Farmers increase use of organic fertilizers, reduce input costs for spring crops

Proactive source of organic fertilizer

Ms. Nguyen Thi Danh in Hamlet 4, Hau Thanh Commune (Yen Thanh) said that her family has more than 4 sao of land to produce 2 rice crops, and in previous years, she often used just enough inorganic fertilizer to fertilize the rice. However, this year, due to the high increase in inorganic fertilizers, especially some types of fertilizers that have increased 3 times compared to last year, her family has to find ways to reduce input costs, focusing onincrease organic fertilizer, reducing the amount of inorganic fertilizer. Therefore, for the past few months, Ms. Danh's family has been using the waste of 2 buffaloes and nearly 100 chickens to make organic fertilizer.

Farmers focus on plowing the land for the spring crop. Photo: Xuan Hoang

“Every day, we put rice husks and straw in the buffalo pen and chicken coop. After a short time, we clean up the barn and dump all the waste into a pit to make compost. It is expected that this winter-spring crop, our family will produce over 1 ton of organic fertilizer for rice, significantly reducing the amount of inorganic fertilizer compared to before. For inorganic fertilizers, because nitrogen fertilizer has increased too much, our family has reduced the amount of nitrogen fertilizer and increased the amount of compound fertilizer (NPK) to reduce the cost of buying fertilizer,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Danh shared.

Some farmers in Quynh Luu and Dien Chau districts... believe that in order for rice plants to grow stably and strongly, in addition to inorganic fertilizers, it is also necessary tomanure, so this season focuses on increasing the amount of organic fertilizer to reduce costs. Currently, many families have proactively gone to cattle farms to buy manure to compost with straw. Farmers also hope that agricultural cooperatives need to promptly contact key agents to supply inorganic fertilizer to farmers at the lowest price.

Farmers in Tan Phu (Tan Ky) use organic fertilizers to fertilize fruit trees instead of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Photo courtesy of Thanh Phuc

Mr. Le The Hieu - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dien Chau district said: This spring crop, the whole district planted more than 9,000 hectares of rice. Faced with the pressure of sharp price increases of inorganic fertilizers, the district directed localities to regularly propagate and guide farmers to increase the use of organic and microbial fertilizers; at the same time, reduce nitrogen fertilizers, increase the amount of synthetic fertilizers so that rice plants grow healthier, reducing pests and diseases. Previously, many families applied too much nitrogen fertilizer, leading to rice growing leaves, creating conditions for pests and diseases to develop and rice yield also decreased.

Although it brings "double" benefits, the use of organic fertilizers to replace inorganic fertilizers still faces many difficulties and has not been widely applied. Photo courtesy of Thanh Phuc

Currently, many families do not maintain raising buffaloes, cows, etc., so to have manure to fertilize their fields, households need to proactively go to cattle farms to buy manure. This is also a solution to reduce input costs when inorganic fertilizer prices increase.

Mr. Le The Hieu - Head of Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Dien Chau district

Combine lime powder to improve soil

Mr. Nguyen Tien Duc - Head of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection recommends: In the situation of inorganic fertilizers increasing sharply in price, affecting farmers' investment costs in production, therefore, in the upcoming spring rice crop, farmers need to increase the amount of organic fertilizer for rice.

After plowing, people apply lime to treat pests and improve the soil. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Accordingly, manure from buffalo, cow, pig, chicken, etc. should be composted for a certain period of time for fertilization; combined with increased application of lime powder to improve the soil, creating ventilation for better root development. Inorganic fertilizers are indispensable for rice plants, but farmers need to balance the amount of fertilizer appropriately, possibly reducing nitrogen fertilizers and increasing compound fertilizers.

In addition, people need to applySRI improved rice cultivation techniques, to increase productivity and reduce costs in rice cultivation. The application of improved rice cultivation techniques SRI will help people save about 30% of seeds, save irrigation water (from 40-50%), reduce the amount of pesticides, increase productivity by 10-15% compared to conventional production and significantly improve soil mechanical composition. SRI is welcomed by farmers because of its simple and easy-to-implement techniques such as transplanting young seedlings, sparse transplanting, single-crop transplanting, regulating water according to growth stages, weeding and stirring mud and increasing the use of organic fertilizers.