Exercise caution regarding the proposal to reduce rice cultivation area by 2 million hectares.

(Baonghean)Recently, former Deputy Prime Minister Tran Cong Tan and several agricultural experts suggested that Vietnam should reduce the area of ​​rice cultivation by approximately 2 million hectares, which is half the current rice-growing area. The reasons given by the former Deputy Prime Minister and the experts are:

- With low rice prices, farmers cannot get rich if they rely solely on rice cultivation.

- By reducing supply and increasing demand, we hope rice prices will double.

- The land area reduced from rice cultivation will be used to grow corn and soybeans to avoid importing them from abroad. At the same time, the remaining land will be used to grow flowers, ornamental plants, and fruit trees with higher economic efficiency than rice cultivation, aiming to increase farmers' income and enrich the country.

- The remaining area still ensures national food security.

So, big, very important questions have been raised, forcing us to think carefully to find accurate answers, otherwise we risk making a "small mistake that leads to big consequences." Is it certain that converting 2 million hectares of rice paddies, traditionally used for centuries, to other crops will be more economically efficient? With low food prices, why are many countries, including the United States, still determined to compete among the top rice exporting nations? Or are our production techniques, processing technology, and trading capabilities still problematic, limiting our export capabilities in various aspects? We should thoroughly investigate these issues before drawing any conclusions.

First of all, converting 2 million hectares of paddy fields into dry, elevated fields for growing flowers and fruit trees is no easy task and will certainly be very costly. Secondly, who can guarantee that the flowers and fruit trees grown will be marketable, especially for export? Are we strong enough to compete with flowers from the Netherlands and Bulgaria on the world market?

The Nga Son case is worth reflecting on by agriculturalists: In Nga Son (Thanh Hoa province), everyone knows that for the same area, growing sedge is at least five times more economically efficient than growing rice. Yet, even today, Nga Son farmers are having to uproot sedge to plant rice, as clearly stated in the Nga Son District Party Committee's resolution! Why? Because sedge mats and other handicrafts made from sedge are facing bottlenecks; the goods are not selling! A representative from the Nga Son District Party Committee said, "If rice doesn't sell, we eat it or use it for livestock, but if sedge doesn't sell, we just waste more effort burning it!" That's very reasonable! I wonder if the proposal by the Deputy Prime Minister and agricultural experts to convert 2 million hectares of rice paddies to growing flowers and ornamental plants for export will bring better results for farmers, or will it lead to the same predicament as the sedge export crop in Nga Son district?

As for reducing rice cultivation area to double rice prices, is it as easy as the experts claim? An agricultural scientist recently stated on VTV1 that if rice prices double, farmers will rush back into rice production, and the rice cultivation area will return to its previous size, rendering the measure of reducing the area ineffective.

Now let's talk about the selling price of Vietnamese rice. It's not just rice; coffee, rubber, cashews… in general, our agricultural products always have lower selling prices than the world market. How can producers get rich if they sell their goods cheaply, even at a loss? But to sell rice at the right price on the world market, the problem isn't that Vietnam needs to reduce its rice cultivation area! Perhaps the low price of Vietnamese rice is also due to issues in production, processing, marketing, and sales?

No book has ever stated that anyone engaged in agriculture, especially food production, is bound to be poor! The author of this article was fortunate enough to have a direct conversation with an American professor, Lari Rosman, from the University of Chicago, and learned that our farmers are poor primarily because they cultivate land that is far too small, less than 1% of the land a single American farmer cultivates. The amount of land cultivated by an American farming family is equal to or greater than the total land cultivated by an entire village, or even an entire commune, of our farmers. Therefore, it is only logical that they are wealthier than us!

Mr. Lari also argued that Americans never give up competing in agricultural production on the world market, including food production such as corn, rice, and wheat flour. This illustrates that Vietnamese farmers are not poor because of rice production, but primarily because the cultivated land area of ​​Vietnamese farming families is too small compared to the average land area of ​​farmers in other countries. Furthermore, we still have many shortcomings in rice production and market competition. These are being gradually overcome through the industrialization and modernization of the country's production; we cannot rush to achieve this immediately!

Thach Quy (Vinh City)