Lack of drying services - agricultural products 'fail in harvest' right at home

(Baonghean) - Every year, during the summer-autumn harvest, heavy rains cause flooding of rice and corn, disrupting post-harvest drying and preservation. Meanwhile, there is currently no agricultural product drying service in the province.

"Crop failure" in the house

The recent prolonged rains caused the rice fields of Mr. Tran The Quy's family, in Hamlet 9, Xuan Hoa Commune (Nam Dan) to be submerged in water for 5 days. Mr. Quy said: "Rice under water cannot germinate, but after the water receded and the harvest was finished, it rained again. Therefore, I piled it up in the field for another 3 days before bringing it home to thresh because if I bring the rice home without sun exposure, it will be spoiled. This summer-autumn crop, my family only harvested a few dozen kilograms of rice from 3 sao of rice."

Without drying services, the rainy season rice must be used as animal feed.

Xuan Hoa commune has 325 hectares of summer-autumn rice, of which 35.5 hectares were damaged by over 70%. However, according to Ms. Truong Thi Thanh, an agricultural officer of the commune, that number only reflects the visible damage in the fields, the damage after the rice was brought home cannot be fully calculated. “Many households sold their fields to raise ducks, one household sold 6 sao of rice for 2 million VND. The rest of the people brought the rice home and tried to cover it with corrugated iron, the careful households used fans to dry it but it was all ineffective. If only there was a dryer, the damage would be much less.”

For many years, Nam Dan district has always resolutely directed people to strictly follow the crop calendar and variety structure so that they can harvest summer-autumn rice before August 30 in lowland communes and September 5 in highland communes. However, this year, due to extreme weather, the summer-autumn production schedule was delayed, and on August 30, Nam Dan district only started to harvest a small amount of summer-autumn rice, and most of the area could only be harvested after September 5, right at the beginning of the rainy season.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thang - Deputy Head of the District Agriculture Department said: "The "crop failure at home" happens almost every year. Even though the rice can be harvested, if it rains, it is better to leave the rice in the field soaked in water than to harvest it because if it is brought home and piled up in the house without sunlight to dry, the damage will be even more severe...".

Not only in Nam Dan, but also in most other localities in the province, post-harvest losses are familiar to farmers every time the flood season comes.

Just counting the heavy rains from September 10 to 14, 2016, Nghe An had over 9,000 hectares of rice flooded and an estimated damage of over 8,800 hectares, of which nearly 4,800 hectares were completely damaged. In addition to the force majeure reasons, there is also a subjective reason that up to now, the whole province has not had an agricultural drying system so that people can be more proactive in harvesting and preserving summer-autumn rice.

Not only did they suffer heavy crop failures due to flooding, but many households after harvesting had to accept selling fresh rice right in the field at a value 4-5 times lower due to lack of space for drying.

Urgent investment in drying and preserving agricultural products

As a unit that organizes the production, processing and consumption of high-quality rice such as AC5, herbs, in addition to investing in other modern technological lines, Vinh Hoa Company Limited (Yen Thanh) invested in a rice polishing line system, a dehumidifying dryer line from an American non-governmental organization, with a total cost of 15 billion VND and a rice storage warehouse. The purchased rice products are dried according to the correct process, meeting the required quality. However, in the province today, such "models" are "only one" and "self-sufficient", mainly serving the activities of enterprises and not interested in serving the needs of the people.

Since 2009, Decision No. 08/QD-UBND, Nghe An has had a policy to support part of the cost of building agricultural drying kilns, in order to reduce losses and improve the capacity of processing and preserving agricultural products after harvest, with an annual budget of 500 million VND to 1.5 billion VND. However, up to now, after 7 years, no agricultural drying kilns have been built in the whole province. Therefore, the preservation of agricultural products is still done manually and depends on the weather.

Flooded rice is harvested and sprouting in the corner of the garden.

Mr. Phan Van Thieu - Head of the General Planning Department, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development shared: This policy cannot be implemented in practice, first of all because although land consolidation and plot exchange have been actively implemented, agricultural production in Nghe An is still quite fragmented and small-scale, making it difficult to concentrate large quantities of products to put into the drying oven. While producers have not yet seen the urgent need for an agricultural drying system due to the damage, if any, not too large for each household, so "investors" are still very hesitant.

Not only is it difficult to have a concentrated source of agricultural products for service, but the dryer is considered "unsold". After 2 years of implementing Decision 68 of the Prime Minister on lending to reduce post-harvest losses, the provincial Agricultural and Rural Development Bank system has disbursed nearly 200 billion VND to households, but the capital is only focused on buying machinery for production and harvesting, while the field of processing and preserving agricultural products has not disbursed any money.

While there is no drying system for agricultural products, localities have had solutions to avoid and minimize damage caused by adverse weather. However, in recent years, the impact of climate change, production often suffers damage due to storms, so the need for drying agricultural products has become more urgent. To attract businesses to invest in the field of drying and processing agricultural products after harvest, it is necessary to have strong enough mechanisms and policies on taxes, loans, premises and the dedication of all levels of the industry...

Phu Huong