Bac Lieu (VNS/VNA) - The Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu is expanding the use oforganic fertilisers in rice cultivation to improve farmer’s incomes and protectthe environment.

In the lastwinter-spring rice crop, Phuoc Long district’s Bureau of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment launched a pilot programme for increasing the use of organicfertilisers and reducing the use of chemicals on a total area of 110ha, with 60farmers involved.

Pham Van Cau,one of the farmers, said: “The prices of inputs, especially fertilisers, haveshot up, and so the use of organic fertilisers helps farmers reduce costs whilerice plants still have high yields and quality.”

He grew 2haof Dai Thom 8, a speciality rice variety, and got nearly 10 tonnes per hectare,and earned more than 300 million VND (13,000 USD), he said.

Organicfertilisers cost less than chemical fertilisers, and farmers in fact can makethem themselves from animal waste, leaves and other agricultural by-products.

Thai ThiLoan, deputy head of the bureau, said organic fertilisers improve soil qualityand help rice plants grow well and prevent diseases.

The pilotprogramme helped reduce the use of chemical fertiliser by 50-70 percent, shesaid.

The bureauplans to expand the organic rice cultivation, she added.

In the lastwinter-spring rice, the province Agriculture Extension Centre implementedorganic rice farming models on a total of 300ha in Phuoc Long, Hoa Binhand Vinh Loi districts.

Farmers whotook part in them were given free seeds and biological pesticides, and taughtadvanced farming techniques.

Huynh QuocKhoi, director of the centre, said the models reduced costs by 10-20 percentwhile yields were still high and farmers got higher prices for their cleanrice.

Bac Lieu hasgreat advantages in adopting to organic standards since it has more than40,000ha of lands where rice is grown in the rainy season and shrimp is bred atother times.

This modelis naturally clean with farmers required to use few chemicals.

Localauthorities encourage farmers to join co-operatives and tie up with companiesto implement the model to ensure they can sell their produce and also growhigh-quality rice for export.  

Ba Dinh Cooperativein Hong Dan district was one of the first co-operatives to grow rice to organicstandards, and its members now have 300ha under shrimp-rice.

In the lastwinter-spring rice crop, they planted ST24 and ST25 rice varieties, which havewon awards as the world’s best.

Nong Van Thach,director of the co-operative, said: “All the rice was planted to organicstandards.”

Theco-operative guarantees outlets for all members’ produce, buying the rice at15-20 percent above market prices and selling it to HCM City, he said.

Bac Lieu hasestablished the Fragrant Rice - Clean Shrimp Co-operative Alliance with theparticipation of 21 co-operatives which have more than 4,000ha undershrimp-rice.

Theco-operatives have created favourable conditions for establishing value chainsfor their products./.