Raw sugarcane area: Decreased in all 3 criteria

(Baonghean) - In the 2014-2015 crushing season, all three sugar factories in Nghe An have come into operation. However, this year's crushing season, all sugar factories are facing difficulties due to reduced sugarcane acreage and low sugarcane productivity, leading to a significant decrease in sugarcane output compared to previous seasons.

The raw sugarcane area for the 3 sugar factories in the province is stable every year from 28,600 - 28,800 hectares. Of which, Tate & Lyle Sugar Factory is 18,800 hectares, Song Con Sugar Factory is 8,200 hectares and Song Lam Sugar Factory is 1,800 hectares. However, in the 2014 - 2015 crushing season, the yield and output of all 3 raw sugarcane areas of the 3 factories are lower than the plan and much lower than the crushing season of 2013 - 2014.

Harvesting sugarcane in Ky Tan commune (Tan Ky). Photo: TH

At Tate & Lyle Sugar Factory, Mr. Ngo Van Tu - Deputy General Director said: In the 2014 - 2015 crushing season, the sugarcane area decreased by 3,000 hectares, sugarcane yield decreased by 2 - 3 tons/ha compared to the 2013 - 2014 crushing season, resulting in a sugarcane output decrease of over 200,000 tons. At Song Lam Sugar Factory, Mr. Hoang Van Hung - Deputy Director said: The factory has never lacked so much raw sugarcane as this season. In previous crushing seasons, the factory always had a stable 1,800 hectares of sugarcane, with a purchased output of 100,000 - 110,000 tons.

But this year's pressing season, the remaining standing sugarcane area is only 1,400 hectares, a decrease of 400 hectares compared to the previous season. The locality that has reduced the sugarcane area the most in this raw sugarcane area is Anh Son district. Communes like Hoa Son, from 154 hectares of sugarcane before, now only have 100 hectares left and will continue to decrease. In hamlet 4, Hoa Son commune, there are 167 households, in 2013 they still planted 36 hectares of sugarcane, in 2014 there were only 17 hectares of sugarcane left. Ms. Nguyen Thi Men in hamlet 4, Hoa Son commune, said: In 2013, her family planted 17 sao of sugarcane (1 sao 500m2), now only 7 sao are planted. The area not planted with sugarcane of 10 sao has been converted to growing spring corn + summer-autumn beans + winter corn.

The results of the 2014 harvest through calculation show that: On average, 1 sao of sugarcane harvested 2,750 kg, sold to the factory at 800 VND/kg, totaling 2,200,000 VND. Meanwhile, the investment cost for production (classification, seeds, care and harvesting...) was 1,530,000 VND, the income on 1 sao of sugarcane in the whole year of 2014 was only 670,000 VND. Meanwhile, the area abandoned sugarcane to grow 2 crops of corn and 1 crop of beans, the whole year harvested 540 kg of corn kernels, the selling price was 6,500 VND/kg of corn and 35 kg of green beans, the remaining expenses were 3,045,000 VND/sao/year. “Obviously, growing sugarcane is much less profitable than growing corn and beans on the same area. This is the reason why we will reduce growing sugarcane…”, said Ms. Nguyen Thi Men.

Not only Hoa Son commune but also many other communes such as Thanh Son commune from 88 hectares of sugarcane in 2013, now only 41 hectares left; Binh Son commune also from 281 hectares of sugarcane before, now only 212 hectares left and likely to continue to decrease in the 2015 planting season. According to Mr. Hoang Van Hung - Deputy Director of Song Lam Sugar Factory: The factory lacks raw materials, which means that workers have reduced income due to lack of work. This is a difficult problem that the factory's leaders are urgently researching and looking for solutions to overcome. Therefore, in the 2014 - 2015 crushing season, the factory abolished the purchase of sugarcane for farmers at the factory and instead, the factory's staff directly purchased sugarcane for farmers in the fields. At the same time, since November 2014, the factory will not charge interest to farmers who have borrowed seeds and fertilizers during production and will support new sugarcane planted in 2015 with 3 tons of lime per hectare invested in sugarcane.

Regarding the raw sugarcane area of ​​Song Con Sugar Factory, although the sugarcane area has not decreased much, the sugarcane yield has decreased quite sharply. Mr. Tran Ngoc Son - Deputy Director of Song Con Sugar Factory said: In the 2014 - 2015 crushing season, the raw sugarcane area has not decreased much, but the sugarcane yield has decreased quite significantly, from an average yield of over 58 tons/ha in the 2013 - 2014 crushing season, now it is only nearly 54 tons/ha, a decrease of more than 4 tons/ha, causing the sugarcane output of the whole crushing season to decrease by nearly 40,000 tons. According to Mr. Tran Ngoc Son, the main reason for the decrease in sugarcane yield is partly due to the prolonged drought for many days without rain in the recent past. The rest is due to the sugarcane purchase price for farmers being lower than in previous seasons, so they are not bold enough to invest in fertilizer for sugarcane as much as in previous seasons.

According to Mr. Nguyen Duy Ket - Chairman of the People's Committee of Giai Xuan Commune (Tan Ky District), the commune has a sugarcane area of ​​up to 1,150 hectares, the largest among the communes in the sugarcane raw material area of ​​Song Con Sugar Factory: In the 2013 sugarcane crop, the sugarcane yield of the whole commune reached an average of 62 tons/ha, in the 2014 sugarcane crop, the sugarcane yield was only 57 tons/ha, a decrease of 5 tons/ha. When we asked why the sugarcane yield decreased so much, Mr. Ket said: In the previous crop, the sugarcane price purchased by the factory was on average 900,000 VND/ton of sugarcane, in the 2013-2014 crop, the sugarcane purchase price of the factory decreased to 800,000 VND/ton for grade 1 sugarcane and 770,000 VND/ton for grade 2 sugarcane. Meanwhile, the price of sugarcane seeds, fertilizers, and labor days are high. If calculated fully, the investment cost to produce 1 hectare of sugarcane is nearly 40 million VND, the revenue per hectare of sugarcane is only 44 - 45 million VND, minus the cost, the remaining income is only 4 - 5 million VND/ha/year. That is not to mention the case where the sugarcane plantation is far from the raw material area, after cutting the sugarcane, you have to hire a tractor, a handcart to pick up and transport the sugarcane to the main road for the car to take it to the factory. In this case, the sugarcane grower has almost no profit, even loses.

Not now, but for the past 2 or 3 years, the raw sugarcane growing area in Nghe An has been gradually decreasing in area, productivity and sugarcane output. In our opinion, there are many reasons such as: low purchasing prices, unfavorable weather, strong development of pests and diseases... Therefore, the problem is to find solutions to overcome and minimize the consequences of the above situation. To do this, it requires restructuring the sugarcane growing area by boldly converting rice land that is not completely water-controlled and produces ineffective rice to sugarcane growing.This practice has been tested by Song Con Agriculture Company (Tan Ky district) to convert 120 hectares of ineffective rice production due to lack of water to sugarcane cultivation, increasing sugarcane yield from an average of 68 tons/ha to 110 - 120 tons/ha. This is the most economically effective method, increasing revenue per hectare of sugarcane from 54 - 55 million VND/ha to 90 - 95 million VND/ha. After deducting all kinds of expenses, sugarcane growers still earn an income of 50 - 55 million VND/ha/year.

This method not only brings high economic value but also limits the situation of declining area, productivity and sugarcane output in the raw material areas of sugar factories. At the same time, sugar factories need to have a better raw material area strategy to bring new high-yield varieties into production, working closely with farmers to accompany each crop season in the direction of mutual benefit...

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