Expanding Low-Emission Rice Farming in Mekong Delta

The low-emission high-quality rice farming model has been effective in the Mekong Delta and expanded to many other localities. The 1-million-hectare sustainable rice development scheme is achievable.

By 2030, the Mekong Delta aims to achieve 1 million hectares of low-emission, high-quality sustainable rice farming

After  the successful pilot of the “1-million-hectare low-emission high-quality sustainable rice farming with green growth in the Mekong Delta to 2030” scheme in Can Tho City, the model continues to be replicated in many other localities in the region such as Long An and Kien Giang.

Kien Giang launches the model

Speaking at the scheme launch ceremony in Tan Hoi commune, Tan Hiep district on July 16, Mr. Le Thanh Tung, Deputy Director of the Department of Crop Production under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, stated that overall effectiveness of the scheme is to increase the value of the entire chain by 40% and the profit margin of rice growers by 50%. The social effectiveness is to train one million farming households to adopt sustainable farming. Environmental effectiveness is to contribute to environmental protection and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, specifically slashing GHG emissions by more than 10%.

The scheme importantly directs the transformation of sustainable rice cultivation methods in the Mekong Delta while forming and developing long-term, large-scale concentrated raw material areas to ensure sustainable and effective cultivation quality, he said.

The difference between the scheme’s farming model and the traditional one is that the volume of seeds sown in the pilot model in Kien Giang province is only about 60 - 70 kg per hectare, a third the amount in the traditional model. Reducing the volume of seeds sown also cuts the amount of fertilizer, helping better manage environmental impacts such as diseases, brown planthoppers and diminish the amount of pesticide used.

For its part, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Kien Giang province will carry out the scheme with an area of 200,000 ha, divided into two phases.

Phase 1 (2024 - 2025) will focus on consolidating the existing areas of 24,738 ha of the Vietnam Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Project (VnSAT Project) and expanding the area outside the VnSAT Project toward the target of 100,000 ha by 2025 from 60,000 ha in 2024.

Phase 2 (2026 - 2030) will specifically identify key areas to establish investment projects to develop new high-quality rice farming areas to reduce emissions by an additional 100,000 ha towards the target of 200,000 ha of low-emission high-quality rice cultivation in the province.

The scheme is being implemented in 12 localities in Kien Giang province, including Giang Thanh, Kien Luong, Hon Dat, Tan Hiep, Chau Thanh, Giong Rieng, Go Quao, An Bien, An Minh, U Minh Thuong, Vinh Thuan and Rach Gia City. The total cost of the scheme is VND596.662 billion.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is currently carrying out a pilot model of 50-ha rice farming joined by 25 households at the Phu Hoa Youth Agricultural Service Cooperative in Tan Hoi commune, Tan Hiep district, said Mr. Le Huu Toan, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Kien Giang province.

In August 2024, another pilot model of 10-ha shrimp rice farming will be launched in An Minh district.

In 2024, Kien Giang province aims to produce over 4.4 million tons of rice. Notably, this year, the province also implemented the scheme with a 60,000-ha pilot area, showing many positive signs in the upcoming summer-autumn crop harvest.

Long An initially achieves positive results

Long An ranks fourth in total rice area in the Mekong Delta after An Giang, Kien Giang and Dong Thap. It has a specialized rice growing area of about 300,000 ha in the Dong Thap Muoi region (Dong Thap Muoi stretches across three provinces of Tien Giang, Long An and Dong Thap with a total area of nearly 700,000 ha, half of which is in Long An).

Because of this advantage, Long An can easily carry out the scheme in eight districts and towns in the Dong Thap Muoi region, including Tan Hung, Vinh Hung, Moc Hoa, Tan Thanh, Thanh Hoa, Duc Hue, Thu Thua and Kien Tuong.

In the recent winter-spring crop of 2023-2024, the Long An Department of Agriculture and Rural Development piloted the first crop of the scheme in selected localities with a total area of over 23,000 ha.

Go Gon Agriculture Cooperative (Tan Hung district) and Cay Trom Agricultural Trade Service Cooperative (Vinh Hung district) were selected for the pilot. Both units said that the yield and quality of the recent rice harvest were higher than ordinary rice production.

For example, Go Gon Cooperative, before applying this scheme, already significantly used less rice seedling thanks to the adoption of the “large field and 4-stakeholder cooperation” program, only about 100 kg of rice seedling per hectare. With the pilot scheme, rice seedling has been reduced further, to only 80 kg. This has helped lower production costs and increase income and profits.

The department said, in Phase 1 (2024 - 2025), the scheme has focused on consolidating the existing VnSAT area of 60,000 ha in Long An province.

By 2030, the cultivation area of low-emission high-quality rice will be scaled up to 31,310 ha and the volume of rice seeds sown will be lessened to below 70 kg and chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides will be decreased by 30%, and water by 20% as compared to traditional farming.

By Bui Lien, Vietnam Business Forum