Changing thinking about rice

Changing the mindset about rice and transforming the crop structure is a responsible way of looking at and acting towards rice.

Recently, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung worked with provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta to discuss measures to remove difficulties for the most important rice granary in the country.

This shows the need for a fundamental change in the management of production and consumption of rice and other agricultural products. This is considered the time for the agricultural sector to look back at itself, re-plan the structure of livestock and crops in a reasonable manner, improve production efficiency, and stabilize the lives of tens of millions of farmers.

More than 20 years ago, from a country with food shortages, thanks to the change in mechanism, the Mekong Delta became the main rice granary, ensuring food for the whole country. Then from having enough to eat, we gradually rose to become a rice exporting powerhouse with an output of more than 7 million tons last year. That is a truly proud achievement.

Illustration

However, as soon as rice exports were favorable, many experts expressed concern because the export volume was large but the economic value was not high. That was a necessary warning. Now, when rice exports are difficult and farmers do not make the expected profit, that is even more evident.

Once again, the Government decided to temporarily buy 1 million tons of rice to prevent rice prices from falling too low. However, experts said that temporarily storing rice is only a temporary solution, should only be used once, and then there must be a longer-term, more fundamental strategy for rice production, processing and export.

In fact, we buy and store rice every year, but this can only prevent rice prices from falling deeply, not increasing rice prices. Vietnamese rice is increasingly facing fierce competition from rice from other countries in the region. In other words, we produce without relying on market demand.

Instead, we should find out what the world market needs, and then assign production targets to areas where rice has the highest quality and lowest production costs to increase the competitiveness of rice. Instead, farmers still produce some low-quality rice varieties with low export value. The policy of allowing rice growers to make a profit of 30% of the product cost seems very far-fetched.

Agricultural experts believe that we need to change the problem from the root. Instead of giving money to businesses, we should use these cooperatives to “give money” directly to farmers for temporary storage. Farmers use that money to pay off bank loans and reinvest in new crop production, waiting for rice prices to increase; reorganize production according to the cooperative model, apply modern science and technology to have a large amount of agricultural products, meeting the requirements of the export market. And large fields are a model that needs to be replicated.

Another paradox is that while the country exports over 7 million tons of rice each year, earning about 3 billion USD, we also have to spend the same amount of foreign currency to import animal feed and raw materials.

Including the import of corn, soybeans and wheat, the figure is over 4 billion USD. Feed costs account for 70% of the cost structure of livestock products. Each year, the country consumes about 12.5 million tons of feed, of which 72% must be imported. This means that livestock farmers are mainly doing processing for foreign companies.

This reality requires a change in thinking about rice. We have the right to be proud of our rice export achievements and it is completely reasonable to be determined to keep 3.8 million hectares of rice land to ensure food security.

But keeping rice fields does not mean that all of them must be planted with rice, thus wasting the opportunity to develop other more valuable crops and livestock such as corn, soybeans, aquaculture, and livestock. If inefficient lands were converted to corn, soybeans, and grass, we would not have to spend 3-4 billion USD on animal feed each year, more than 7 million buffaloes and cows in the country would not lack food, and Vietnamese beef would not be forced to compete with Australian and New Zealand beef.

Let farmers have the right to decide on their own land. We cannot force farmers to keep growing rice if it does not bring them a better life. Changing the mindset about rice, boldly converting the structure of crops and livestock, reasonably reducing the rice area to replace it with other crops is a way of looking at, a way of thinking, a responsible action towards rice, towards Vietnamese rice grains!./.

According to VOV