Nghe An 'starving' for raw sugarcane

(Baonghean) - Nghe An currently has 3 sugarcane processing factories with a total capacity of 13,000 tons of sugarcane per day. Due to low sugarcane productivity and unsatisfactory purchasing mechanisms from factories, sugarcane growers have switched to growing other crops with higher incomes.

Low yield, old variety

Mr. Nguyen Van Tuat, a farmer in Mai Tan hamlet, Nghia Hoan commune (Tan Ky) is the person with the largest sugarcane area in the region, with nearly 55 hectares. Mr. Tuan said: To have such a large area of ​​land, he had to rent fertile land in Thanh Chuong and Tan Ky districts. Identifying sugarcane as the main source of income, every year his family grows ROC10 sugarcane, invests in balanced and reasonable fertilizers, and takes care of it according to the correct process, so the yield reaches 80 tons/ha. With such yield, after deducting all expenses, the profit is 50%.

According to Mr. Tuat, for sugarcane growers to make a profit, they need to invest in reasonable fertilizers and choose good varieties; the factory needs to have a satisfactory purchasing mechanism and always find high-yielding sugarcane varieties for people to grow.

Mr. Nguyen Tat Hai - Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tan Ky district said: The sugarcane purchasing mechanism of the factory in recent years has not met the needs of the people, while the sugarcane yield is not high, so the income of sugarcane growers is low. Therefore, some communes such as Tan Huong, Ky Tan... grow sugarcane to cover, cook molasses, and earn higher income, causing many raw sugarcane areas in the district to shrink.

Sugarcane has been grown in Ha Son commune (Quy Hop) since 2011, now people need a new variety to replace it.

Nghia Dan district is planned to have 8,800 - 9,000 hectares of sugarcane land, and has so far planted more than 6,000 hectares. Mr. Lam Van Thang - Head of the district's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: Nghia Dan still considers sugarcane as a stable income crop, eliminating hunger and reducing poverty, so in addition to the State's policy, the factory needs to have a long-term policy mechanism, for sugarcane areas with high productivity, especially new varieties.

For Quy Hop district, sugarcane has really changed the face of rural areas in remote areas in recent years, but currently, thousands of hectares have been converted to orange growing, because orange trees in Minh Hop and Nghia Xuan communes earn up to 300 million VND/ha.

According to Mr. Hoang Van Thai - Head of the District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the District People's Committee recently sent a document to the communes, identifying that not all orange growing areas have high quality land. Because currently, many localities are massively growing oranges, while oranges do not have a stable output, sugarcane although the income is lower but there are factories purchasing, the output is stable. The issue that needs to be discussed now is that sugarcane productivity is reduced, due to the grass shoot disease still being prevalent, old varieties, and unstable crop rotation. In particular, in the two communes of Van Loi and Ha Son, sugarcane growers are facing difficulties, it is recommended that the province have policies to support new sugarcane varieties, stimulate sugarcane growers; support drip irrigation technology; 3 sugarcane purchasing factories in the province need to have the same sugarcane purchasing price for people to avoid the phenomenon of competition for buying and selling among factories.

Need for synchronous policy

Evaluation of sugarcane production results in the 2015 - 2016 crop year of the factories shows that currently the main sugarcane varieties grown in the province are: QD93-159, VD00236, ROC10, ROC16, ROX22, KK3, Viet Duong 00236, Que Duong 94-119..., the total sugarcane area in 2015 - 2016 reached more than 21.7 thousand hectares, reaching 71.22% of the plan, the average yield reached more than 51.34 tons/ha, sugarcane output reached more than 1.1 million tons, reaching 58.04% of the plan, (data of the factories). The planned sugarcane planting area in 2017 is more than 27,000 hectares. Of which, the newly planted and replanted sugarcane area is 7,592 hectares, the remaining sugarcane area is 19,548 hectares.

The reason for the low sugarcane area in 2015 - 2016 compared to the plan is that the implementation of the sugarcane raw material production plan has only stopped at the stage of announcing the plan, the local government has not focused on directing the implementation to each locality. The efficiency of sugarcane raw material production in the past has been low, the sugarcane purchasing mechanism for people is not satisfactory, while some other crops on the land have been planned for higher sugarcane raw material: animal feed, oranges, lemons... so some farming households have switched to growing other crops. People's investment in sugarcane intensive cultivation is still low; seed work has not received due attention; scientific and technological advances in sugarcane intensive cultivation have not been widely replicated.

Purchasing sugarcane at Song Con Sugar Factory. Photo: Archive

Faced with the current situation of sugarcane raw material areas and sugarcane productivity being lower than planned, Mr. Nguyen Van Lap - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: The Provincial People's Committee needs to pay attention to and strongly direct the consolidation of land plots and land accumulation for fertile land areas in general, including sugarcane; the province needs to assign relevant departments to study and propose additional policies and mechanisms for developing raw sugarcane such as natural disaster support, developing new varieties, large fields, mechanization... suitable to the situation. On the basis of the planned raw material areas, districts make plans and assign targets to localities to organize sugarcane production according to the planned targets for each commune.

In addition, sugar companies need to build detailed maps of raw materials down to villages, fields... coordinate with authorities at all levels in the raw material areas to organize implementation; strengthen propaganda work, guide technical measures for intensive farming, pest control, invest in support for purchasing clean seeds, new seeds, mechanized land preparation, harvesting, product consumption contracts... so that farmers can feel secure in production, and companies can stabilize and sustainably develop their raw material areas.

Xuan Hoang