Selection and introduction of VTNA2 rice variety into production

(Baonghean) -Concerned about the fact that farmers are too dependent on the Chinese hybrid rice market, Mr. Truong Van Hien - Director of Nghe An Agricultural Materials Corporation and his colleagues have researched and produced the high-quality purebred rice variety VTNA2. This is a rice variety that has been officially recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development after 4 years of selection, and is currently being enthusiastically received by farmers.

Being an imported variety from China, VTNA2 variety was officially recognized after 4 years with 8 selected crops and was added by Nghe An Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to the rice variety structure for both crops of the year.

Mr. Truong Van Hien said: “Not only in Nghe An but also in most localities in the country, the short-term rice varieties being cultivated in production are still limited in quantity and variety. We are seriously lacking purebred rice varieties with high yield, good quality, and short growth period to include in the seed structure in all three late spring, summer-autumn and autumn-autumn crops, gradually replacing purebred rice varieties such as Khang Dan and Q5 that have been cultivated for too long, have degenerated, and are no longer suitable for current production and market demand.

Therefore, having pure rice varieties that meet the criteria for commodity production, especially suitable for the specific climate of the Central region, is a big requirement in food production and is also our desire". However, when starting to implement this idea, Mr. Hien and his colleagues encountered many difficulties. From the initial source of seeds, the varieties were tested not only in Nghe An but also in many other localities in the country, representing 3 different ecological regions: midlands, mountains and plains. Mr. Hoang Duc An, currently Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture of Hung Nguyen district, one of the people who has "worked side by side" with VTNA2 from the very beginning, shared: From 32 varieties in the original imported variety set, after 3 years of basic testing with many difficulties, sometimes thinking of giving up, the research team selected the last 5 varieties to conduct large-scale testing in different ecological regions in Nghi Loc, Do Luong, Hung Nguyen, Thanh Chuong, Yen Thanh, Dien Chau... continuously since 2008, 2009, 2010. Fortunately, when widely released, VTNA2 did not separate like many other rice varieties but had very high stability. From that success, in 2011 this high-quality rice variety officially began to be widely produced.

Evaluating the VTNA2 rice variety, Mr. Tu Trong Kim - Head of the Cultivation Department (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) said: This is a short-term rice variety, with a growing period of 115-120 days in the spring crop and 95-100 days in the summer-autumn crop, equivalent to the Khang Dan 18 variety, suitable for the late spring - summer-autumn structure. In addition, the variety has a beautiful phenotype, compact and hard plants, upright leaves, green color, medium leaf size, relatively low plant height, so it is resistant to lodging and falling well. In particular, the variety has a short growing period, this is an important advantage to include in the summer-autumn crop structure, in order to harvest before September 10 to avoid early flooding in the North Central region, at the same time, it can be sown late, avoiding severe cold, early-season cold that kills seedlings, often occurring from the end of December to January every year. Through testing and actual production, in the spring crop, the variety gives an average yield of 65 - 70 quintals/ha, in highly intensive farming areas it can reach over 70 quintals/ha, and in the summer-autumn crop it reaches an average of 56 - 63 quintals/ha.

Along with the demonstration results in Nghe An, the VTNA2 variety was also tested on a large scale in many localities across the country such as Binh Dinh, Quang Nam, Ha Tinh, Phu Tho... Here, the VTNA2 variety was evaluated as good, with a yield 8.2-12.8% higher than the pure rice varieties currently grown locally, with wide adaptability, being able to be grown on many different soil types and seasons, being resistant to pests and diseases, and being very resistant to lodging. These provinces have successively included it in the structural variety set, with the planting area continuously increasing over the years. Immediately after being specially recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, this rice variety has been widely grown and popularized in many provinces, from the North Central region to the Red River Delta provinces, especially Nghe An and Ha Tinh. In Nghe An, in 2011, the whole province planted more than 900 hectares of VTNA2 rice, concentrated in the districts of Hung Nguyen, Nam Dan, Nghi Loc, Dien Chau, Do Luong, and Thanh Chuong. In the spring crop, 400 hectares were planted, with an average yield of 66 quintals/ha, especially in some communes of Dien Chau and Hung Nguyen, which reached 68-71 quintals/ha. In the summer-autumn crop, more than 500 hectares were planted, with an average yield of 60-64 quintals/ha compared to the province's average of 52 quintals/ha. Some places such as Hung Phu (Hung Nguyen) planted 80 hectares, with an average yield of 66.3 quintals/ha, 18 to 8.3 quintals/ha higher than Khang Dan, and Dien Phu, Dien Hoa, and Dien Quang communes (Dien Chau) reached 65.6 quintals/ha...

In addition, VTNA2 is considered a rice variety with good quality rice, cheap seed price, and input savings. Since then, in the spring and summer-autumn crop of 2012, many localities continued to introduce VTNA2 rice variety to expand production and achieved positive results. In the spring crop, despite extremely difficult weather conditions, VTNA2 rice variety was still evaluated as growing well, free of pests and diseases, with a fairly high average yield, from 62-64 quintals/ha, some intensive farming areas reaching 68-72 quintals/ha. With delicious rice quality, suitable for consumer tastes, vtNA2 rice variety has been introduced into large-scale production by many localities with the goal of producing commercial rice, bringing higher economic efficiency per unit area. In the summer-autumn crop of 2012, with the amount of seeds supplied in Nghe An province alone of more than 200 tons and the amount of seeds multiplied by farmers from the certified seed project, the whole province has planted more than 9,500 hectares of NA2 rice variety concentrated in the districts of Dien Chau, Thanh Chuong, Hung Nguyen, Do Luong, Nghi Loc, Nam Dan, Quynh Luu and some mountainous districts. The neighboring locality of Ha Tinh has also advocated piloting the production of this rice variety on a fairly large scale in 15 communes since the spring crop of 2012 to replace the purebred rice varieties that have been produced for a long time with low rice quality, especially the IR1820 and KD18 varieties.

Thus, by successfully selecting the purebred rice variety VTNA2, we have a new crop variety with high yield and good quality, helping people to have a proactive source of seeds at a much lower cost than imported seeds, while the yield and quality are not inferior.

Phu Huong