days shorter than Khang Dan), suitable for intensive farming; In addition, the mutant P6 also has the ability to resist lodging, withstand cold and heat very well. When flowering is from July 20 to 25, the temperature is above 370C but the rate of empty grains is very low...

Testing new corn varieties on Nghi Loc land.

In the summer-autumn crop of 2011, in Nghi Long commune (Nghi Loc), the district's Plant Breeding Station in collaboration with Pioneer Company Limited tested the 30Y87 single hybrid corn variety on sandy soil, far from irrigation water sources, with an area of ​​5 sao in Lang A field (Hamlet 7). Although planted in harsh weather, thanks to proper care and technical procedures, the actual corn yield reached over 80 quintals/ha, 1.4 quintals/ha higher than the CP888 corn variety that people have been planting on a large scale for many years.

Mr. Nguyen Ba Thang (in hamlet 10) is one of 5 households doing a trial model on an area of ​​1 sao and said: "For the past 4 years, my family has specialized in growing CP 919 and CP 888 corn varieties for commercial purposes and to serve the family's livestock needs, but in recent seasons, these varieties have shown poor drought resistance. When selected to test the 30Y87 corn variety, my family strictly followed the instructed technical procedures. After harvest, the 30Y87 corn variety has a growing period of 97-100 days, the root system is well developed, so it is resistant to lodging, drought-resistant, resistant to intensive farming and quite disease-free.

The characteristics of this variety are large corn, small cob, beautiful stone-shaped kernels, and less susceptible to brown spot disease. In particular, the green leaves last until harvest, so we can also use the stems for livestock farming. In terms of economic efficiency, the 30Y87 variety is superior to varieties grown in previous years when the profit is higher and the certainty is also more assured. Based on the experimental model in the winter crop of 2012, in this winter crop, the 30Y87 corn variety is considered the main variety in my family's production and I have expanded the cultivated area to 3 sao".

The MX10 hybrid glutinous corn variety (Institute for Hybrid Corn Research and Production) has high productivity, averaging 10 tons of fresh corn/ha. In the 2012 winter crop, the MX10 hybrid glutinous corn variety was first tested on 10 hectares of 2-rice land in Hoa Tay hamlet (Nghi Hoa commune - Nghi Loc) and continued to demonstrate its advantages and economic efficiency on Nghe An land. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Trung - Vice Chairman of Nghi Long Commune People's Committee said: The commune's community plan to adapt to climate change includes many parts, in which solutions are promoted such as changing the crop calendar; introducing short-term varieties that "avoid" floods, are resistant to drought, and combining the construction of irrigation canals to combat climate change.

As a commune with a large area of ​​sandy soil, due to its high profits, glutinous corn has been considered the main crop of the locality. Therefore, Nghi Long people have been used to using glutinous corn varieties to sell fresh corn to Vinh city residents and neighboring areas. However, according to local people's assessment, the varieties that people have been used to for a long time have shown signs of "soil fatigue", showing signs of degeneration, and declining in both productivity and quality. Therefore, the North Central Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology has brought the hybrid glutinous corn varieties MX10, MX4, MX2 to test in the commune and district, and has assessed that this is a short-term variety (from 65-70 days), avoiding natural disasters and giving high economic efficiency, making farmers feel secure in using this new corn variety when expanding the area...

Of the district's more than 12,000 hectares of agricultural land with 3 cultivation areas (agricultural area, agricultural area and semi-mountainous area), only about 5,000 hectares have temporary irrigation water but still depend heavily on the Nam Dan bara system, the remaining 6,000 hectares are completely "at the mercy of the weather". Nghi Loc is forced to choose to shift the crop structure to suit each type of soil and climate. The goal is to form specialized production areas with a certain volume of goods, choosing crops suitable to the conditions of each locality and having market advantages.

The structure of crops and seasons continues to shift more clearly, many new crops and new varieties are put into production. And to adjust the crop calendar appropriately, avoid early floods, small-season floods and main-season floods in low-lying areas, often flooded in summer-autumn crop production, in the past 2 years Nghi Loc has introduced lodging-resistant rice varieties, short- and extremely short-term varieties (growing period from 80 - 85 days) with high quality to serve the market such as P6DB, Nhi uu 838, QR1, DT 68, AC5...; drought-resistant varieties and suitable for fertile soil such as BTE1 rice variety. In the 2014 winter-spring crop, the district continues to cooperate with enterprises to conduct trials of some new varieties Thien uu, AD1, RVT to have a scientific basis and accurate conclusions about the ability to resist pests and diseases, yield potential to replace old varieties when there are signs of degeneration in the area.

According to records in some other localities, planting short-term varieties not only helps reduce care time and investment costs, but also increases productivity and product quality, creating additional income. In many places, farmers also grow 3-4 crops of corn and beans, increasing income value per unit of land area. According to the leader of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the typical climate conditions in Nghe An, which are often dry at the end of the winter-spring crop, flooded at the end of the summer-autumn crop and a short autumn-winter crop calendar, the use of crop varieties with short growing periods is always encouraged and widely spread...

Each crop season is an opportunity for localities to select their own varieties, not only to meet the safety requirements within the seasonal "framework" but also to produce high-quality products suitable for the market. The reality of agricultural production in recent years in Nghe An shows that building a set of short-term, high-quality varieties is the most important factor helping the agricultural sector to adjust the crop calendar appropriately, contributing to helping farmers proactively source seeds, minimizing damage caused by natural disasters.

Ngoc Anh