The provincial Department of Agriculture recommends farmers to apply science and technology to rice production (Photo: Applying the method of border sowing and fertilizing)

Proactively producing

In the recent winter-spring crop, although the price of rice decreased compared to the same period, it was still generally quite high, achieving relatively good profits, so farmers were quite enthusiastic about producing the 2025 winter-spring rice crop. Mr. Nguyen Van Phong (Khanh Hung commune, Vinh Hung district) said that in the 2024-2025 winter-spring crop, he sowed 4.8 hectares of rice (ST 25 variety), with a yield of more than 8 tons/hectare and sold for 8,000 VND/kg, after deducting expenses, he had a profit of about 40 million VND/hectare. After harvesting, he immediately started cleaning the fields, tilling the soil and preparing rice seeds for the 2025 winter-spring crop. This season, he continued to sow ST 25 variety. “The summer-autumn crop usually falls during the peak hot months, so I always pay attention to reinforcing the embankments and tilling the soil carefully, paying attention to water management, preventing golden apple snails and weeds,” Mr. Phong added. Similar to him, Mr. Dang Van Hong (Thai Tri commune, Vinh Hung district) shared: “After harvesting the winter-spring rice, I started to carefully prepare the stages for the summer-autumn crop production, especially the stages of tilling the soil and selecting varieties. This season, I bought certified OM 18 varieties to sow for 5 hectares of rice.”

Farmers clean the fields to sow rice

The summer-fall crop sowing time in the districts of Dong Thap Muoi region falls during the peak hot season, often requiring water pumping costs, so farmers are very interested in leveling the land and reinforcing the embankment system to avoid water loss from the fields. In addition, farmers in the same field also proactively join hand to pump water simultaneously to reduce costs, sow and plant concentratedly to facilitate pest and disease management and apply mechanization to fertilize and spray rice. Mr. Nguyen Van Tien (Vinh Loi commune, Tan Hung district) planted 2.2 hectares of rice (high-quality rice variety OM 5451). He said: "The summer-fall crop yield is not as high as the winter- spring crop, but the production cost is higher due to unfavorable weather and the fields are not as fertilized, so farmers often have to increase fertilization for rice." According to Mr. Tien, to reduce production costs in the 2025 summer-fall crop, in addition to land preparation and water management in the fields to limit weeds and the harmful development of rats, snails and other pests, he is focusing on choosing good varieties so that the rice plants are healthy, have good resistance to pests, diseases and adverse weather conditions. This helps him reduce costs and limit the spraying of pesticides. In addition, he also pays attention to balanced fertilization according to the growth needs of rice plants to save money on fertilizer.

Applying drones to fertilize rice

Particularly in the southern districts, at this time, farmers are still waiting for rain to start sowing the 2025 summer-fall crop. Mr. Nguyen Van Chanh (Binh Lang commune, Tan Tru district) said: "I have proactively cleaned the fields, now I just wait for rain to plow and sow the crop. This season, I chose the OM 18 variety to sow because it is a short-term variety with high resistance to pests and diseases".

According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, currently, a number of pests and diseases have appeared and caused damage to summer-fall rice at the seedling, tillering, and panicle initiation stages such as golden apple snails (415 hectares), rats (235 hectares), brown planthoppers (162 hectares), leaf blast disease (80 hectares), thrips (35 hectares), alum poisoning (10 hectares), etc, concentrated in the districts of Tan Hung, Vinh Hung, Moc Hoa, Duc Hue and Duc Hoa. In this situation, the department recommends that farmers regularly visit the fields, prevent pests, do not overuse pesticides, limit pollution and control according to the "4 rights" principle.

For a successful crop

Farmers spray pesticides on rice

To help farmers produce good summer-fall rice, the provincial Department of Agriculture and localities in the area have been actively implementing many synchronous solutions to help farmers effectively cope with adverse production conditions and make efforts to minimize costs. In particular, pay attention to supporting and guiding farmers to promote mechanization, apply scientific and technical advances in production through training sessions, field seminars at the beginning of the season and specific models to reduce production costs, improve productivity, quality and selling prices of products. At the same time, strengthen propaganda, regularly update weather, hydrology, pests and diseases and make recommendations for farmers to proactively respond. Maintain and operate irrigation systems well to ensure water resources and promptly notify favorable times for water resources, helping farmers take advantage of high tides to release water into rice fields, saving on water pumping costs, etc.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment - Dinh Thi Phuong Khanh, in order to successfully produce the 2025 Summer-Fall crop, the local agricultural sector and farmers need to pay attention to ensuring the isolation period between the two rice crops, creating conditions for land preparation, straw treatment and pests and diseases prevention in the fields. Pay attention to using biological products to decompose straw and apply advanced technical packages to production to reduce costs and apply smart rice cultivation adapting to climate change. In particular, it is necessary to boldly reduce the number of seeds, sowing and transplanting with the amount of seeds used about 60-80kg/hectare, combined with choosing good seeds, reaching the certified level or higher, helping the rice plants to be healthy right from the beginning of the season. Focus on applying precise mechanization solutions in sowing, fertilizing, and spraying rice to use materials economically and effectively, and pay attention to burying fertilizer to limit the loss and evaporation of fertilizer in the dry season. Focus on selecting and producing high-quality rice varieties in the summer-fall crop (such as OM 5451, OM 18, etc) to facilitate consumption. Sow seeds simultaneously, concentrating on each area and field to easily manage pests and diseases, and facilitate rice caring and harvesting. “Local farmers and cooperatives need to strengthen their links with each other and with businesses to proactively implement joint contracts in rice production and consumption. This also helps facilitate the synchronous application of scientific and technical advances to improve production efficiency and limit output risks,” added Ms. Dinh Thi Phuong Khanh./.

Reported by Bui Tung

Translated by NT