As many as 132 new rice varieties, of which 45 receive national
recognition, have been transferred to farmers nationwide by the Cuu Long
(Mekong) Delta Rice Research Institute, contributing to improving
cultivation practice and local farmers’ income.
About 51 percent of Vietnam’s rice area and 80 percent of the area
in the Mekong Delta region have used these varieties, which mostly have a
short growth period, high quality and strong resistance against pests.
They can easily adapt to different kinds of ecological regions, and have
the productivity of 5-8 tonnes per hectare.
Cultivating these short-period varieties, the region has been planting
three crops a year, with the added areas of 0.6-0.7 million hectares and
the added yield of more than 3 million tonnes each year. Its total
yield rose from 4.2 million tonnes in 1976 to over 24.5 million tonnes
in 2012.
The institute has also built 11 technical
processes of the national level, including five cultivation techniques,
two alternation techniques and four processes against insects.
Especially, its new technique helps reduce the costs of fertilisers by
18 percent, seeds by 42 percent, pesticides by 31 percent and labour by
9 percent, while increases the productivity by more than 400 kilograms
per hectare, farmers’ income by 1.5 million VND per hectare and the
average benefit to 13-15 million VND a hectare.
The
institute also helps farmers in eight Mekong delta’s provinces know
how to use biological products to reduce harmful chemicals released to
the environment and make the agricultural production greener.
Besides, it has provided local farmers with many kinds of fruits with
high quality and productivity, as well as helped them install hundreds
of new-style rice dryers.-VNA