Bustling harvest season in Krong No

These days, the atmosphere of the 2024-2025 winter-spring crop harvest in the localities is bustling. In the fields, people are busy harvesting corn and sweet potatoes, and convoys of vehicles line up on the intra-field roads, waiting to transport agricultural products to the drying yard.

In the past few days, Mr. Nguyen Van Tien's family in Duc Xuyen commune has harvested 5 sao of F1 corn. This crop has a good yield and is sold at a stable price of 13,000 VND/kg.

Mr. Tien said: “This is the first year I switched to growing winter-spring corn. In previous years, I mainly grew sweet potatoes and pumpkins. Growing winter-spring corn is also quite favorable because it requires less irrigation water. With an average yield of over 10 quintals/sao, compared to other short-term crops, the economic efficiency is higher.”

According to Mr. Tien, after the harvest, he will continue to work the land and replant corn seeds to increase his family's income. To make the next corn crop effective, Mr. Tien focuses on adding nutrients to help the soil stay healthy and the corn plants grow well.

In Nam N'dir commune, Krong No district (Dak Nong), this winter-spring crop, many farming households converted land areas far from water sources to grow sweet potatoes.

If in 2024, farmers in Krong No district had to suffer from "crop failure and price loss", this year, people are excited because the sweet potato crop was a big success. Not only was the harvest good, but the price of sweet potatoes also increased continuously, helping people make a profit.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dung's family in Nam N'dir commune planted nearly 1 hectare of sweet potatoes this winter-spring crop. This year, thanks to favorable weather, the potatoes grew well, achieving high yields of about 20 - 25 tons/ha. With a selling price of about 11,500 VND/kg. After deducting expenses, the family earned nearly 100 million VND/ha.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Trang, Chairman of Nam N'dir Commune People's Committee, the commune's agricultural production is mainly on alluvial land along the Krong No River. To effectively exploit the land, the locality has effectively implemented programs and projects to apply science and technology, change the structure of crops and plant varieties, helping people increase their income.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Krong No district, up to now, nearly 90% of the land area for rice, corn, and beans has been cultivated by people using machinery, 100% of the corn area has been sown with new varieties. In particular, this winter-spring crop, hundreds of hectares of sweet potatoes have been planted by people using drip irrigation and misting technology...

According to Mr. Doan Gia Loc, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Krong No district, in this year's winter-spring crop, Krong No planted about 4,000 hectares of short-term crops, of which rice was about 1,800 hectares, corn was 1,450 hectares, sweet potatoes were 391 hectares...

Currently, the production of F1 corn seeds by farmers in association with Syngenta Vietnam Joint Stock Company in Nam N'dir, Duc Xuyen, Dak Nang has achieved high efficiency. The average income is over 100 - 130 million VND/ha.

“For short-term crops, the district has implemented a plan to change the crop structure, shifting some types of plants that require a lot of water to plants that require less water such as pumpkin, chili, and beans of all kinds to avoid risks in production for people,” Mr. Loc added.

Improve the efficiency of cultivated land

Like Krong No, at this time, in most districts such as Tuy Duc, Dak Song, Dak Glong, Cu Jut, etc., people are also harvesting short-term winter-spring crops. Production in most areas is going smoothly thanks to farmers using new, medium- and short-term varieties that are drought-resistant, disease-resistant, high-yielding, and of good quality.

Depending on land conditions, localities have proactively developed planting plans to limit drought at the end of the season and meet market demand.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Dak Nong province, with the view of strictly protecting the planned rice-growing land area, the districts have flexibly converted the crop structure to increase the land use coefficient and increase the income value for the people.

Mr. Ngo Xuan Dong, Deputy Director of Dak Nong Department of Agriculture and Environment, said that for areas that are qualified for cultivation, localities have organized the construction of concentrated areas.

Specifically, the high-tech rice growing area in Buon Choah commune, the F1 corn growing area in Nam N'dir commune, Duc Xuyen commune, Buon Choah, Krong No district; sweet corn, waxy corn in Nam Dong commune, Cu K'nia, Cu Jut district...

Since then, local farmers have actively increased the application of science and technology, integrated pest management (IPM), "3 reductions, 3 increases", "1 must, 5 reductions" in production, achieving high results.

In recent years, most conversion models have yielded higher economic efficiency than rice cultivation from 3 to 12.6 million VND/ha. In particular, for short-term crops, many crops can be grown in a year, so the profit is 2-3 times higher than rice cultivation.

Authorities at all levels, sectors and localities also focus on forming linkage chains and agricultural product consumption markets, helping farmers gain more benefits in the process of crop conversion.

Along with that, the orientation of developing winter-spring crops according to the planning, plans, and area scale of each region is always focused on by localities. Thanks to that, people get high results and stable long-term production.