The Winter-spring rice crop is the main rice crop of the year, accounting for more than 40% of the annual rice cultivation area, the highest yield in all seasons and the output from 45% – 47% of the total rice production in the year. Therefore, the winter-spring rice crop plays an important role in the implementation of the annual agricultural production plan in general and the rice production plan in particular.
In the first months of 2021, localities in the country focused on cultivating winter-spring rice. Although the planting progress of winter-spring rice this year decreased compared to the same period last year, but rice still grows and develops well due to being sown in the crop frame with the best conditions. Until mid-January, the whole country cultivated 1,826.9 thousand hectares of winter-spring rice, equaled to 92.9% of the same period last year, of which provinces in the North gained 62.2 thousand hectares, an equal to 55.4%; in the South reached 1,764.7 thousand hectares, equaled to 95.2%, by mid-February, the whole country cultivated 2,606.1 thousand hectares of winter-spring rice, an equal to 95.9% over the same period last year, of which 710.5 thousand hectares were cultivated in the North, an equal to 88.2%; provinces in the South cultivated 1,895.6 thousand hectares, equaled to 99.1%; particularly in the Mekong River Delta region, the cultivated area reached 1,511.5 thousand hectares, equaled to 98%.
In Northern provinces, the progress of cultivated winter-spring paddy was lower than the same period last year due to the seasonal calendar of most localities was later than the same period, in addition to this year’s Lunar New Year coincided with the peak of the sowing season, thus affecting the production progress. Winter-spring rice cultivation will be completed in mid-March. In some early cultivated areas has appeared harmful pests and diseases but farmers have promptly detected, closely monitored and handled disease pests that do not affect the paddy growth.
Provinces in the South sowed in accordance with the seasonal schedule, some localities actively sowed early to avoid saline water intrusion, limited sowing in places where fresh water was not guaranteed, so winter-spring rice cultivation was basically completed. From the experience against saline drought in previous years, localities have focused on field sanitation, focused on reviewing and reinforcing key ring dikes to ensure drainage and proactively manage water. Cooperatives and farmers promote links with businesses using certified rice varieties, high-quality rice varieties, adapted to local soil conditions, with stable and high yield, meeting market requirements. .. The set of rice varieties comes with a diversified, suitable cultivation process for putting into production helping farmers to have more diversified choices, especially short-term rice varieties with high yield, good quality is better able to adapt and tolerate saline conditions at a relative level. The rice varieties are favored by farmers to use are varieties of resistant or less susceptible, brown planthoppers, twisted yellow dwarf and easy-to-care short-term varieties such as VND 95-20, OM4900, IR64, KD18, OM6162, OM4498, ML202, TH41, TH6, ML48, ML214, …
To cope with the drought, some localities actively cut down the area to sow or convert inefficient rice areas to shallow crops, using less water, so the winter-spring rice cultivation progress in February decrease by 40 thousand hectares compared to the same period last year, concentrating in the provinces of the Mekong River Delta. Some provinces with a large reduction are Soc Trang down by 9.9 thousand hectares; Dong Thap and Tien Giang together reduced nearly 6 thousand hectares; Kien Giang decreased by 4.8 thousand hectares. In addition, some localities’ cultivation progress have increased compared to the same period last year with a total area of 22.2 thousand hectares, concentrated in the provinces of Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, Ben Tre because they are no longer affected by drought as the previous year. For the whole region, the area of winter-spring paddy only decreased by 17.8 thousand hectares compared to the same period last year.
Currently, the winter-spring rice is developing well, the main rice was in the stage of branching, some areas are in the milk stage, preparing to bloom, of which there were 262.5 thousand hectares of winter-spring rice for harvest in the Mekong River Delta, accounting for 17.4% of the cultivated area of the region and equaling 63.6% over the same period last year.
To achieve the successes in rice production in 2021 in general and the victory of the winter-spring rice crop in particular, in addition to the close direction and timely response to complicated weather events in order to get the suitable crop regulation, the rice industry has also undergone a strong change in the direction of implementing an advanced rice production process that has been effectively applied in many localities. Accordingly, at present, most rice growers have applied for the program “one must, five reductions” – that is: Must use certified rice varieties and implement 5 reductions: Reduce the number of seeds, reduce fertilizer, reduce irrigation water through alternating flood-dry techniques, reduce the number of pesticides used and reduce post-harvest losses; well implement the program “three reductions, three increases” (reducing seed quantity, reducing plant protection drugs and fertilizers but still increasing productivity, increasing economic efficiency and increasing product quality). This is considered as the main strategy to improve the sustainability of the rice production industry in Vietnam.
With the initiative in many solutions in production, plus the existing favorable natural conditions (warm weather across the country, favorable for paddy growth), we expect for the winter-spring crop in 2021 to be successful.