Farmers harvest rice in Tan Khanh Hoa commune, Giang Thanh district, Kien Giang province (Photo: VNA) Kien Giang (VNA) – The Mekong Deltaprovince of Kien Giang, the country’s largest rice producer, plans to shift86,625ha of unproductive rice fields to aquaculture and cultivation of otherhigh-value crops from now to 2020.
Of the rice fields, 3,420ha will be used to growperennial trees, 10,492ha for short-term crops, and 72,713ha for rotatingshrimp and rice or fish and rice on the same field, according to the province’sDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Mai An Nhin, Vice Chairman of the provincialPeople’s Committee, said the conversion of rice fields was being done to suitthe ecology of each area. This will increase income for farmers and establishconcentrated agricultural and aquaculture areas that meet market demand, hesaid.
The province has instructed agencies to set updetailed plans to convert the rice fields and has also encouraged theestablishment of agricultural co-operatives to produce a large quantity of agriculturalproducts and improve profits for farmers.
In the 2017-18 winter- spring rice crop, about150 rice co-operatives signed contracts with 10 companies to grow more than32,000ha of rice, and were guaranteed outlets.
The province has improved the transfer ofadvanced techniques to farmers so they can produce high-quality agriculturaland aquatic products for export.
In the past, Kien Giang specialised in plantingonly rice, and in recent years, under the encouragement of local authorities,more farmers have rotated shrimp and rice in fields which lack fresh water inthe dry season.
The province now has nearly 90,000ha devoted tothe shrimp - rice rotation model, the largest area of its kind in the delta.
Duong Tuyet Nga, who has rotated farming shrimpand rice in her field in Hon Dat district’s Tho Son commune, said the model hadhelped her family escape poverty.
“Rotating shrimp and rice has a higher profitthan planting only rice, so many households have switched to this model,” shesaid.
Under the model, farmers plant rice in the rainyseason and breed shrimp in the dry season on the same field.
The model offers farmers an average profit of 21million VND (925 USD) per ha for a rice crop and an average profit of 29million VND (1,300 USD) per ha for a shrimp crop.
Dao Xuan Nha, head of the Hon Dat DistrictDivision of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the model had reducedpollution and disease among shrimp.
The province’s shrimp-rice farming modelincludes one crop of black tiger shrimp and one rice crop a year, and two cropsof white-legged shrimp and one rice crop a year.
The model produces clean rice and shrimp asfarmers use less chemicals and the shrimp eat natural food in the fields. Themodel is suitable for areas affected by saltwater intrusion in the dry season.
The model produces about 300 - 500 kilo ofshrimp and four to seven tonnes of rice per ha a year.
However, irrigation systems at shrimp-ricefarming areas have not been perfected, so saltwater intrusion has entered deepinland.
In addition, farmers’ profits from a shrimp cropare much higher than that of a rice crop, so many farmers breed two shrimpcrops in their fields and do not grow a rice crop.
The province plans to focus on investing ininfrastructure and farming techniques for the shrimp-rice farming model andestablish a brand name for these areas, according to its Department ofAgriculture and Rural Development.
The province aims to have 90,000ha devoted toshrimp-rice rotation by 2030.-VNA
VNA
