Harsh insect infestation backed by unfavorable weather are threatening the program to produce one million tons of high-quality paddies, or 500,000 tons of rice, for exports, according to Prof. Dr. Bui Chi Buu, director of the Mekong Delta Rice Institute.
Brown hoppers are likely to force the halving of this year’s target for the export of high quality rice to just 500,000 tons, Buu said, if local authorities make no urgent and effective measures to curb with the situation.
The reduction is aimed at ensuring quality, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan in a visit to the Mekong Delta City of Can Tho.
It was most important to maintain the prestige of Vietnam’s quality export rice, the deputy minister said, adding that the target had been experimental and was to help boost future capacity.
It had been set as a first step to restructure Vietnam’s rice production to boost the amount of quality export rice as a prelude to World Trade Organization entry.
The ministry appointed to the Mekong Delta Rice Institute to prepare the seedlings and the Southern Foodstuff Corporation to find markets.
Both were to have co-operated with seven major rice-growing provinces in the region to carry out the program.
But the spread of brown hoppers had defeated the effort, said the institute director.
Dong Thap, An Giang, Soc Trang, Kien Giang, Can Tho, Tien Giang and Long An are the major provinces but the ‘hoppers’ have done severe damage in the latter two. An estimated 2 per cent of the entire crop had been attacked by the hoppers that carry two indestructible micro-organisms.
The ministry has ordered its cultivation and plant protection departments and the national agriculture promotion center to devise an intensive program that includes pest control and prevention in response to the ‘hoppers’.
But the dropping of three rice crops a year so their land could lay fallow for a month was crucial, said Bui Chi Buu.
Farmers in Dong Thap and An Giang provinces had been advised against a third crop after their summer-autumn harvest so that their fields could be inundated. This had not only cleansed the land but also increased its fertility.
Last year, Vietnam, the world's second largest rice exporter, fetched up revenue of US$1.399 billion from exporting a record 5.2 million tons of rice last year, up 47.3 per cent in value and 24.3 per cent in volume.
Of the volume, high-quality rice reportedly made up just 35 per cent. The country plans to raise the proportion of high-quality rice export to 45-50 per cent in the upcoming year.
Four years ago, the ministry was not successful in a similar program that was expected to cultivate one million hectares of high-quality paddy for exports, because it was too big for enterprises and farmers to implement.
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