More than 1.2 million tons of food - The mark of Nghe An's agricultural sector

(Baonghean) - In 2014, Nghe An achieved a total grain output of over 1.2 million tons, the highest ever. According to general assessment, this year is considered one of the "great victories" of food crops, in terms of area, productivity and output in all 3 production seasons...

Winter vegetable production in Quynh Luong (Quynh Luu). Photo: V.D

According to the synthesis of the Agriculture sector, the total cultivated area in 2014 reached nearly 244 thousand hectares out of the plan of 239 thousand hectares. The total output of grain crops reached the highest ever - over 1,203,000 tons while the plan was 1,171,300 tons. Of which, rice alone was nearly 188 thousand hectares, with an average yield of 53.81 quintals/ha, and paddy output reached over 1 million tons out of the plan of nearly 957 thousand tons. In particular, the spring rice yield reached 66.1 quintals/ha, the highest ever. Not only that, the rice variety structure continued to have a positive change, the hybrid rice area decreased to only over 59% compared to 80% as before; Over 35% of the area is high-quality, easy-to-sell, high-value rice varieties such as AC5, DT68, VTNA2, Bac Thom, herbal rice... increasing the income value per unit area, in line with the restructuring orientation of the agricultural sector. The whole province planted 55,657 hectares of corn, with an estimated output of over 193 thousand tons.

In particular, 2014 is the year we have had the most successful winter crop in the past 5 years, with nearly 43 thousand hectares of various crops, especially in some localities with corn acreage exceeding the plan such as Thanh Chuong, Nghia Dan, Tan Ky, Yen Thanh... Thanks to that, this main winter crop is expected to yield 46 quintals/ha, output over 126 thousand tons, an increase of 45 thousand tons compared to last year's winter crop, in some localities such as Dien Chau corn yield reached 55 quintals/ha, higher than the corn yield of the spring crop, or Nam Dan, Thanh Chuong 47 quintals/ha. The average peanut yield reached 22 quintals/ha, increasing the output by nearly 600 thousand tons compared to 2013; over 10 thousand hectares of vegetables had a good harvest, good prices, and favorable consumption.

In the fields of Thanh Linh commune (Thanh Chuong), the green color of squash and cucumbers in harvest season stretches as far as the eye can see. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Than (Hong village) was picking squash and happily said: This year, squash and cucumbers have both a good harvest and good prices. There is a "tradition" that the use of pesticides in this area is always limited to the maximum, but in this year's winter crop, there is almost no need to use pesticides. The weather is favorable, her family's several acres of squash and cucumbers are still green and have been harvested for a month now. Not only is the harvest good, but consumption is also very easy, traders come to the fields to buy or sell at the district market, each kilogram of cucumber is currently priced at 8,000 VND, squash 5,000 VND, each acre brings in an income of several tens of millions of VND.

Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Head of the Department of Agriculture of Thanh Chuong district excitedly said: Not only the winter crop, but all three crops produced this year in Thanh Chuong were very successful. The spring crop of 2014, with nearly 8,400 hectares of rice, Thanh Chuong had a yield of nearly 568 thousand tons of food. The yield of up to 67.6 quintals/ha has made this spring crop one of the most successful crops ever in Thanh Chuong. The summer-autumn crop was identified as a difficult crop in terms of water resources and the risk of late-season flooding, but Thanh Chuong still had a bumper crop, with an average yield of 42 quintals/ha. To achieve these results, according to Mr. Le Dinh Thanh, first of all, thanks to the district's introduction of a suitable variety structure, prioritizing varieties with the shortest growing period possible to ensure harvest before August 30 to avoid flooding in September.

With timely and drastic measures, Thanh Chuong has successfully controlled the leaf roller epidemic in the entire district and received a certificate of merit from the Provincial People's Committee. Currently, Thanh Chuong farmers are focusing on harvesting the winter crop. For nearly 5 years, the locality has had a winter crop with such a "sudden" increase in corn acreage. The whole district planted 3,700 hectares of corn out of a planned 3,200 hectares, and while in recent years, there was almost no corn on two-rice land, this year there were up to 500 hectares, concentrated in Thanh Lien, Cat Van, Thanh Tien communes... The average corn yield is expected to reach 47 quintals/ha, 3-5 quintals higher than previous years. In addition, many communes focus on growing vegetables and sweet potatoes for sale, bringing in very high economic efficiency, such as Thanh Linh and Thanh Van, each sao brings in an income of 8-10 million VND after deducting expenses.

In the spring crop of 2014, Yen Thanh planted 12,667 hectares of rice, which was also one of the spring crops with the highest yield ever - 71.6 quintals/ha, 5.6 quintals/ha higher than the spring crop of 2013, with a total output of over 94 thousand tons. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Head of the District's Agriculture Department, to achieve such results, first of all, it was thanks to the appropriate seed structure. In the spring crop, Yen Thanh had 2,000 hectares of high-quality rice, the district focused on bringing rice varieties that were both productive and of good quality such as AC5, TBR 225, VT 404... into production. At the same time, the district focused on directing and limiting the harmful effects of leaf blast disease in the early stages of the crop. Not only was the spring crop successful, but this year's summer-autumn crop in Yen Thanh was also a bumper crop, with 12,500 hectares of rice area yielding an average yield of 50.51 quintals/ha. “This year in particular, we had a very successful winter crop.

For a long time, Yen Thanh has had a winter crop with corn area that not only met but also exceeded the plan - 1,700 ha/1,500 ha planned, of which over 1,000 ha were on double-rice land. This is a very encouraging result because if the corn area on fertile land is usually stable, it is very difficult to encourage people to develop corn on double-rice land, even though the locality has appropriate mechanisms. In addition, the vegetable area also reached over 1,100 ha, an increase of more than 100 ha compared to the plan. This year, vegetables have a good harvest and good prices, bringing in hundreds of millions of VND/ha of income for people" - Mr. Nguyen Van Duong shared. These successes were achieved, first of all, thanks to Yen Thanh's strong leadership right from the beginning of the year and the beginning of the season. The reasonable variety structure ensures both productivity and quality. After land conversion, the fields are no longer fragmented, creating favorable conditions for conversion into concentrated and intensive production areas and mechanization in production.

Mr. Nguyen Van Lap - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: In the field of food crop production, our province has won in all 3 crops, "winning" in terms of area, productivity and output. This is the first year Nghe An has achieved grain food production of over 1.2 million tons, of which rice alone is over 1 million tons. As a special production industry, still heavily dependent on nature, this year we have implemented production in difficult conditions, severe cold occurred at the beginning of the year, in the summer, the hot weather lasted for a long time, low rainfall compared to many years caused drought and after the drought was the heavy rain and flood on June 12-13 causing waterlogging of the summer-autumn rice crop. In those conditions, the organization and direction of production was implemented drastically, synchronously and flexibly, adapting to climate change.

The professional sector and localities have coordinated quite smoothly to direct and guide farmers to properly implement planning, variety structure, crop calendar as well as apply technical advances and production processes suitable for each season and each type of crop. Throughout the year, the whole province had over 30,000 hectares of high-quality rice. In particular, many technical measures have been deployed synchronously throughout the province such as SRI, IPM, VietGap... thereby limiting the occurrence of pests and diseases. Plant protection work has been focused on. Specialized plant protection agencies from the province to the grassroots have made forecasts and recommended accurate spraying dates; local authorities at all levels focused on directing spraying decisively and quickly, especially during epidemics; farmers have complied quite well with both the recommended spraying process and timing.

Phu Huong