VietNamNet Bridge – Experts believe that restoring and developing deepwater rice needs to be done urgently to conserve genetic resources and biodiversity, and adapt to climate change.
The average floating rice yield is just 100 kilos per 1,300 square meters, while the profits are modest, just VND500,000-600,000 after six months of farming.
However, scientists say the floating rice should be developed because it can help create flood storage space, ease the pressure on dykes, cope with climate change, return the habitat to a wide variety of freshwater fish, and prevent floods and salinity intrusion.
Dr. Le Cong Quyen from the An Giang University said he could see the high biodiversity in the number of plant and fish species found in deepwater rice fields.
Quyen said 49 plant and 35 fish species have been recognized, including rare and valuable ones in the fields.
Dang Thi Thanh Quynh from the An Giang University’s Rural Development Center said if growing alternate deepwater rice and non-rice crops (cassava, for example), farmers would get relatively high profits. Farmers can also benefit from aquatic creatures, because fish like gathering in deepwater rice fields.
Dr. Nguyen Van Kien from An Giang University said deepwater rice production generated very durable straw needed to grow plants.
The straw can cover farming soil for six to seven months, while the straw from other high-yield rice varieties lasts only two or three months.
Kien also believes that deepwater rice can help farmers improve their incomes. The fields could be attractive to tourists as deepwater rice is grown in the flooding season for at least a month, attracting fish species.
Trang Thi My Duyen, who is conducting a survey on tourism potential in deepwater rice areas, said 90 percent of 100 Vietnamese and foreign tourists visiting An Giang province said they had never experienced agro-tourism and 92 percent said they were willing to take tours of this kind.
Ninety-one percent of the polled tourists said they would book tours to visit deepwater rice areas and taste local food.
Dr. Duong Van Chin, director of the Dinh Thanh Agriculture Research Center, an arm of the An Giang Plant Protection JSC, noted that tours can be organized in the flooding season and rice harvesting season to attract foreign travelers.
“Foreign travelers will find it interesting to harvest, husk and then cook rice for their lunch,” Chin said.
In Tri Ton district in Kien Giang province, a 200-hectare deepwater rice conservation area is planned in 2015-2016, while local authorities hope to have a stable deepwater rice production area of 500 hectares by 2030.
Kim Chi