The southern region has completed its harvesting of the winter-spring rice crop, with an average yield equal to last year's crop, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The southern region, which planted more than 1.9 million hectares of rice in the winter-spring crop, has had an average yield of 6.67 tonnes per hectare.

The northern region has harvested 200,000 ha of the winter-spring crop. It has planted more than 1.15 million hectares of rice in the winter-spring crop. Rice plants are developing well and promise to have a high yield.

The northern region is expected to harvest about 7.2 million tonnes of paddy in the winter-crop, down from about 52,000 tonnes because of a decline in cultivation area.

Northern provinces, especially the Red Delta provinces, have also focused on switching from planting low-quality rice varieties to high quality ones in the winter-spring crop.

The rice cultivation area under large-scale rice fields in the north has also continued to increase, with 18 out of 31 provinces and cities in the north having set up 495 large-scale rice fields with a total area of 32,000 ha in the winter-spring crop.

As of the middle of May, the southern region has sowed more than 1.38 million hectares of the summer-autumn rice crop. Of the figure, the Mekong Delta, the country's rice granary, accounts for 1.27 million ha.

Besides rice, the country has planted 1.1 million hectares of cash crops and short-term industrial plants in May, up 10.5 percent against the same period last year.-VNA