When farmers are "away" from their fields - Last article: Strongly orienting towards solutions for commodity production

(Baonghean) - While some farmers are indifferent to their fields, in many places, cultivated land is truly "golden land", bringing in production value of hundreds of millions of VND/ha/year; and many new models have appeared to help farmers get rich legitimately on their fields... That reality also requires the agricultural sector and local authorities to have solutions to overcome the situation of some "blank" fields in the summer-autumn crop...

Land consolidation - forming large specialized areas

These days in Hamlet 5, Thinh Son Commune (Do Luong), Mr. Tran Van Hien is actively renovating the rice fields after land consolidation to build a fish farm. He boldly invested nearly 900 million VND to rent machinery to renovate 8 ponds, each pond is nearly 1 sao in area, to release special fish breeds with high value such as black carp, monosex tilapia, white pomfret, and hybrid catfish. Thanks to the concentrated area, he has been able to plan the low-income rice fields into farms, creating jobs for nearly 20 local workers. With his approach, Mr. Hien is actively looking for new and effective directions in agricultural production in this semi-mountainous countryside.

Taking care of newly sown shallots in hamlet 11, Nghi Lam commune (Nghi Loc).

Thinh Son commune has 15 hamlets with 1,393 households, the number of rice fields before land consolidation was 3,530. After the conversion, the cultivated land area of ​​each household has been less fragmented, the number of plots has decreased to 1,883 plots, an average of 1.68 plots/household. The smallest production land area of ​​each household is 500m2 and the largest is 2,875m2, ensuring the planning of concentrated agricultural commodity production areas, forming large specialized areas. This creates favorable conditions for households to apply science and technology to production, convert crop structure and invest in intensive farming, helping to save time, effort and production costs. In 2014, the total production value reached 159.42 billion VND, a growth of 31% compared to the same period in 2012 before land conversion. Mr. Vo Van Hao, Head of Hamlet 1, Thinh Son Commune said: “Because the cultivated land area is expanded and convenient for cultivation, people can easily use machinery during production. Currently, the hamlet has 6 soil compactors and 5 agricultural vehicles to transport agricultural products. With an area of ​​5 hectares of rice fields in Bau area, people have started raising fish and rice in the third crop, promising to bring high productivity”.

Thinh Son is just one of many communes in Do Luong that have successfully implemented land consolidation, thereby building large-scale model fields according to new rural criteria, contributing to strongly promoting the development of agricultural production in the district. From here, farmers can cultivate on a large scale, with a concentrated quantity of high-quality goods, while applying science and technology to business to reduce costs and increase income. Mr. Nguyen Trong Hoi, Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Do Luong district, said: “The certain successes of land consolidation have created a solid foundation for the implementation of large-scale model fields such as: Rice fields in Lac Son and Van Son; corn fields in Trung Son; peanut fields in Bac Son and Dai Son. In Lac Son alone, the planning and implementation of production on large-scale fields has been implemented since the beginning of the spring crop in 2012, with clear increases in efficiency and productivity. Productivity has increased by 10 to 15% compared to before the conversion, and the economic value is also higher.”

Crop structure conversion

The conversion of crop structure to bring high economic efficiency is also being effectively applied by many localities to increase land use value. In Nghi Lam commune (Nghi Loc), on the fields of hamlets 2, 4, 5, 11... previously the land was barren and poor, the summer-autumn crop was mostly abandoned. However, in the past 10 years, the commune has had a new development in production when boldly converting to new crops with high economic efficiency. In Thong Lay and Giap Cau fields of hamlet 11, these days people are rushing to plant shallots. It is known that this year hamlet 11 has nearly 10 hectares of shallots. Mr. Tran Tien Dung, in hamlet 11, shared: “The growth period of shallots is about 3 and a half months, shorter than rice; shallots are drought-resistant plants, with low investment capital, and an average yield of 2.5-3 quintals/sao. If multiplied by the price of 1.8-2 million VND/quintal, sometimes the price goes up to 30-40 thousand VND/kg, which means that 1 sao of shallots can yield 5 million VND, more profitable than growing rice or peanuts.”

According to Mr. Tran Van Binh, Vice Chairman of Nghi Lam Commune People's Committee, this year the commune planted nearly 46 hectares of chives, mainly on dry fields, cropland or areas of food crops but with low efficiency. Chives are easy to grow, do not require much cost for seeds, fertilizers, and are less susceptible to pests and diseases, many farming households have taken advantage of the land area to grow them. There are areas of chives growing over 200 million VND/ha/year, contributing to increasing the value of agricultural production in the area...

