A number of enterprises have teamed up with research institutes andagricultural promotion centres for pilot schemes to support farmers toshift their low-yield paddy fields to corn and other high-yield crops, alocal newspaper reported.
According to the Saigon Times Daily,the enterprises and organisations have joined forces after theGovernment has a policy to provide finances for farmers to buy seeds toreplace their poor paddy production with high-yield crops. As a result,corn is proved as one of the alternatives for farmers.
SyngentaVietnam Co., Ltd. said in a statement that the company has cooperatedwith the Institute of Agricultural Science for Southern Vietnam todevelop a model in support of corn production on 20 hectares of formerpaddy field in My Hanh Bac commune, Duc Hoa district in Long Anprovince.
The company said one hectare could bring average outputof 8-10 tonnes of corn and farmers could gain profit of 8.4 million VNDper hectare higher than rice production if a kilogramme of fresh cornis sold at 4,000 VND.
Dekalb Vietnam has worked with theAgricultural Encouragement Centre of An Phu district in An Giangprovince over a pilot programme on crop change. Initial resultsindicated farmers could yield 10.8-12.3 tonnes on one hectare for twoharvest seasons of a year and earn 50 million VND per hectare, includingprofit of nearly 24 million VND. This profit is three times higher thanthat farmers can obtain from rice production.
According to theCultivation Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, some provinces in the Mekong Delta such as Dong Thap, AnGiang, Tra Vinh, Soc Trang and Long An have carried out programmes toreplace rice with corn to help farmers improve earnings.
NguyenThanh Tung, Director of the Agricultural Encouragement Centre of Long Anprovince, said the province considers corn as the most important optionin the programme, followed by sesame and peanut.
Tung said morecorn would be grown on low-productivity paddy fields and the firmEcofarm has invested in a complex of facilities to dry and process cornin preparation for buying all the corn produced by local farmers.
TheMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development estimated around 112,000hectares of low-yield paddy field in the Mekong Delta will make room forcorn and soybean farming. To facilitate fast changes, the Governmentwill provide farmers with 2 million VND to buy seeds for each hectare.
TheGovernment issued the policy on the fact that rice farmers have notbeen able to obtain a 30 percent profit margin as targeted and Vietnamhas to spend 4.5 billion USD importing corn, soybean and other materialsfor animal feed production every year.
The ministry expected shifting from rice to corn and soybean will help the country reduce imports.
TheInstitute of Agricultural Science for Southern Vietnam believed theGovernment’s financial support plus the close cooperation betweenenterprises and institutes will encourage more rice farmers to turntheir resources to high-yield crops.
“We encourage farmers tochange low-productivity rice production to other crops to improve theirincomes,” said Le Quy Kha, deputy rector of the institute.-VNA
According to the Saigon Times Daily,the enterprises and organisations have joined forces after theGovernment has a policy to provide finances for farmers to buy seeds toreplace their poor paddy production with high-yield crops. As a result,corn is proved as one of the alternatives for farmers.
SyngentaVietnam Co., Ltd. said in a statement that the company has cooperatedwith the Institute of Agricultural Science for Southern Vietnam todevelop a model in support of corn production on 20 hectares of formerpaddy field in My Hanh Bac commune, Duc Hoa district in Long Anprovince.
The company said one hectare could bring average outputof 8-10 tonnes of corn and farmers could gain profit of 8.4 million VNDper hectare higher than rice production if a kilogramme of fresh cornis sold at 4,000 VND.
Dekalb Vietnam has worked with theAgricultural Encouragement Centre of An Phu district in An Giangprovince over a pilot programme on crop change. Initial resultsindicated farmers could yield 10.8-12.3 tonnes on one hectare for twoharvest seasons of a year and earn 50 million VND per hectare, includingprofit of nearly 24 million VND. This profit is three times higher thanthat farmers can obtain from rice production.
According to theCultivation Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, some provinces in the Mekong Delta such as Dong Thap, AnGiang, Tra Vinh, Soc Trang and Long An have carried out programmes toreplace rice with corn to help farmers improve earnings.
NguyenThanh Tung, Director of the Agricultural Encouragement Centre of Long Anprovince, said the province considers corn as the most important optionin the programme, followed by sesame and peanut.
Tung said morecorn would be grown on low-productivity paddy fields and the firmEcofarm has invested in a complex of facilities to dry and process cornin preparation for buying all the corn produced by local farmers.
TheMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development estimated around 112,000hectares of low-yield paddy field in the Mekong Delta will make room forcorn and soybean farming. To facilitate fast changes, the Governmentwill provide farmers with 2 million VND to buy seeds for each hectare.
TheGovernment issued the policy on the fact that rice farmers have notbeen able to obtain a 30 percent profit margin as targeted and Vietnamhas to spend 4.5 billion USD importing corn, soybean and other materialsfor animal feed production every year.
The ministry expected shifting from rice to corn and soybean will help the country reduce imports.
TheInstitute of Agricultural Science for Southern Vietnam believed theGovernment’s financial support plus the close cooperation betweenenterprises and institutes will encourage more rice farmers to turntheir resources to high-yield crops.
“We encourage farmers tochange low-productivity rice production to other crops to improve theirincomes,” said Le Quy Kha, deputy rector of the institute.-VNA
