Mekong Delta provinces are deploying an array of projects to improve the quality and competitiveness of rice in the world market with top priority given to modernising post-harvest technologies.

The projects are expected to help local farmers cut rice production costs by 30,000 VND per tonne and increase their revenues from rice by more than 500 billion VND per year.

Between now and 2020, the localities will purchase an additional 20,000 to 25,000 harvester-threshers and rice dryers in order to ensure that at least 80 percent of rice farming acreage is collected and dried mechanically.

By 2015, the region will equip export rice processing centres with 70 modern drying systems with a combined capacity of 10-30 tonnes of rice per hour.

Meanwhile, a storage system capable of storing up to 4 million tonnes of paddy rice is also expected to be operational by the end of this year, after three years of construction.

Located in 52 places in 13 Mekong Delta provinces and cities and Ho Chi Minh City, storages will be operated mechanically and automatically to increase productivity and control technical parameters during the process of rice preservation.-VNA