Building large-scale model fields - Creating a breakthrough for agriculture.

(Baonghean)According to Mr. Nguyen Sy Hung, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Yen Thanh District: Starting the implementation of the large-scale model rice field program in the spring of 2012, Yen Thanh successfully implemented 12 models within the same year, mainly focusing on rice seed production. Businesses played a crucial role in all stages, from supplying seeds and fertilizers to guaranteeing product purchase at market prices. Most of the large-scale model rice fields yielded significantly higher incomes compared to normal production, averaging 70-75 million VND/ha. Particularly noteworthy is the 33-hectare field producing F1 hybrid rice variety RC25 in Phuc Thanh commune, which brought in an average value of up to 140 million VND/ha.

Considered one of the pioneering units in linking and building large-scale rice production areas, for the past two years, Nghe An Agricultural Materials Joint Stock Corporation has made extremely important contributions in this field. The company's director, Mr. Truong Van Hien, said: Following the policy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on building large-scale rice production areas, since the spring crop of 2011, the enterprise has proactively coordinated with localities to build 9 large-scale rice production models in 9 communes of 6 districts: Do Luong, Quy Hop, Con Cuong, Tan Ky, Anh Son, Yen Thanh, and Nghi Loc, with a total area of ​​327 hectares. The average rice yield reached 71.2 quintals/hectare, higher than the provincial average yield by 6.4 quintals/hectare. Many communes achieved very high yields, such as Nghi My (Nghi Loc) with an average of 76 quintals/hectare, and Luc Da (Con Cuong) with an average of 74 quintals/hectare.

Building on that success, by the summer-autumn crop season, the entire province had established 1,044 hectares of large-scale rice cultivation in 20 communes across 9 districts, including mountainous districts like Que Phong. The average rice yield reached 59 quintals/hectare, 12 quintals/hectare higher than the provincial average. Notably, many large-scale rice cultivation areas achieved very high yields in the summer-autumn crop season, such as Nghi Lam commune (Nghi Loc district), where the average yield reached 60 quintals/hectare, 13 quintals/hectare higher than the commune average. In the mountainous district of Con Cuong, 5 large-scale rice cultivation areas in 5 communes achieved an average yield of 62 quintals/hectare, 8 quintals/hectare higher than the district average. It is encouraging that, besides these exemplary cases, most other large-scale rice cultivation areas also achieved yields of around 60 quintals/hectare.



Establishing large-scale model farms is a prerequisite for the mechanization of agricultural production.

Building on these successes, the Nghe An Agricultural Materials Joint Stock Corporation is pursuing larger plans for establishing large-scale rice production centers in the province. Since the beginning of 2011, the company has invested 30 billion VND in constructing a rice processing plant with a capacity of 10 tons of paddy per hour. To date, the company has purchased over 500 tons of VTNA2 paddy from large-scale rice production centers in Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces for processing into commercial rice, with a strategy of simultaneous production and marketing to promote the product nationwide. This is considered a groundbreaking and rational step in securing product distribution for farmers in implementing the policy of establishing large-scale rice production centers.

It can be said that Nghe An has many favorable conditions for building large-scale agricultural production areas, with abundant land resources and a large, diligent, and hardworking workforce. In recent years, our agricultural production has achieved many encouraging results. Annually, the growth rate reaches 5-6%, grain production reaches approximately 1.2 million tons, peanut production exceeds 50,000 tons, sugarcane production exceeds 1.5 million tons, and agricultural, forestry, and aquatic product exports reach over 60 million USD. Many scientific and technological advancements and advanced technologies have been applied to production, increasing the productivity and quality of various crops and livestock.

With the policy of building model fields, Nghe An province has increasingly expanded concentrated specialized commodity production fields, creating a large volume of products that meet market demands in both quantity and quality. Based on the province's policies and mechanisms, many localities have coordinated with businesses to implement this since the spring of 2012, mainly focusing on rice, corn, and peanuts. A prime example is the Nghe An Agricultural Materials Joint Stock Company, which has successfully implemented many rice and corn models. In addition, Vinh Hoa Company Limited, Thai Binh Seed Corporation, Nghe An Seed Company, Nghe An Seed Center, etc., have formed model fields through production and seed consumption contracts with cooperatives. In 2012, the entire province established 52 model fields. These model fields all yielded higher productivity, output, and efficiency than conventional production, at least 10%. In particular, farmers have begun to familiarize themselves with concentrated production, access new technical advancements, and learn to calculate the efficiency of their production. Along with this, the link between businesses and farmers has been established, and in many places, local authorities have actively participated in reorganizing production, while simultaneously managing and supervising the implementation by businesses and farmers.

Last July, our province organized a delegation led by a Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee to visit model rice cultivation areas in the South – areas that have been implementing this model since 2010 and have achieved many successes. In these localities, following the motto "the state and the people work together," the dike system and internal field transportation have been improved to facilitate proactive production, introducing mechanization from land preparation to harvesting and post-harvesting; businesses invest in and link up to market rice, enhancing the value and quality of the product. In these rice cultivation areas, farmers all have handbooks to monitor rice production according to VietGAP standards, thereby helping to raise community awareness about collecting pesticide packaging and environmentally friendly agricultural production.

Based on those valuable experiences in building large-scale agricultural production models, and in line with the policies of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, our province has formulated reasonable policies that are appropriate to the specific conditions of the locality. The Provincial People's Council has passed a resolution on supporting investment in building large-scale agricultural production models in Nghe An province during the 2013-2015 period. This will continue to be an important "impetus" in replicating large-scale agricultural production models throughout the province. However, according to Mr. Ho Ngoc Sy, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, to successfully form and develop large-scale agricultural production models, we must first build and implement a good linkage among the "four stakeholders," in which the business sector plays an extremely important role, as it designs the inputs, outputs, and products, establishes production costs and markets; ensuring that both businesses and farmers benefit. Therefore, businesses must directly sign contracts with farmers, so that through large-scale production models, they can produce products that meet the businesses' order requirements. In addition, the participation of organizations transferring scientific and technological knowledge or agricultural extension systems is also crucial. Therefore, the province urgently needs reasonable policies and mechanisms to encourage businesses and scientists to be truly committed to building large-scale production models and improving agricultural production efficiency throughout the province.

Phu Huong