Some farmers in the Mekong Delta region have been forced to sell their farms to duck breeders as a result of falling prices.
Farmers in Vinh Long Province have harvested 26,000ha of summer-autumn paddy, but they are worried about low prices and the difficulty of selling their crops. The price for one kilogramme of IR 50404 has dropped to just VND3,700 – 3,800 (USD0.17). Meanwhile, traders are not interested in buying because of low demand. In some cases, traders are even willing to take the loss of their deposits to farmers, VND1-2 million (USD47.6-95.2), if farmers are unwilling to store the rice until prices rise.
Tran Van Chinh in Vi Trung Commune, Vi Thuy District, Hau Giang Province sold 1,500 square metres to duck breeders for VND3.75 million (USD178.57).
In addition, due to uncommonly wet weather this year, many farmers operating costs went up because they had to lease farming equipment.
According to some farmers in Vinh Long and Hau Giang provinces, at the beginning of the season, fees harvest machines cost just VND260,000 (USD1.23) per day to rent, but now have increased to VND300,000 (USD14.2). The fees are even higher for fields affected by bad weather.
In many localities productivity has been quite low. In Vinh Long, a total area of 26,000 hectares yielded just 6.7 tonnes per hectare. Several districts in Tien Giang and Hau Giang have seen even lower rates of just 5.8 or 5.3 tonnes per hectare.
Farmers in Soc Trang Province complain that, not only are harvesting costs higher, but fertiliser has gone up too, increasing to VND560,000-580,000 per bag compared to just VND480,000-490,000 at the beginning of the winter-spring crop.
Source: VNN