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Mekong rice sector faces cash shortage
The quality and output of rice from the Mekong Delta won’t improve over the next two decades without a substantial injection of funds, a development conference was told on Wednesday.
Without more investment, the region’s annual rice output will remain at about 21 million tons, or an average of five to six tons a hectare, until 2030, said Pham Van Du, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department of Crop Production.
The Mekong Delta, which had 3.8 million hectares of rice under cultivation in 2008, is one of Vietnam’s two major rice-growing regions, along with the Red River Delta near Hanoi.
But farmland is under pressure from developers, who want to build residential areas, industrial parks, golf courses and entertainment venues.
“If the state introduces no urgent measures to improve rice output and quality, Vietnam’s food security will be badly influenced,” Agrifood Consulting International’s Francesco Goletti told the “Seeking Strategies and Solutions for the Development of Mekong Delta” seminar in Can Tho.
The seminar, organized by the World Bank and Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, heard Mekong Delta rice farmers needed new equipment, including rice driers and laser-guided rice field levelers.
Le Hung Dung, director of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Can Tho, told the conference the government should consider extending its interest-free agricultural loan scheme to five to 10 years. The government’s VND160 trillion (US$9 billion) assistance scheme, announced in April, is due to expire at the end of the year.
The government could recoup a US$400 million investment in the Mekong Delta within two years if the region’s farmers had access to modern equipment, said Phan Hieu Hien from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry.
With laser-guided rice field levelers, farmers use 50 percent less water for irrigation and 70 percent less labor while increasing output by half a ton per hectare, Hien said.
By using rice driers after harvesting, Vietnam could save $180 million a year because moisture lowers the price of rice and increases the risk of the food staple spoiling.
Mekong Delta farmers also lose about 300,000 tons of rice a year by manually harvesting their crops, a time-consuming and inefficient method. Using rice combine harvesters could increase output, the conference heard.
The region only has 3,000 rice combine harvesters, according to Le Van Banh, head of the Mekong Delta Rice Institute based in Can Tho. Mekong Delta rice farmers are estimated to need 15,000 of the machines, he said.
Van Truong
vietnews
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