An Giang expands large-scale rice cultivation model

The Mekong Delta province of An Giang will expand its large-scale paddy fields to over 60,000 hectares, yielding two to three crops per year, as part of its farming restructuring scheme.

According to Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Doan Ngoc Pha, the model is an integrated production chain in which enterprises will purchase rice from farmers who use their seeds and fertilisers.

They will later send agricultural engineers to cultivation areas to provide technical assistance for farmers.

In the coming time, rice processing plants and warehouses will be set up and running soon, making it easier for export activity, he added.

Pha said that during the 2013-2014 winter-spring crop, the provincial agriculture sector has embraced the model on a site of 16,000 hectares.

Added to this, the local farmers have also joined other models to grow high-quality rice meeting the Global Good Agricultural Practice (Global GAP) standards.

Thanks to them, they have reduced production costs by 10-20 percent, saving more than 170 billion VND (8 million USD) a year, he said.-VNA