Flatten more than 10,000 fields
Noting that land conversion and accumulation is an inevitable direction in agricultural production, Thach Ha District (Ha Tinh Province) tested the concentration and accumulation of land with a size of 30 hectares in Thach Xuan Township in 2018 by demolishing small plots , Formation of large fields, merger of peasant households into cooperative production groups to connect with enterprises, unified production of varieties, production processes, export.
The policy of piling up land, demolishing small plots and forming large fields in Thach Ha District comes from the desires of the people themselves. Photo: Than Nga.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Sau, vice chairman of the Thach Ha District People’s Committee, it is a new model, so the implementation initially encountered many difficulties as the terraced fields were fragmented, small and unevenly arranged between plots. People’s small production habits lead to a fear of change. In addition, it is also a difficult problem to find companies that organize production links and carry out the production process after the formation of a large field.
“The harder it is, the more determined we are. After the district develops the plan, submits it to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for consideration, the provincial people’s committee approves, the district people’s committee submits to the district people’s council to issue support guidelines (Resolution 06 of December 28, 2018 and Resolution 11 of December 28, 2020). The district mandates selected communities and villages to guide the development of plans and issue resolutions to lead, direct and discuss consensus and build consensus among the people,” said Mr. Sau.
Simultaneously promoting propaganda through village assemblies, propaganda on radio systems of municipalities and villages, on the district portal, on social networks Facebook and Zalo, in particular organizing visits of units in the district, learning from the experiences of others…
After the success in Thach Xuan, from 2019 to the end of 2022, Thach Ha boldly expanded the area of breaking up the small plot into a large field to 2,133 hectares, accounting for 26.6% of the district’s rice area.
Whereas land accumulation in the form of land lease 62.8 ha; Concentration of conversion areas (each household has only 1 property in the implementation planning area) 124 ha; Each area has at least 10 hectares of land, each field has an average area of 7,434.7 square meters after demolishing the edge of a small plot (the largest field is almost 5 hectares), reducing more than 10,000 plots compared to before implementation .
In 4 years, Thach Ha has reduced more than 10,000 fields. Photo: Than Nga.
In addition to the concentration and accumulation of land, tearing down the banks of small plots, forming large fields, Thach Ha also carried out renovations (fertilization of manure, microorganic fertilizers, lime …) and at the same time leveled the field surface. start production of new high-yielding and high-quality rice varieties (100% of the renovated area produces new high-quality rice varieties such as: ADI168, Bac Thinh, J02, VNR20, BT09…); Connecting with companies, building large fields with homogeneous varieties, processes and products, contributing to reducing investment costs, increasing labor productivity and people’s income.
“The share of productive land has increased by about 2.4%; Increase in profitability by 16 – 20% compared to conventional production; Reducing the dredging work for field irrigation, the work to regulate the water in the field by 4-5 man-hours/ha/plant; Reduce weeding on the banks and work on the corners of the field by 8-10 jobs/ha/plant.
At the same time, increase the economics of tillage machines and combines from 50% to 80%, which is an economics of around VND 600,000/ha/plant. Reducing pesticides by breaking the bank has limited opportunities for pests to hide and do damage, reduces disease transmission from one crop to another, and cuts rat poison in half early in the harvest due to plot reduction . Create favorable conditions for using drones to spray pesticides,” Mr. Nguyen Van Sau, vice chairman of the Thach Ha District People’s Committee, analyzed the effectiveness based on specific data.
The “revolution” of land accumulation has created fields bordering the region, plots and wings of storks. Photo: Than Nga.
In the spring harvest of 2022, Thach Ha has also successfully experimented with land accumulation, redistribution of fields for 100% of the land for rice production and annual harvests in the three townships of Thach Son, Thach Hoi and Thach Tri. After dividing the field, each household basically has only 1 plot.
In the long term, Thach Ha divided into 3 groups of land accumulation, including: only breaking the bank of normal lots whose fields he produced; Destroy the land, redistribute the field and pile it up for companies and cooperatives to rent out.
