17.01.2014
Category: Cash Crop
By: Tanja Moellmann

Vietnamese rice production: Diversification and mechanization are the topical issues in the South-East


First-hand insight in recent challenges of Vietnamese rice farms were gained by the agri benchmark Rice Network, which met for its second Workshop in December 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

While farms in the Mekong Delta still rely on the monoculture rice system, farmers in the South-East region are tending to shift their rotation towards a corn-rice system. Corn seems to be the ideal crop for a diversification strategy for rice-based systems in that region.

The introduction of corn is mainly driven by:
• an increasing demand for feed by the feed industry,
• high yields in corn,
• lower water requirements in the dry season,
• fewer pest and disease problems than rice.

Higher direct and labour costs in corn production are fully compensated by favourable yields (8 tons per hectares) and higher prices (+30 percent in 2012) compared to rice. This led to four to five-times higher profits for corn in 2012.

Even though the incentives for an expansion of corn production seem to be strong, there are various obstacles that need to be overcome in the future. High labour intensity and continuously increasing wage rates for hired workers (+150 percent during the last 10 years) are the key issues in corn production. Considering the fact that corn is currently produced without any mechanization, the potential for an increase in labour productivity seems large.

However, the increase in labour productivity requires the consolidation in farm sizes – a typical farm in the South-East region operates on 3 hectares with an average field size of 0.5 hectares – as well as better access to bank loans. Furthermore, since corn has just been introduced as a new crop, the overall production system needs fine tuning and optimization. Seeding density, fertilizer quantities and timing of herbicide and fungicide applications are fields of action. It therefore remains to be seen how farmers will tackle these issues and to what extent corn will replace the traditional rice based systems.


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