These days, many households in Long Thanh commune (An Giang) are entering the sweet potato harvest season on areas converted from ineffective rice land. Despite bumper crops and high yields, farmers are still unhappy because prices have dropped sharply.
Ms. Phan Thi Van (resident of Dinh Hoa commune) said that her family rented 11'cong' of land in Long Thanh commune to grow sweet potatoes. The price of sweet potatoes is currently only half that of before, so her family is delaying harvesting, waiting for the price to increase. However, after two weeks, the price still did not increase, and the sweet potatoes were too old, so she was forced to sell at a price of 150,000-200,000 VND/quintal of 60kg, depending on the size.
Ms. Van recounted that the investment cost for soil improvement, fertilizers, pesticides, and harvested labor is about 220 million VND, however, the price of sweet potatoes sold is less than 100 million VND. Her family lost about more than 120 million VND.
Mr. Nguyen Van Nhanh (resident of Long Thanh commune) also said that his family grows 15 cong of sweet potatoes, with a yield of 50 quintals/cong. The price of sweet potatoes ranges from 170,000 VND to 210,000 VND/quintal, so his family lost capital of about 5 million VND per cong and lost 75 million VND for this sweet potato crop.
Vice Chairman of Long Thanh Commune People's Committee Nguyen Nhiem Toan said that sweet potatoes are also a crop that brings high economic efficiency. However, the output of sweet potatoes still depends on the market and traders, so the locality is continuing to promote consumption links with businesses.
Currently, the whole commune has 283.5ha of sweet potato cultivation, the sweet potato production area is concentrated at Nguyen Vu Sweet Potato Cooperative (Nguyen Vu hamlet), creating a raw material area to serve consumption inside and outside the province.
According to the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment, An Giang is a key rice production province of the Mekong Delta region and the whole country. The new An Giang province (after the merger) has a total rice cultivation area of about 623.122.3ha.
Climate change, drought, saltwater intrusion, flooding, pests and diseases and market fluctuations have caused many rice growing areas to reveal limitations in efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability. This reality requires promoting the conversion of crops and livestock on rice land, suitable for each ecological region...
In the period 2026-2030, An Giang continues to convert crops and livestock on inefficient rice land, suitable for each ecological region. The conversion is linked to raw material areas, production and consumption linkages, climate change adaptation, agricultural value improvement and towards sustainable development.
Mr. Nguyen Nhiem Toan - Vice Chairman of Long Thanh Commune People's Committee - said that the locality has more than 7,000 hectares of agricultural land, and specialized areas for rice, fruit trees, crops and aquaculture have been formed.
In the coming time, the commune will increase links with businesses, develop safe sweet potato areas, build OCOP products, support cooperatives in digital transformation, trace origins and expand output.