The goal is that by the end of 2025, at least 30% of the land devoted to rice cultivation and other annual crops in the region will be converted to the concentration and land accumulation model. In which, land leased to organizations and individuals for production of 300 ha; Contribute land to set up cooperative groups, cooperatives to link production to organizations and businesses, at least 2,000 ha; Pilot transfer of land use rights of approx. 50 ha.
The first cooperative to rent more than 53 ha of large-scale production areas
In the last days of the Year of the Tiger, despite the cold and damaging cold, in the fields of Luu Vinh Son township, Thach Ha district, the farmers’ hands continuously waved, calling on the plowman to carefully plow and maintain the fields , until it gets warmer above, it will sow the spring rice crop in 2023.
Luu Vinh Son is the granary of Thach Ha district, but history leaves tens of thousands of small and fragmented fields, high and low plots, causing many difficulties for production. The fields are fragmented, so plowing and harvesting requires 80% of human power, as it is difficult to participate in mechanization. expensive materials and fertilizers; Rice yield, profitability per unit area is limited…
Mr. Nguyen Van Sau, vice chairman of the Thach Ha District People’s Committee (far left) is the person who directly “gets hands on and works” and guides communities to develop plans for land accumulation. Photo: Than Nga.
As a legacy of the success of the “revolution” of land accumulation, breaking up small plots, forming large fields in Thach Xuan township, summer-autumn harvest 2020, the Bac Son Agriculture and General Services Cooperative (Bac Son Cooperative), the Municipality of Luu Vinh Son almost rented 28 ha of production land from farmers in the municipality to build a large field. This is the first Ha Tinh land accumulation model implemented under this mechanism.
Mr. Tran Hau Nhan, Director of Bac Son Cooperative shared: In the early days of the idea of renting land for rice production, the cooperative received great approval and created great conditions from both local authorities and people. After planning a specific production plan, the cooperative rented 27.9 hectares of land from 154 households in the Thien Dinh field in two villages Dong Tien and Loc An for 5 years to grow a Nep 98 variety. Poles/year converted to money.
In the spring harvest of 2021, the cooperative leased another 25.9 ha in Dong Moc – Cay May field in Xuan Son Village next to Thien Dinh field to form a straight field with more than 53 ha of flying storks.
Most fields produced the same rice variety after the conversion. Photo: TN.
Mr. Nhan’s voice mingled with the sound of the plow and said excitedly, “Never before has a farmer worked as well as he does now. The stages of plowing, harvesting and spraying pesticides are all equipped with machinery and technology. It only takes a few days for them to sow and fertilize.”
In addition, the system of inland roads was expanded and the canals were expanded, creating favorable conditions for production and harvesting.
The average rice yield in the field the cooperative produces is 6.5 tons/ha of fresh rice, an increase of 0.8 tons/ha compared to before the conversion; the cost of land preparation and harvesting after conversion will be reduced by VND 800,000/ha; The area of production land after demolition of the edge of the plot increased from 53.8 ha to 55 ha.
“After piling up land and destroying small plots to form large fields, the cooperative’s total average spring rice harvest yield reached more than VND1.8 billion/crop (calculated from the average yield of 6.5 tons/ha and the price of fresh rice from 5,300 VND/kg); profit of nearly 500 million dong,” calculates Mr. Tran Hau Nhan.
Thanks to the accumulation of land, it has helped increase production efficiency by 16 – 20% compared to before. Photo: Than Nga.
The land accumulation “revolution” in Thach Ha not only changes production thinking, increases economic efficiency per unit area, but also blows a new wind for rice production throughout Ha Tinh province.
This is the premise for the People’s Council of Ha Tinh Province to issue Resolution 06-NQ/TU on the Guidance and Guidance of Concentrated Implementation and Accumulation of Land Related to Rural New Construction in 2021-2025 and Subsequent Years.
Accordingly, Ha Tinh aims to accumulate about 15,000 ha of agricultural land in the period from 2021 to 2025; in the period 2026 – 2030 approx. 20,000 ha will be implemented. Households and individuals using land in concentrated, large-scale and high-tech agricultural production areas of 2 hectares or more; Companies, cooperatives through the forms of land consolidation to concentrated production areas of 30 ha or more.
For areas zoned for concentrated implementation, land accumulation for 1-2 plots/household should be targeted, with 75-80% of households using 1 plot.