ĐỒNG THÁP – The Mekong Delta province of Đồng Tháp plans to use high-quality rice varieties for more than 60 per cent of its 2018-19 winter-spring rice crop to improve farmers’ profits.

A total of 205,000ha will be planted and they will have an estimated average yield of seven tonnes per hectare.

Nguyễn Thành Tài, deputy director of the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said for the winter-spring crop the province was encouraging farmers to sow certified seeds of high-quality, high-yield and disease-resistant rice varieties. 

They include fragrant varieties such as Jasmine 85, VĐ 20 and Nàng Hoa 9 and high-quality varieties including OM 4900, OM 5451 and OM 6976.

The department had instructed local authorities to ensure the sowing was done on schedule to avoid disease outbreaks, he said.

The sowing was to be completed by year end, he said.

In the delta, the winter-spring crop is normally the most productive since the weather is favourable then.

Farmers earned a profit of VNĐ17.6 million (US$755) per hectare on average in the last winter-spring crop compared to VNĐ13.8 million ($590) in the 2018 summer-autumn crop and VNĐ9.8 million ($420) in the 2018 autumn-winter crop.

Tài said the province had restructured its agricultural production to reduce costs, thus increasing income from rice by VNĐ1-6 million per hectare.  

It had created links between farmers and companies to improve rice yield and quality, he said.

Farmers and companies have collaborated to plant more than 30,000ha of rice this year, most of it organic or grown to Vietnamese or global good agricultural practices standards.

Trần Tấn Đức, director of the Đồng Tháp Food Company, said to sustainably develop rice exports the company had worked with local authorities and agricultural co-operatives to establish tie-ups.

It had tied up with agricultural co-operatives to grow more than 2,000ha of high-quality rice every year mostly for exports, he said.

This year fragrant and specialty varieties account for 33 per cent of the province’s total area under the grain.

The province has used a number of new strains with high yield and quality and resistance to diseases in recent years.

ĐTM 14-258, for instance, has been planted in Tháp Mười District’s Mỹ Hòa Commune since it can grow in alum-affected soil and is susceptible to few diseases.

The variety has a maturity period of 95-100 days and a yield of six to eight tonnes per hectare.

Nguyễn Minh Phương, who planted 1.3 ha of ĐTM 14-258 rice variety for the first time in the last rice crop in Mỹ Hòa Commune, said the weather was not good but the rice still grew well and had few diseases.

Phương said he would continue to plant this variety for the 2018-19 winter – spring crop. – VNS