Growing new rice, farmers earn tens of millions of dong

“In the past, I thought the more rice I sowed, the more I would win. The field had to be flooded to feel secure,” said Ms. Ho Thi Thuy Hang in My Qui commune, Dong Thap province, recalling the familiar rice growing method of farmers many years ago.

Those farming habits are gradually changing when she participates in the TRVC project – a reduced-emission rice farming program, contributing to the implementation of the Project to develop 1 million hectares of high-quality rice in the Mekong Delta.

Within the framework of this model, Ms. Hang’s family participated in four crops on an area of ​​1.5 hectares of rice, collaborating with Vinarice – a unit of Vinaseed – the PAN Group ecosystem, in charge of organizing production and implementing a reduced-emission rice farming model.

According to Ms. Hang, farmers are instructed to apply the “1 must, 5 reductions” process, in which “1 must” means using certified seeds, and “5 reductions” includes reducing the amount of sowing seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation water and post-harvest losses. This approach helps lower input costs and reduce emissions in production.

“Previously, whenever we saw pests, we would increase the amount of medicine and sow thickly to make sure. Now the fields are more open, so there are fewer pests and diseases,” she said.

Thanks to applying new farming methods, Ms. Hang’s family’s production costs decreased from about 30 million VND to 25 million VND per hectare, while productivity remained stable. Each crop, the family earns about 40-50 million VND per hectare depending on the market price, the profit ranges from 17-20 million VND, with some cases reaching 20-30 million VND.

Not only changing sowing practices, many households in this area also adjusted the way they manage water in the fields – a factor that greatly determines production costs.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Moi’s family, My Qui commune, cultivates 5 hectares of rice and has participated in the two-crop TRVC model. Instead of keeping the fields continuously flooded, water is regulated according to each stage of rice growth, combined with alternating drying.

“At first, when I saw the dry fields, I was very worried, afraid that the rice would die,” she said. But after applying, the rice plants are healthier, have fewer pests and reduce the cost of electricity and water pumping.

According to Ms. Moi, profits increased by about 2 million VND per hectare, but the bigger change lies in reducing dependence on chemicals and care.

At the cooperative level, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nghiep, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director of My Dong III Agricultural Service Cooperative, said the unit is implementing the model on about 267 hectares.

Synchronized production helps reduce input costs by 10-15%, while productivity remains stable around 6.5-6.7 tons per hectare.

Post-harvest straw is collected instead of burned, reducing environmental pollution and being used as raw material for growing mushrooms, helping to create additional revenue for farmers. At the same time, rice output is covered by businesses, helping farmers reduce price risk.

Besides the results achieved, Mr. Nguyen Van Be Hai, Acting General Director of Vinarice, said the biggest challenge when widely deploying the model is changing the long-standing farming practices of farmers.

Many households are used to using seeds and inputs to ensure safety, so they were initially worried that changing the process would affect productivity.

However, reality shows that productivity remains stable while costs decrease, thereby improving income for farmers.

The model is operated under a “rewards for results” mechanism, in which actual emissions reductions are converted into rewards. This amount is reinvested in the project, including 30% distributed directly to farmers, 10% to cooperatives and the rest for training and technical transfer.

Emission reduction models are being implemented within the framework of the Project to develop 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice in the Mekong Delta by 2030 according to Decision 1490 of the Prime Minister.

The project is implemented in 12 provinces in the Mekong Delta, aiming to reorganize production along the value chain, reduce emissions and increase income for farmers.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the 2024-2025 period sets a target of 180,000 hectares. However, after two years of implementation, the implementation area has reached more than 354,000 hectares, exceeding the set plan. The models apply sustainable farming techniques, helping to sharply reduce the amount of seeds, nitrogen fertilizer and number of pesticide sprays compared to traditional ones.

According to data from the 2024 models, the income of rice growers in the model increases by an average of 13.4% or more compared to traditional farming. Along with that, the Vietnam Rice Industry Association has initially built the brand “Low Emission Green Vietnamese Rice”. To date, the branded rice area has reached 18,087 hectares with a corresponding rice output of about 75,060 tons. Of these, 500 tons of rice were exported to Japan – one of the markets with the most stringent requirements on product quality and standards.

At the large-scale enterprise level, model efficiency is expanded towards the value chain and export markets.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Tra My, General Director of PAN Group, said that the group is implementing the model through Vinarice. After three seasons, the participating area reached about 48,500 hectares, accounting for nearly 60% of the total TRVC project area. Each season has about 5,500 farmer households participating, equivalent to 11,000 households after three deployment seasons. According to her, farmers’ profits increased by 50-58%, far exceeding the project’s expectation of 30%.

In parallel with production, the enterprise has completed a closed value chain from seed to export. Thanks to traceability, many rice lots reach about 1,300 USD per ton, and even a specialty line of purple rice has been exported for 2,300 USD per ton to Europe.

“There were times when we almost cried with joy when we saw people changing their way of working and having more income,” Ms. My said.