The village head borrowed 5 hectares of abandoned rice land to plant winter corn.

(Baonghean.vn) - Mr. Vu Van Duong, head of Hamlet 3, Ly Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District, boldly borrowed 5 hectares of abandoned land (used for two rice crops) from his neighbors to plant biomass corn in the winter season.

A tiller is preparing the soil for planting corn on a 5-hectare plot of land that Mr. Vu Van Duong borrowed from neighbors in the village to grow corn for the winter crop. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Mr. Vu Van Duong confided: "Five years ago, the villagers planted winter crops in the rice fields of our hamlet, but later they stopped planting and went to work elsewhere for cash, so the fields were left fallow for four months straight."

Seeing the land being wasted, this winter he decided to borrow 5 hectares of land in the same field to grow biomass corn for sale to livestock farms as cattle feed. On September 6th, he started hiring machinery to prepare the furrows at a cost of 180,000 VND per sao (approximately 1000 square meters). The labor cost for preparing the land alone was 18 million VND, not including the cost of hiring people to plant and care for the crop afterward.

He bought 300 kg of barbed wire and hundreds of bamboo stakes to build a fence around his entire 5 hectares of corn, to prevent cattle from damaging it. The corn variety he will plant is LK66, with 100% of the seed cost subsidized.

Mr. Vu Van Duong - head of Hamlet 3, Ly Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Mr. Duong added: Officials from TH Milk Company have contacted the farmers to arrange a contract for purchasing corn for cattle feed, but no specific contract has been signed yet. Mr. Duong hopes that the commune and district authorities will cooperate with TH Milk Company to finalize a contract with the farmers soon, so that they can feel secure in their production.

Mr. Duong's borrowing of land from his neighbors to grow winter crops was encouraged by the local authorities and supported by the villagers. After harvesting the corn, Mr. Duong is responsible for returning the land to the villagers.

Mr. Hoang Van Chin, Chairman of the Ly Thanh Commune People's Committee, said: "To encourage people to plant winter crops, in addition to the provincial and district-level seed price support policies, the commune has added a policy of supporting 20% ​​of the remaining seed price, an additional 100,000 VND for land preparation per sao (approximately 1000 square meters), and 2 million VND for households planting 2 hectares or more. Currently, some households in the commune have borrowed land from neighbors to plant winter crops, but Mr. Vu Van Duong has the largest area, and the commune strongly supports him."

Xuan Hoang