Sowing season along Lam Giang river
This season, people living from the upstream to the downstream of Lam River are busy preparing for the winter crop. The colorful fields along the river seem to be wearing new clothes.
Growing corn for livestock
Lam River flows through the districts of Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Con Cuong, Anh Son, Do Luong, Thanh Chuong, Nam Dan, Hung Nguyen before merging into the ocean. During the annual flood season, the Lam River often rises, flooding the entire rice fields along the river, depositing a significant amount of alluvium. This is also a favorable condition for farmers to intensively cultivate short-term crops with high yields.
These days, farmers in Bai Xa village, Tam Quang commune (Tuong Duong) are busy preparing the land for the winter crop. Ms. Ngan Thi Tam in Bai Xa village said that after a difficult summer-autumn crop due to unfavorable weather, now her family's top priority is to improve the land and select quality seeds to have a source of income at the end of the year.
“My family has 3 sao of corn for the Summer-Autumn crop. Last crop, the weather was erratic, especially the recent heavy flooding, which caused the corn to grow poorly. This crop, my family will continue to replant corn on alluvial land. The corn variety chosen for this winter crop is CP511, a high-yielding corn variety,” Ms. Tam shared.
Ms. Kha Thi Hien - Chairman of Tam Quang Commune People's Committee said: The local Lam River bank area has 70 hectares in Bai Xa, Bai So, Tam Lien villages. The characteristic of the people in these villages is developing agricultural economy, having experience in raising livestock and cultivating crops, so every year people mainly grow corn 3 crops/year to get seeds for raising livestock. In addition, this winter crop, people also grow peanuts, off-season watermelons, cantaloupes, squash, etc. This is an area of land that is deposited with alluvium every year from Lam River, so the crops grow well, with high yields, and crops such as peanuts, melons, squash, etc. bring in profits of 18 - 22 million VND/ha.
As for corn, because the locality has introduced hybrid corn varieties, the yield has reached 3.5 to 4 tons/ha. Most households in Bai Xa, Bai So and Tam Lien villages raise livestock and poultry, so most of the corn after harvest is stored by the people as animal feed, not sold.
Along the Lam River in Anh Son District, such as Tuong Son, Tam Son, Dinh Son, Hung Son, Cam Son, Hoa Son, Duc Son, Thach Son, Vinh Son, fertile fields are also being planted with winter crops by farmers. The long fields are being tilled with machines to make ridges, fertilize, cover with plastic, and sow seeds.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Huong's family in Hoi Lam hamlet, Cam Son commune has 10 sao of land for growing vegetables. This winter crop, she planted 6 sao of green squash and 4 sao of pumpkin. These are crops suitable for the soil of the alluvial area here, and the yield and output are also relatively stable compared to other crops. Immediately after the seeds germinate, the family uses various materials to make a trellis for the squash to climb. It is expected to be harvested after 2 months.
It is known that squash is one of the winter crops grown by Cam Son commune people in recent years in the alluvial area. This is a short-term crop, easy to grow, from planting to harvest is about 90 days and can be harvested from 5 to 6 times. Before sowing, people cover the soil with plastic to keep the soil moist and limit weeds; fertilizer mainly uses composted manure, during the care process, NPK fertilizer is added.
Promoting the advantages of riverside land
Along the downstream districts of Lam River such as Nam Dan, Hung Nguyen, Thanh Chuong, Do Luong... at this time, farmers are seen rushing to the fields to produce the winter crop.
Do Luong district has developed a project for specialized vegetable, root and fruit growing areas with a scale of 150-200 hectares in the Lam riverside alluvial area, concentrated in the communes of Trung Son, Thuan Son, Tan Son, Nam Son, and Luu Son. Exploiting the potential of the riverside alluvial area in the direction of building and planning specialized growing areas to focus on effective intensive investment, creating a volume of valuable vegetables and roots, thereby contributing to localities promoting and developing livestock farming in the direction of the market. This is an important direction in the context of agricultural production development associated with new rural construction in our province today.
Mr. Nguyen Tien Duc - Head of the Provincial Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, said: The alluvial land along the Lam River in the province has about 8,000 hectares, concentrated in the districts of Hung Nguyen, Nam Dan, Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Anh Son... The advantage of alluvial land along the river is that it is flooded every year, and is deposited with fertile alluvium. Farmers' conversion of seedlings and application of scientific and technical advances in production have brought about higher economic efficiency than other vegetable production areas.
Accordingly, every year farmers exploit the potential, specializing in growing corn, vegetables, squash, pumpkins... each year harvesting 3-4 crops, in which the winter crop is more favorable, because it has just been deposited with alluvium after flooding.
However, the fertile alluvial land along the Lam River also faces disadvantages, such as being deeply submerged in water during the rainy season; the irrigation and drainage system is limited; due to annual flooding, there are almost no banks or fields, making it difficult to travel and transport. Therefore, to cultivate on the fertile alluvial land along the river, farmers need to pay attention to the weather, avoid floods and pests.