Currently, most localities of Nghi Loc have fully exploited the potential and advantages of fertile land to increase income value per unit area. In addition to traditional crops such as peanuts, sesame, winter corn, etc., new crops with high economic value such as chives, watermelons, and pear trees are also gradually being introduced and expanded. The district has gradually formed large-scale vegetable production areas such as the concentrated watermelon production area in Nghi Long: 45 hectares, Nghi Thinh: 25 hectares, Nghi Hop: 15 hectares. Other crops such as chili, medicinal plants, wormwood, chives in Nghi Kieu, Nghi Lam, Nghi Dong communes also have quite large areas. The introduction of new plant varieties into production is associated with the construction of high-income fields; In Nghi Loc area, there are 1,000 hectares of fertile land with an annual income of 80-100 million VND/ha, and double-rice land alone has an average income of 35 million VND/ha, an increase of 11 million VND/ha.

Farming combined with animal husbandry

In Thanh Lam commune (Thanh Chuong), at this time, the commune's fields have less fallow areas than other localities, because being attached to the fields has become a habit of the people for many years. In addition to the area of ​​food crops, vegetables are considered one of the strengths of this locality. Contrary to some places that believe that growing crops is not economically efficient, even causing losses, here people consider it the main source of income for economic development, thanks to the people knowing how to combine growing crops and raising livestock.

People in Hamlet 5, Thinh Son Commune (Do Luong) built fish ponds on converted rice fields.

With a herd of over 3,500 buffaloes and cows, and a herd of nearly 2,900 pigs, it is considered a source of relatively large amounts of organic fertilizer for the cultivated area in Thanh Lam. This number of livestock consumes a large amount of agricultural by-products. At the same time, people take advantage of the strength of buffaloes and cows for land preparation, plowing, and furrowing, significantly reducing costs by not having to hire land preparation machines... These are the benefits for Thanh Lam farmers to try to stick to the fields. Some other communes such as Dien My (Dien Chau), Cam Son (Anh Son) also focus on growing crops to create conditions for strong livestock development.

Discussing the above issue, Mr. Le Dinh Thanh, Head of the Department of Agriculture of Thanh Chuong district shared: “The cost of livestock products in many localities of Thanh Chuong is lower than in other regions because people have closely linked cultivation and livestock farming. Realizing the importance of this, people in the whole district have focused on developing livestock farming in recent years to maintain a total herd of about 75,000 buffaloes and cows and a herd of over 100,000 pigs”.

Faced with the reality of abandoned agricultural land while many effective models have emerged, creating new directions to create efficiency for farmers, Mr. Truong Minh Chau, Head of the Crop Production Department (Department of Agriculture & Rural Development), said: "Currently, the whole province has 93,657 hectares of summer-autumn crop cultivation, of which 1,705 hectares cannot be cultivated. Besides 20,000 hectares of rice that have to be flooded every year, of which 10,000 hectares are in seriously flooded areas, the area of ​​abandoned rice fields is also a problem that is causing "headaches" for agencies, departments and branches. Normally, every year, the whole province has 300 to 400 hectares of abandoned summer-autumn rice land. This summer-autumn crop has increased dramatically due to prolonged heat causing severe drought.

There are many areas in Nam Dan, Nghi Loc, Hung Nguyen, which are located at the end of the Ca River irrigation source, so at the beginning of the season, there is often severe drought and insufficient irrigation water, but at the end of the season, there is flooding due to water flowing from upstream. However, for whatever reason, the problem of abandoned land has caused negative impacts on people's lives as well as food security in each locality. Mr. Truong Minh Chau added: "Most recently, the improved Khang Dan rice variety put into testing in 2015 has given positive results in terms of quality and productivity, while the cultivation time has also been shortened to only 85 days, so people can rest assured to use it for summer-autumn crop; in addition, the mutant P6 rice varieties and Viet Lai 20 are also suitable choices for summer-autumn production in Nghe An"...

The solution to improve production efficiency in the fields is to quickly restructure the agricultural sector, accelerate the progress of land consolidation in localities, apply science and technology to production, and accumulate land for large-scale commodity production. In addition, it is necessary to focus on transforming the structure of crops and livestock to compete with the weather, such as growing regenerated rice (also known as dead rice), raising fish - rice, or growing raw materials for livestock.

Thanh Quynh