Vietnamplus

This summer-autumn crop, the Mekong Delta – Vietnam’s biggest rice granary – expects to harvest 150,000 tonnes of paddy more than last year, according to an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Many farming models using advanced techniques and offering farmers higher incomes have been adopted in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Long An.

The annual flooding in the Mekong Delta has damaged more than 2,000ha of rice this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Directorate of Water Resources.

Farmers in Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces are struggling to fight floodwaters caused by heavy rains, rising tides and water released in the wake of a dam breach in Laos.

The summer-autumn rice crop in southern localities has yielded a good harvest, heard a conference held in the Mekong Delta province of Tay Ninh on July 20.

The summer-autumn rice crop in the Mekong Delta province of Long An is estimated to give a record yield of more than 1 million tonnes this year.

Experts have recommended that the Mekong Delta should expand “smart” rice cultivation to reduce production costs and increase profits.

Vietnam hopes to export 1.6 million tonnes rice in the four remaining months of the year, raising exports for the year to 4.9 million tonnes, said the Vietnam Food Association (VFA).

Farmers in the Mekong Delta Water have planted rice on 497,000 hectares in the Autumn-Winter crop, 24,000 hectares more from the same period last year.

Heavy rains and strong winds have flattened paddy fields in the Mekong Delta, making it difficult for farmers to harvest rice.

The Government should offer policy support for rice farmers in chronically drought-stricken areas, enabling them to switch to other crops

Total rice output this year is estimated at 45.1 million tonnes, a 0.3 percent increase from 2014, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.