Early spring rice planting: Happy or worried?

(Baonghean) - This 2013 spring rice crop, the entire Yen Thanh district plans to plant 13,150 hectares of rice, of which 60 - 70% are hybrid rice varieties, the rest are high-quality pure rice varieties.

Currently, farmers have plowed and harrowed the fields thoroughly; the banks and fields have been cleaned and many communes have basically finished planting spring rice before January 20-23, 2013. The spring rice area has basically been finished, concentrated mostly in the communes of Nhan Thanh, Long Thanh, Vinh Thanh, Bao Thanh, Vien Thanh, Lien Thanh, Khanh Thanh, Hong Thanh, Tho Thanh...

In Long Thanh commune, this spring crop, 597 hectares of rice were planted, mainly with 2 hybrid rice varieties Khai Phong 1 and Nhi Uu 986, accounting for 50 - 60% of the total crop area. The rest are pure rice varieties BC15, various types of glutinous rice and KD mutations. By January 22, the whole commune had basically finished planting this spring crop. In Nhan Thanh commune, this spring crop, the whole commune planted 596 hectares of rice, mainly with 2 hybrid rice varieties Khai Phong 1 and Nhi Uu 986, and now the planting has also been completed. Vinh Thanh commune has an area of ​​572 hectares for this spring crop in 2013. The main structure is hybrid rice KP1 and Nhi Uu 986. According to Mr. AT, an agricultural extension officer of Vinh Thanh commune, the whole commune focused on sowing rice seedlings from the end of December 2012 to the beginning of January 2013 and today basically finished planting before January 22, 2013. When asked why farmers planted so early? Has the commune commented yet? Mr. AT replied: The custom here in the spring crop is to plant 5-7 days before the district's prescribed crop schedule. But this spring crop they planted too early, because the people here saw farmers in Dien Minh and Dien Binh communes of Dien Chau district (adjacent to Vinh Thanh commune) going to the fields to sow rice seedlings and plant rice, so they followed suit. Seeing that farmers were still going to the fields to plant rice in the cold weather, the district and commune sent official letters to remind them and sent officials to each hamlet to advise farmers to stop, but they still continued to plant.

Spring rice planting in Dong Thanh (Yen Thanh). Photo: Ho Cac

Does the district know about the fact that many communes in Yen Thanh let farmers go to the fields to sow rice seedlings and plant rice 10-15 days earlier than the crop schedule set by the district and province, and in some cases even earlier? Mr. Dao Ngoc Hung - Head of the district's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: The district People's Committee has known and sent officials to the communes to sow rice early to direct them to stop. The district People's Committee has also issued instructions, official dispatches to remind and hold urgent meetings to discuss measures to remedy and prevent the situation of people automatically going to the fields to sow rice seedlings and plant rice early before the crop schedule set by the district. At the same time, clearly instruct the People's Committees of the communes to sow rice early if the crop fails, the People's Committees of the communes must be responsible to the District People's Committee and the farmers. However, due to the lack of seriousness and determination in the specific instructions in many communes, many communes in the lower part of the district and the northern part of the district have finished sowing spring rice.

After the spring rice planting is finished, the people are happy, but the local leaders and directors consider it a done deal, that's it. So has anyone thought: when will the spring rice varieties planted early as mentioned above bloom? If they bloom early during the Qingming Festival, it is very easy to encounter monsoons and cold air causing crop failure. Only then will we see the harm caused by irresponsibility in directing the implementation of the production process, especially the rice planting schedule in the spring crop.

The current problem is to clarify who is responsible in order to seriously review and learn from experience.

Doan Tri Tue