Lesson 3: Need for policies to encourage the construction of manual drying kilns

For many years of agricultural production, but never a year have farmers in the districtMaleThe herd faced difficulties like this year 2011. Ms. Dau Thi Luong, Dong Van hamlet, Hung Tien commune (MaleDan) shared: "Every year there is a crop failure but the harvested products can still be dried so there is still rice to eat and straw for livestock.

This year, not only people are hungry, but also cattle and buffaloes are hungry because all the straw has rotted. Farmers who need to buy straw for their cattle and buffaloes to eat to avoid the cold have none. My family was lucky to buy 3 sao of straw for 1 million VND and was happy. In the summer-autumn crop of 2011, my family planted 4.5 sao of rice and harvested 1 ton of rice, but due to prolonged rain and floods from August to November, the rice could not be dried and was damaged. Luckily, my family has a large yard so we were able to harvest rice. More than 200 kg of rice was damaged, but the remaining 700 kg of rice sprouted, the quality of the rice was poor and not tasty to eat."

Preserving agricultural products after harvest is essential for farmers.

Mr. Le Van Canh's family (Dong Van hamlet) planted more than 5 sao of summer-autumn rice. After much hard work, they harvested nearly 1 ton of rice. The whole family was overjoyed. However, the joy was short-lived because the rain lasted for more than 2 months. The house was cramped and there was no place to dry it. All the rice had sprouted like young seedlings. Nearly 1 ton of rice had to be pounded to feed the cows and pigs. He was heartbroken that all the capital and effort he had put in working day and night were now lost in the flood...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong (Dong Van hamlet) lamented: In the summer-autumn crop, my family planted 4 sao of rice. Since planting, it rained and was damaged, so we had to sow it again 4 times. At the end of the crop, we harvested 600 kg of rice, but the rice was of poor quality with many empty grains. However, the prolonged rain and floods made it impossible to dry, so much of it was damaged. The remaining rice turned black, tasted like a rotten rice, and was not tasty. Most people in the commune had to eat rice from germinated rice...

This reality does not only occur in the district.MaleThe dryer is popular in many localities in the province. In recent years, Nghe An province has issued mechanisms and policies to support investment in the construction of agricultural dryers. Specifically, Decision No. 19/2009 of the Provincial People's Committee has a mechanism to support 40% of the value of dryers with a capacity of 300 - 500 kg/drying time in mountainous areas, and 20% for plain areas, supporting 20% ​​of dryers with a capacity of 2,000 kg or more/drying time. Next, Decision No. 10/2010 of the Provincial People's Committee also has policies to support the construction of agricultural dryers. However, up to now, this policy has not been implemented. Mr. Nguyen Tho Canh - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An province said: In the past, every year, there has been a plan to spend money to implement the policy of supporting agricultural dryers, but in reality, it has not been implemented because no locality has built inter-household dryers. Therefore, this funding source must be transferred to other policy content.

According to Mr. Nguyen Tho Canh, plows and harvesters are more important to farmers because they serve many purposes in production. Dryers are actually only used for about 2 weeks a year, the rest of the time they are not used. The current trend for winter crop production is that the Department of Agriculture directs localities to not only grow corn and peanuts, but also actively expand the area of ​​growing vegetables, tubers and fruits, bringing higher economic efficiency without the need for dryers.

Discussing this issue with us, Mr. Phan Duy Thieu - Department of Planning and Finance of the Department of Agriculture added: In the agricultural machinery support policy according to Decision 19 and Decision 10 of the Provincial People's Committee, there is support for agricultural dryers. However, in recent years, it has only been implemented for plows, harvesters, and tea pickers. The policy of encouraging enterprises, farming households, especially cooperatives to build drying kilns has not yet had any enterprise bold enough to do so.

For cooperatives, even though they have integrated other programs to build agricultural drying kilns in districts and communes to serve the drying of agricultural products for people, the results have not been much. In previous years, Tan Ky and Hung Nguyen have built a number of manual drying kilns, but they have not been put into use. Small-scale farmers dry their products in their own yards. In normal weather years, there is no need for drying, but in 2011, there was a lot of rain, and the need for dryers appeared. The reason why businesses are not interested is because the investment is large, and the accompanying equipment requires hundreds of millions of dong. Therefore, although the province has support policies, from 2009 to now, no unit has invested in building drying kilns.

Back to districtMaleMr. Nguyen Huu Nhuan - Head of the District Agriculture Department said: Every year, the whole districtMaleThe herd produces 6,200 - 6,700 hectares of summer-autumn rice. The 2011 summer-autumn crop had a total harvest of 30,000 - 32,000 tons, of which about 1/4 of the rice yield was of poor quality due to prolonged rains that could not be dried. Post-harvest losses were huge, many households had harvested hundreds of tons or tons of rice, but the rice had been wet for a long time and sprouted, so they had to switch to animal feed.

On average, each household harvests about 1 ton of rice, but 3-4 quintals are damaged. For corn, in previous years the whole district used to produce 2,500-3,000 hectares of corn. During the harvest season, there was prolonged rain, and the corn could not be dried. The corn sprouted right on the ears. Many households harvested 2-3 quintals of corn, but only 20-30 kg remained. Thus, the need for dryers is very necessary. So why haven't farmers used product dryers? Because the investment capital for a dryer is large compared to a farming household, while the products of a household are not much compared to buying an agricultural dryer. A 2-ton/day dryer costs 40 million VND/machine (2009 price).

If buying a dryer costs from 20 to 40 million VND/machine, while the policy supports 20% of the machine price, it means supporting from 2 to 8 million VND/machine and supporting interest for the remaining 80% of the investment that people make. Dryers cannot be used for production in all seasons. If you buy a dryer in normal weather, you will not use it, just cover it up and leave it there for a long time, it will break down. If the government supports according to the above policy, it will be difficult for farmers to implement.

In weather conditions like 2011, farmers should try to use manual drying ovens, which is more suitable. The total cost of making a manual drying oven is less than 1 million VND/oven, including a small homemade fan, a 2-3 meter long hot air pipe system made of corrugated iron, a honeycomb coal furnace, which can dry 2-4 quintals of rice/day. The State should encourage farmers to build manual drying ovens, or the State should mass produce manual drying tools to supply to the people, which would be more suitable for the current small-scale production conditions.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Tho - Head of the Department of Agriculture of Nghi Loc district said: In the 2011 crop, Nghi Loc was flooded with 1,500 hectares of rice soaked in water, causing great damage to farmers. In fact, the need for dryers is very practical for the crop, especially in 2011 when the rain lasted for more than 2 months. But the disadvantage is that only in years with a lot of rain do people need dryers, and when there is no rain, they dry their rice. In the past, Nghi Lam Agricultural Cooperative also had dryers but they were not effective, because farmers did not have the habit of drying by machine. Therefore, in the current small-scale, fragmented production conditions, with a small volume of products, combined with the sudden difficulties of natural conditions, the State's policy should support small dryers, even manual dryers, which would be more suitable and practical.

Quynh Lan