Actively protect spring rice from cold

(Baonghean)In the freezing cold, local farmers are rushing to the fields to prepare the soil, cover the seedlings with plastic, and take careful care to ensure the seedlings are ready for planting in the spring of 2013...

Mr. Phan Cong Huong - Vice Chairman of Nghi Dien Commune People's Committee (Nghi Loc) said: In the spring crop of 2013, the whole Nghi Dien commune planted 394 hectares of rice. Up to now, Nghi Dien has sown 85% of the seedlings covered with plastic, all of which have been planted and covered with plastic according to technical procedures. Through inspection, it shows that despite the prolonged cold weather, the seedlings still grow and develop well, the first batch of seedlings has turned green. Around January 22-24, the people of the whole commune will plant simultaneously, striving to complete the spring rice planting before Tet. To ensure timely supply of seedlings, in addition to focusing on protecting the seedlings from the cold, the people will simultaneously treat and kill rats with biological bait purchased by the Commune People's Committee and distributed to the people. The commune thoroughly instructed the people to cover 100% of the seedlings with plastic, not to sow directly, and assigned specific targets to each hamlet. If any household plants seedlings without covering them with plastic, they must pay back double the cost of plastic to the State.

As a color commune of Nghi Loc district, in the spring crop of 2013, Nghi Long commune produced 138 hectares of rice and 223 hectares of peanuts. Currently, people are actively covering 100% of the rice seedlings with plastic. The locality has provided enough materials and fertilizers for people to produce the spring crop, with more than 2.6 tons of hybrid rice seeds and 70 tons of various fertilizers. The commune People's Committee contacted Bac Giang Seed Company to get new L14 and L26 peanut seeds to supply to people for production. The local government as well as the people here are focusing on overcoming weather difficulties to implement spring crop production with the highest expectations.



Nghi Loc farmers take care of spring rice seedlings. Photo: QL

Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen Duc Tho - Head of the Department of Agriculture of Nghi Loc district said: Right in November 2012, the district People's Committee organized to disseminate to each facility and all people the production plan for the spring crop of 2013. Before the time of planting rice seedlings, the whole district had supplied over 100 tons of pure rice seeds, over 50 tons of hybrid rice seeds and over 2,000 tons of various fertilizers. Currently, the people of the whole district are focusing on protecting the seedlings from the cold by measures such as covering the seedlings with plastic, adding wood ash and ensuring water in the field to keep the seedlings warm, while strictly following the crop calendar directed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Absolutely do not sow rice directly.

In parallel with the seedling planting, farmers also urgently harvested winter crops and cleaned the fields to ensure the completion of spring production before Tet for peanuts and rice. In the 2013 spring crop, Nghi Loc district planted 7,100 hectares of rice, of which 90% was late spring. The structure was from 2,500 - 3,000 hectares of hybrid rice, nearly 1,000 hectares of high-quality commercial rice with varieties such as DT168, AC5, RVT, Nghi Huong... By January 9, despite the prolonged cold weather, the seedlings were carefully covered with plastic so they still developed well. In addition to the province's policy, Nghi Loc district supported 10% of the value of various types of tillage machines for farmers; supported 20,000 VND/kg of plastic covering for seedlings, supported the construction of 2 high-quality rice growing models in Nghi Hoa and Nghi Kieu communes to be replicated in the following years...

Yen Thanh is one of the localities that sowed spring rice quite early. By January 9, in the district, people had basically finished sowing rice seedlings. According to Mr. Nguyen Sy Hung - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee, Yen Thanh focused on sowing rice seedlings from December 31, 2012 to January 5, 2013, until now there are only a few rice fields in the highland communes that were scheduled to sow rice seedlings from January 5 to 10, but due to the cold, they have stopped. Although the seedlings have been covered with plastic in 100% of the area, the district still focuses on directing the communes to guide and advise people to regulate water properly, cover with kitchen ash and mix phosphate fertilizer to keep the seedlings warm, and regularly check to fix problems such as holes and tears in the plastic, ensuring that the seedlings are kept warm enough. Up to now, through inspection, the entire rice seedling area is developing well, however, in the face of the continuing cold and rainy situation, protecting spring rice seedlings from the cold is still one of the tasks that Yen Thanh is focusing on directing.

Up to now, in addition to 80 hectares of early spring tea seedlings that have turned green, the remaining areas of seedlings are being directed by Hung Nguyen district to immediately stop sowing, soaking, and planting. Mr. Hoang Duc An - Deputy Head of the district's Agriculture Department said: Of the planted seedlings, about 80% are covered with plastic. In recent days, the district has issued instructions and directives, requiring communes to seriously carry out the task of protecting seedlings by measures such as covering with additional plastic, applying phosphate fertilizer, wood ash and regulating water properly, thanks to which, currently no seedlings have died due to the cold.

According to a quick summary of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, up to now the whole province has sown 1,140 hectares of rice seedlings, enough to transplant about 31,000 hectares, basically all the seedling areas are covered with plastic (except for the early spring seedling area). Thanks to that, although the past few days have been severely cold, there has been no phenomenon of seedlings dying due to cold. However, according to experts, if severe cold lasts 5-7 days, the seedlings will die if not carefully protected, and if cold damage occurs, the seedlings can only withstand 2-3 days. Therefore, the best measure to protect the seedlings now is to cover them tightly with plastic, properly. Areas that are not covered with plastic must be flooded deep in the field to keep the seedlings warm. If the weather is clear and there is light but the air temperature is still low, the water can be drained during the day, but water must be added at night. In places where water is not available and no plastic cover is provided, ash must be spread over the seedling beds. The seedling areas are covered with plastic. When the cold weather is over and the seedlings are ready to be transplanted, the plastic must be slowly opened so that the seedlings can gradually come into contact with and get used to the external conditions.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Lap - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, if the temperature continues to drop in the coming days, the risk of seedlings dying is very likely to occur. Therefore, in addition to the areas of seedlings that have been sown, in localities that are currently preparing to sow seedlings, it is necessary to cover 100% of the seedling area with plastic to protect against the cold, brown planthoppers and white-backed planthoppers that cause black-striped dwarf disease. Particularly for the areas of seedlings that have been sown but have not been covered with plastic, additional covering must be done immediately. In particular, absolutely do not fertilize seedlings, do not soak, sow seedlings, or transplant rice on days when the temperature drops below 150C, because if the weather is below 150C, the seedlings will stop growing, if pulled up, the roots will not regenerate due to the cold, so they will easily die. If soaked, find a way to slow down the germination and not sow too soon. Farmers can also wait until after the Great Cold (January 20th), when the weather is likely to warm up, to sow the seedlings. This way, the seedlings will not be in danger of being exposed to the cold and will still ensure the season because these are mainly short-term varieties.

Along with cold protection, localities and people also need to pay attention to the growing time of each variety to sow rice, avoiding the situation of sowing short-term seeds at the same time as long-term seeds. Pay attention to preparing reserve rice seeds to sow additional rice seeds if the prolonged cold causes the seedlings to die, or damage in areas where direct sowing is done; at the same time, have an early plan in case of having to convert rice to dry crops to have synchronous guidance on regions, variety structure, planting season, etc. to achieve the highest efficiency and not let the area be abandoned.

Quynh Lan - Phu Huong