Many rice fields in the provinces and cities of the Western region such as Can Tho, Hau Giang, etc. are in the harvest stage. However, the stormy weather combined with the difficulty of renting cutting machines has resulted in the ripe rice not being harvested in time, causing a loss in productivity.
Harvesting 1.3 hectares of late summer-autumn rice more than a week ago, Mr. Tran Van Tu (Long My district, Hau Giang province) said that due to the impact of storms and rain, the rice fell over and was harvested late, so the yield was reduced. Meanwhile, the price of renting a cutting machine increased from 50,000 - 100,000 VND/cong (1 cong = 1,000 square meters), depending on the level of fallen rice.
“The longer I leave it, the higher the loss of rice will be and I will have to spend more money to pump water into the field, so I had to rent a cutter for 380,000 VND/cong, 50,000 VND/cong higher than last year, to harvest early. However, I had to harvest 10 days later than planned. The cutter could not harvest all the fallen areas, so the yield decreased by about 100kg/cong,” said Mr. Tu.
With the price of Dai Thom 8 rice purchased by traders at 8,000 VND/kg, the yield is 600 kg/cong, after deducting all production and harvesting costs, Mr. Tu estimates the profit this crop is only over 1 million VND/cong.
Through the review of the agricultural sector of Hau Giang province, farmers in the province have harvested more than 73,000 hectares out of a total of nearly 74,200 hectares of Summer-Autumn rice that have been planted, with an estimated average yield of 6.19 tons/ha. Currently, the area of Summer-Autumn rice that has not been harvested is only in Long My district. Accordingly, people are taking advantage of speeding up the rice cutting process when the weather is favorable to reduce yield losses.
In Can Tho, farmers are also facing slow rice harvest progress due to a shortage of cutting machines, causing loss of productivity and reduced profits.
To harvest 3.5 hectares of Autumn-Winter rice, Ms. Ho Thi Nhien (Thoi Lai district, Can Tho city) had to spend 400,000 VND/cong to rent a cutting machine: "If last year, the price to rent a cutting machine was only 330,000 VND/cong, now it costs 400,000 VND/cong to get a place to cut. Even though the price is high, I had to beg and wait a whole week to get a cutting machine. Falling rice plus slow harvest progress caused the yield to be only nearly 700kg/cong."
According to Ms. Nhien, compared to last year, this crop's profit has decreased a lot due to lost productivity, increased harvesting costs, but the price that traders buy has decreased by 800 VND/kg.
“Last year, the price of rice skyrocketed, I sold it for 8,000 VND/kg. This year, I begged a lot to get the price at 7,200 VND/kg, after paying the production costs, I only made a profit of 1.5 - 2 million VND/cong. But if I don't sell, the storm situation is complicated, I'm afraid I'll lose everything,” said Ms. Nhien.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Can Tho, this year's Autumn-Winter crop, the whole city planted more than 68,500 hectares, exceeding the plan by 8%. In the face of the complicated forecast of rain and flood, to proactively respond, the agricultural sector recommends that people apply balanced fertilizers, do not apply excess nitrogen, increase potassium fertilizers and supplement elements to limit lodging during the rainy and stormy season. People also need to apply the solution of alternating flooding and drying in water management.
Localities are also advised to proactively reinforce embankments, clean irrigation systems and water pumping equipment, promptly respond to extreme weather; proactively arrange machinery and means of transport during the concentrated harvest period, and limit the impact of stormy weather.
