Due to the decline of rice, people urgently needed to harvest it by harvest and sickle, which cost about 1 million VND/Sao. Picture: T Phung
The rice field in The Loc village (Tan Ninh township, Quang Ninh district, Quang Binh province) was just getting dark when a flashlight flickered across the field. Mr. Dang Ngoc Chan, director of Loc Agricultural Service Cooperative (The Loc Cooperative), said: These days, the rice has sprouted, but the weather is too hot. When harvesting rice, people have to resort to carrying flashlights on their heads.
Tough season for farmers
The director of the Loc Cooperative, Mr. Dang Ngoc Chon, said that the entire village has an acreage of nearly 100 hectares. In this year’s winter-spring harvest, farmers have a structure of important rice varieties such as VN 20, P6… At the beginning of the harvest, the weather is favorable, there are few pests and diseases, so the rice plants grow well. When the rice begins to ripen in the field, the milk is ripe, everyone is happy because a good harvest is coming.
“But the May 7 storm and some sustained heavy rains caused the entire paddy area in the field to collapse and become flooded,” Mr Chon said. After May 7th, Mr. Chon and his brothers at The Loc cooperative had to be in the field almost every day. People just looked at the fields and encouraged people to increase the water pumps and drain the water into the Kien Giang River to prevent waterlogging and save rice.
In the previous harvests, the reaper will assist the farmers and finish the harvest from house to house. Now the rice is flooded and germinating in the field, so the rice harvest needs almost every home. So the family went to great lengths and called on the people to harvest the rice… with a sickle.
The rice harvested with sickle is dried in the field. Picture: T Phung
Nowadays it is sunny out in the fields from early morning until sunset over the mountains. The hot sun poured fire on the reaper’s head and back, making people feel as if they were being roasted in a bagua oven. Ms. Mai Thi Bep (Loc village) said that when the machine is harvesting, people cover the awning and temporarily remain seated, waiting for the harvester to stop at the bank to pick up the rice sack and load it onto the truck to take it after home.
Today I have to squat or bend my back to dry in the sun. Just a few hours like that, no one can stand the sun and fatigue. “So people have to take advantage of the nighttime rice harvest, even if they can’t sleep, they can’t avoid the hot sun,” Ms. Bep said.
Ms. Phan Thi Thanh Nhan (Loc Village) also took the opportunity to harvest the rice at night to avoid the sun and sell the rice when the price was still high. She and her relatives got up at 3-4 in the morning to go to the fields and harvest. When the rice is harvested, the rice is spread out directly on the field to dry. Around 9-10 am when the sun is beating down, it’s time to go home to dry the harvested rice. In the afternoon she returned to the field to collect the rice harvested in the morning and then brought it back to call the threshing machine (known as an extruder) to thresh the rice.
“Work until the sun goes down and then quickly eat a bowl of rice to bring the sickle to the field in time for harvest at night and harvest the rice. It’s been a few days, the farmers seem exhausted. “Everyone has to try,” Nhan confided.
Due to the sickle harvest, the threshing machine had to be rented, the cost increased by VND 150,000/bar. Picture: T Phung.
“Hands up, there aren’t many grains of rice left…”
More than 1 hectare of rice fields flooded and collapsed in Mai Thi Bep. Unable to bring in the harvest because the fields were muddy, she asked the reaper to help the couple. She was drying rice in the yard, and when she saw Ms. Nhan come by and ask for help, she quickly dropped the rice sack and ran into the house to take away the sickle. “Just harvest the grain of rice and bring it back to the garden. “It’s already damaged anyway, so don’t let any more damage happen,” she said, as if sending a message to everyone.
According to Ms. Bep, the cost of hiring labor for harvesting or hiring people for harvesting is currently VND 1 million per pole (500m²). Another 150,000 VND is required to rent the machine to reach 1,150,000 VND. The cost of seeds, fertilizer, crop protection… for each pole is about VND 600,000. “So this case will incur an additional cost of up to VND 1,750,000,” said Ms. Bep.
Regarding income from rice, Ms. Bep said: In previous harvests, eight sacks of rice (40 kg each) were harvested from each pole, this season it was just under seven sacks. Merchants buy immediately at the price of 1 basket of rice (about 13 kg) as “ten” (100,000 VND/basket), people get 2 million VND. “The equivalent of each Sao is about 250,000 VND profit.
On some days with a strong harvest, they had to buy more fresh water and melons during the break, which was considered to almost break even. “That’s all, people have worked hard for a few months, but after careful calculation, when they turn their palms up, there are only a few grains of rice left, but not a few coins,” said Ms. Bep in a sad voice.
Bringing the grain home in the scorching sun. Picture: T Phung.
Nowadays, due to the urgent need to harvest, the number of harvest workers is not enough to harvest people at the same time. Mr. Dang Ngoc Chon said the price of the harvester was only about VND 140,000 per pole last year, now it has risen to VND 180,000 per pole due to the increased cost due to muddy fields and paddy fields. “If necessary, the cooperative increases the fee to VND 200,000 to bring in the harvest for the farmers. However, no machines could be received because they were also overloaded, said Chon.
Along with Mr. Chon and a farmer named Nguyen Van Quang, we waded into the paddy fields on the other side of the ditch, the water was still knee-deep. Mr. Quang and Mr. Chon ran their hands over each rice bush and picked them up to examine them closely. Mr. Chan said, “Rice sprouted quite often because it was soaked in water for a long time. We also mobilized people to harvest with the sickle, but we couldn’t stop the harvest immediately. Part of this said that nobody was there to harvest, partly because the relatives were already exhausted and therefore it took a few days to finish the harvest. At the moment we have only harvested about 40% of the area.”
Because of the high cost, farmers are still not profitable even if they sell rice at high prices. Picture: T Phung.
“If only there was an electric pumping station…”
Mr. Dang Ngoc Chon clapped his hands in a circle and said, The whole field of people here is nearly 40 hectares and is in low-lying areas. Every year, when the rice is nearing maturity or nearly harvested, it is flooded again. There are years when the tide lasts too long to harvest, so the rice sprout all over the cotton. So people give up and don’t harvest anymore, because even if they harvest, they also lose money.
“Our desire is to invest in a low-voltage road and an electric pumping station. Thanks to the pumping station, the irrigation of two rice fields is very active. “By that time, people will be safer, not worry about flooded rice, and avoid the scene of carrying lights all night to harvest rice,” Mr Chon said.
Mr. Dang Ngoc Chon: “If there is a drainage pumping station, the rice in the field will not germinate.” Image: T Phung.
According to Mr. Chon, this field belongs to the fertile soil, so every rice harvest is good and brings a good harvest. In the cases where there is no flooding, farmers can get a profit of 20-30 million VND/ha, and the whole field earns them 1 billion VND as well. Mr. Chon hopes, “If there is pumping station for active water drainage, two rice harvests will be safer and farmers here can earn nearly VND 2 billion every year in The Loc paddy field.”