Building an agricultural drying kiln: A difficult problem!
With the harsh and increasingly unpredictable natural disaster conditions, the need for a post-harvest processing and preservation system for agricultural products is increasingly urgent, especially for summer-autumn rice and some winter crop products. However, after many years of implementation, the province's policies and mechanisms on this issue have hardly been implemented.
With the harsh and increasingly unpredictable natural disaster conditions, the need for a post-harvest processing and preservation system for agricultural products is increasingly urgent, especially for summer-autumn rice and some winter crop products. However, after many years of implementation, the province's policies and mechanisms on this issue have hardly been implemented.
Mrs. Dinh Thi Ty - Hamlet 6, "flood center" commune Hung Nhan (Hung Nguyen) has 10 sao of rice fields. The flood from September 9-14, 2011 submerged her entire rice field. Mrs. Ty lamented: "My rice has been submerged for a whole week now. My children and I went out to the field to harvest the rice in the rain, brought it home and stacked it up to drain the water, but the rice still sprouted, turning white like young rice seedlings. The weather has cleared up for a few days now, so I quickly took it out to dry, but because it was soaked in water for too long, the rice continued to sprout, so I had to leave it for the cows and pigs to eat."
Without dryers, farmers in many places have to dry rice on the roads, even though they know it violates traffic safety.
This situation occurs in many localities in the province. After the stress of the season, people thought they could breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate a year of good harvest, but suddenly floods came. The whole province has 15,065 hectares of rice submerged in water, the most in Yen Thanh and Hung Nguyen districts. It can be seen that with the production season considered "flood-free", the damage to summer-autumn rice due to floods occurs quite often, even though we have applied many progressive solutions regarding varieties, seasons and farming methods.
Based on these actual conditions, since 2009, our province has had preferential policies to improve the capacity of processing and preserving agricultural products after harvest. Specifically, in Decision No. 19 dated February 4, 2009 of the Provincial People's Committee, there have been very clear support mechanisms. Specifically, 40% support for the value of drying ovens with a capacity of 300-500 kg/drying time in mountainous areas and 20% in plain areas, 20% support for ovens with a capacity of 2,000 kg or more/drying time. Next, in Decision No. 10 of the Provincial People's Committee dated January 20, 2010, there have been continued policies to support the implementation of this policy.
Using a drying oven not only reduces losses from 2% (drying) to 0.5% (drying), but also increases the quality of rice. There are no official statistics, but it is estimated that the annual loss of agricultural products after harvest in our province is about 15-20%. |
However, due to being soaked in water for many days, and not having a drying system that meets the requirements, the productivity and quality of the rice have both decreased. Similarly, in Hung Nguyen, nearly 1,500 hectares of rice were flooded. In many places, people went to the fields to harvest rice in the rain but could not completely save the results of months of labor. Mr. Hoang Duc An - District Agriculture Department said: For a low-lying district like Hung Nguyen, the need for agricultural product drying ovens is very large and urgent, especially in the summer-autumn crop. The annual food output of the low-lying communes in the district that are often flooded accounts for about 40% of the total food output of the district.
Mr. Nguyen Sy Hung - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee, said: The district has coordinated and encouraged two local enterprises, Vinh Hoa Company Limited and Viet Phap Company, to build drying kilns and provide services for farmers. However, no organizations or individuals have shown any interest. According to Mr. Hung, the reason is that the total agricultural output of the district is quite large, but it is small and fragmented among the people, making it difficult to mobilize and manage, while the investment cost to build a complete drying kiln system is relatively large. Similarly, in Hung Nguyen, there is still no agricultural drying kiln, although the demand is very high.
Discussing this issue, Mr. Phan Duy Thieu - Department of Planning and Finance - Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: The province strongly encourages organizations and individuals to invest in building drying kilns to reduce post-harvest losses, while improving the quality of agricultural products, especially summer-autumn rice, peanuts and winter corn, but implementation is very difficult.
Previously, some districts such as Hung Nguyen and Tan Ky had implemented this model but it only lasted for a short time. The province assigned 4 units, namely Agricultural and Rural Development Mechanization Joint Stock Company, Agricultural Development and Construction Services Joint Stock Company, Vinh Quang Company Limited and Agricultural Construction and Mechanization Joint Stock Company, to produce and supply dryers based on registration from the districts. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development also directed and encouraged businesses to build some agricultural product drying models, but did not receive support from the units.
Because the State budget only partially supports, businesses are still hesitant because they have to consider the investment efficiency, while farmers are not used to putting agricultural products in the drying oven. According to Mr. Thieu, for this policy to be implemented, cooperatives should be encouraged to invest and provide agricultural drying services for farmers. That is also the common opinion of many local officials.
However, in the past, the agricultural sector has organized propaganda and encouragement, but no cooperative has yet accepted to do it. This reality has made many people wonder whether this policy, although correct, is not in line with the actual situation, and that stronger decisions are needed in land planning, production areas, and specific mechanisms?
Phu Huong