Changing agricultural production thinking in Nghe An
(Baonghean.vn) - Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, rice has become the king, the world's rice price has become expensive, Vietnam's rice export has become an advantage, or the price of pork has been sky-high for a long time... that shows that there needs to be a change in thinking in agricultural production during the integration period. Pay attention to developing specialties, but still need to focus on "vital" and "mass" products, which are among the country's key plants and animals.
When rice reigns supreme
It is no coincidence that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has recently inspected rice production in Nghe An. In addition to a number of rice projects that the ministry is coordinating to implement, food security is a very important issue, especially when the pandemic is raging in the world, unemployment, isolation, and sharp economic decline, basic human needs such as food are of primary concern.
In that context, Nghe An is still a locality with a large rice production area, reaching more than 180,000 hectares, especially after many years of focusing on producing high-yield rice with hybrid rice varieties, many localities are now attaching importance to producing high-quality rice for their own family consumption and selling to businesses.
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| Harvesting rice in the fields of Xuan Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district. Photo: Xuan Hoang |
Dien Chau district is a locality with many advances in agricultural production. Although trade, services and industry have also developed, the specialized rice and vegetable growing areas are still maintained and currently the district has 55% of high-quality rice in the total 9,000 hectares of rice in the whole district. High-quality rice production has a higher selling price than normal rice from 1,000 - 1,500 VND/kg, more importantly, there is delicious rice to eat, easy to sell, so people are very excited.
Farmers in Dien Binh, Dien Thai, Dien Quang, Dien Lien, Dien Tan communes are producing high-quality rice varieties in large fields such as NA6, ADI 28, sticky rice... During the harvest season, joint ventures bring in trucks to pack and purchase rice right at the field. In the 2020 winter-spring crop, Dien Lien commune alone produced 1,500 tons of high-quality dry rice, which was harvested by private machines, and sold to farmers at a price of 8,000 VND/kg, while regular rice is 6,700 VND/kg.
Mr. Le The Hieu - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dien Chau district said that high-quality rice is very valuable, but production is not enough to meet demand. In the last winter-spring crop, a business in Hanoi and Vinh Hoa Company also cooperated to produce sticky rice, AC5 rice varieties, etc. with high efficiency.
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| High-yield rice varieties are grown in Dien Thai commune. Photo: Van Truong |
This fact shows that rice production is still very valuable and is still a crop that ensures food security. Currently, Dien Chau district has issued a directive on ensuring food security, requiring the organization of production of all rice areas, not leaving them fallow, and assigning responsibility to local leaders for the phenomenon of abandonment. In production, Dien Chau district is also a pioneer in applying science and technology from the stages of land preparation, planting, harvesting, etc. To cope with climate change, the government has directed the use of short-term varieties and water-saving irrigation.
Yen Thanh district is the locality with the largest area of high-quality rice in the province, each year planting 7,000 - 8,000 hectares out of a total of 25,000 hectares of rice, and producing 500 hectares of rice seeds.
Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Head of the District's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: In the last winter-spring crop, Yen Thanh district cooperated with nearly 10 enterprises in production and consumption of products for farmers and continued to implement the plan to support TH Group to expand the scale of high-quality rice production area so that when conditions are sufficient, it will process products such as: rice milk, candy and high-quality commercial rice for domestic use and export.
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| Yen Thanh district cooperates with nearly 10 enterprises in production and consumption of products for farmers. Photo: Xuan Hoang - Quang An |
Concerns about key plants and animals
The scientific workshop on identifying key plants and animals of Nghe An by 2025, with a vision to 2030, recently held by the province, attracted the attention of scientists, experts and managers. This is an important occasion to re-evaluate the investment efficiency and value of key plants and animals in the province to have the next step of resource investment.
