Recently, Tan Son District People's Committee issued report No. 195/BC-UBND on people's losses due to using VST-899 rice variety in the 2024 winter-spring crop.

The document stated that in the district, some households used rice varieties of unknown origin called VST-899 for planting, leading to total losses due to the rice plants having no flowers or having empty flowers. The total damaged area was 21.66 hectares, concentrated in the communes of Tan Son (8.3 hectares), Lai Dong (3.28 hectares), Thu Ngac (2.8 hectares), Kiet Son (2.0 hectares)... The number of households affected was 338, of which 34 were poor households.

Through the investigation, households accessed advertising information about VST - 899 rice variety through Facebook and introduced it to each other, ordering directly online or from local seed businesses and households at a price of 70-80 thousand VND/kg (businesses grasped the demand so they ordered via phone or Facebook to sell to people).

Ms. Dinh Thi Huong - a resident of Lai Dong commune shared: “When planting VST-899 rice, the rice grew normally in the early stages, but when it came to flowering, abnormalities were noticed. More than 21 hectares of rice did not flower or had empty grains. After that, although everyone tried to contact the seller, they could not.”

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Viet - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tan Son district, in response to the consequences of people planting VST-899 rice not blooming and suffering losses, the district inspected and determined that this was an unprecedented incident, so people were subjective, leading to buying fake rice varieties due to accessing advertising information on social networks.

After the incident, Tan Son District People's Committee directed functional departments and commune People's Committees to conduct a detailed review of households affected by the use of VST-899 rice variety, promptly supporting households in difficulty. At the same time, clarify the responsibilities of agents and businesses that sold VST-899 rice variety to people and request the implementation of compensation plans based on agreements, absolutely not allowing insecurity situations related to the incident to occur.

Along with that, Tan Son District People's Committee has requested Phu Tho Market Management Department to direct the strengthening of inspection, control and handling of violations in the field of production and trading of seeds and agricultural materials to prevent the trading and circulation of counterfeit and poor quality goods in Tan Son District in particular and Phu Tho Province in general.