Farmers harvest high-quality rice in a large-scale rice field in Kiên Giang Province’s Giang Thành District. – VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Đạt

KIÊN GIANG – The areas of large-scale rice fields in which farmers co-operate with companies to grow rice under farm contracts have been increasing year by year in the country’s largest rice producing province, Kiên Giang.

The areas of such rice fields have increased from 12,860ha in 2016 to 30,672ha in 2020 and to 53,478ha last year, according to the province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Lê Hữu Toàn, deputy director of the department, said the development of large-scale rice fields has helped enhance farmers’ awareness about production linkages and increase the application of advanced farming techniques.

Under a large-scale rice field farming model, farmers grow rice under the same cultivating schedules and grow only one or two types of high quality rice varieties, and thus, they produce a large rice output of even quality and the same rice variety that meets the requirements of domestic and export markets, according to Toàn.

The department has co-operated with the Trung An Hi-Tech Farming Joint-Stock Company in the city of Cần Thơ to develop 63,000ha of concentrated rice growing areas in Hòn Đất, Kiên Lương and Giang Thành districts to export to high-demand markets.

Under the co-operation, the company will link with farmers through co-operatives and co-operatives groups to grow rice to the Global Good Agricultural Practices (Global GAP) or organic standards.

Localities are calling on companies to sign farm contracts with farmers to grow rice that will benefit both companies and farmers.

To increase rice value and income for farmers, the department has taken measures to promote linkages among stakeholders in rice production.

It has mobilised various sources from the central Government budget, companies and international organisations to boost the implementation of the province’s agriculture restructuring plan in 2021-2025.

It has also boosted the implementation of programmes and projects that develop concentrated rice growing areas and organic agricultural production.

It aims to develop the area of shrimp-rice farming to 80,000ha.

The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province now has 342,600ha of rice, accounting for 53.9 per cent of its total area, according to the department.

Of the 342,600ha, 282,000ha grow two rice crops a year and 60,670ha are shrimp-rice farming areas.

The proportion of high quality rice varieties planted in rice fields has increased from 70 per cent of the province’s total rice growing area in 2016 to 93.8 per cent last year.

The province has 310 large-scale rice fields with a combined area of 61,074ha.

It is estimated to harvest 4.4 million tonnes of paddy this year, according to the department.

It signed contracts with companies to secure outlets for 123,000ha of rice in 2022-2023. – VNS