Mr. Hoang Nghia Hieu - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said: Up to now, agriculture still plays an extremely important role in Nghe An, the province pays great attention to agricultural development. The key crop and animal project for the period 2014 - 2019 has helped Nghe An develop agriculture very stably, growing about 4.8%/year. Food output reaches 1.2 million tons/year; Nghe An's herd of buffaloes and cows is the largest in the country with 57,000 heads, accounting for 7.5% of the total herd of buffaloes and cows in the country; Nghe An's dairy herd currently has 60,000 heads, accounting for 20% of the country and accounting for 5.28% of the production value of the entire dairy industry...
Along with that, the total herd of pigs is over 1 million; the medicinal herb area is about 1,200 hectares; there are 3 sugar factories, 3 cassava factories, 7,500 hectares of tea, 180,000 hectares of rice annually... Those achievements have helped Nghe An ensure food security, stabilize the rural areas, and create great commodity value. However, in the coming time, there needs to be changes in production thinking, with a major breakthrough.
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| Nghe An's poultry flock has also increased sharply in recent years, as people in the midland and mountainous districts have increasingly invested in raising livestock in the form of farms and semi-free-range farms. Photo: PV |
Mr. Tran Quoc Thanh - Director of the Department of Science and Technology said that Nghe An's main products of plants and animals have not yet created a breakthrough, and have not highlighted the potential and strengths of Nghe An. Lam Dong province has only introduced a few key products but has created a reputation: Vegetables, flowers, coffee, tea, dairy cows...
Therefore, changing the mindset in agricultural production in Nghe An at present is to review the subjects, climate and soil, develop plants and animals with added value and export value. It is also necessary to pay attention to the investment phase, before, after, according to each phase and each region. Moreover, the leading role of enterprises is indispensable.
In addition, it is necessary to develop other typical products: Vinh oranges, deer, goats... and the quantity does not need to be large. For example, Ha Giang province only has 6 subjects: oranges, tea, medicinal plants, buffalo, cows and bees. Or also shrimp farming, but Ca Mau has brought shrimp products to 90 countries and territories. The province strives to achieve an export turnover of 1.2 billion USD in 2019.
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| Shrimp harvesting in Dien Trung commune (Dien Chau). Photo: Xuan Hoang |
Mr. Ho Xuan Hung - former Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee, former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said that one subject that Nghe An's agricultural sector needs to worry about is deer, which is a specialty of Nghe An, currently only exploiting deer antlers but not exploiting meat products from deer and elk. Nghe An's total deer herd currently has 13,500 animals, velvet output reaches about 8-10 tons/year, contributing about 95 billion VND/year, equal to 0.2% of the industry's production value.
Currently, it can be seen that the province has not yet announced the list of key plants and animals for the coming period. However, it can be seen that peanuts and passion fruit have been eliminated. Meanwhile, despite many efforts, Vinh oranges have not yet affirmed their strong brand in the market, when focusing on quantity and not on quality.
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| Xa Doai oranges - a specialty of Nghe An - have not yet been widely reproduced. Photo: Chau Lan |
Freshwater fish, which has not yet gained a reputation, is still in the plan to be the main crop in the coming period. Cassava - a crop with a poor soil for export that is still quite unstable - is still "sitting" in the main crop group. Organizing a conference to re-evaluate the main crop is extremely necessary, but changing the mindset of agricultural production cannot be outside the current fierce weather conditions, the potential and strengths of each region and the new rural development orientations of the country. Exploiting the province's OCOP products with export potential.
Another alarm is the surplus of fruit products such as guava, oranges, apples, etc. in some localities due to production not taking into account market demand, also speaking out in the context that farmers are still producing "what they have".
Nghe An: Identifying the right key seedlings to restructure agriculture
(Baonghean) - A scientific workshop on identifying key plants and animals of Nghe An by 2025, with a vision to 2030, was held to evaluate the overall results after nearly 6 years of implementing the Project on developing key plants and animals according to Decision No. 3079/QD-UBND dated July 3, 2014 of the Provincial People's Committee.
