Ca Mau: Promoting value chain linkage, transforming agricultural thinking

DNVN - The People's Committee of Ca Mau province has just directed the provincial agriculture and environment sector, rice-producing communes and wards, and agricultural cooperatives in the province to connect with rice purchasing agencies from the people in the winter-spring crop. Promote value chain linkages, and shift thinking from agricultural production to agricultural economics.

The above move shows the attention of Ca Mau province right after the 2025 summer-autumn rice crop, farmers faced the situation of "good harvest, low price", causing many farming households to fall into the tragedy of heavy crop losses due to high production costs, high material prices, and rice prices of only 5,500 VND/kg.

Ca Mau province currently has 90,000 hectares of land dedicated to rice cultivation and nearly 100,000 hectares of rice on shrimp land, with a total annual rice output of about 1.8 million tons. Of the 190,000 hectares of land dedicated to rice and shrimp cultivation, farmers cultivate 2-3 crops per year, of which more than 50% of the area produces 3 crops per year.

Summer-autumn rice harvest in Vinh Thanh commune, Ca Mau province.

Although productivity and output have increased, farmers' profits from rice production remain low, mainly due to the high price of materials. Other services such as land preparation, combine harvesters, and rice seeds have all increased, affecting production costs by 2.5 to 3 million VND per hectare.

According to many farmers in the wards of Bac Lieu area, in the past 5 years, the price of fertilizers and pesticides has started to increase, with each crop increasing from 100 to 150 thousand VND/bag, such as: Urea, NPK, DAP from 700 thousand/bag to more than 1 million VND/bag. Meanwhile, in rice production, pesticides and fertilizers account for more than 60% of production costs, if the crop fails, it means that farmers' profits will decrease sharply.

In addition to factors such as climate change, pests, and falling rice prices, farmers' disadvantages are even greater. In recent years, when farmers begin to harvest rice, they encounter tropical depressions, rain, and storms that cause the rice to be flooded or flattened in the fields, reducing productivity by 30-40%.

And when the harvested rice has not been sold to the future, farmers will continue to improve the land to plant new rice crops. Maintaining rice production 3 crops/year leads to supply exceeding demand, making it difficult to have high rice prices, even leading to the possibility of rice not being sold.

In fact, in Ca Mau fields, many farmers currently prefer high-yield rice varieties but the commercial value of the rice grains is low. This makes many households have low income because the rice varieties have not been put into mass production by the authorities and are not on the list of exported rice.

Winter-spring rice fields in 2025 in Ca Mau province .

Currently, the provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment is reviewing existing rice areas, organizing concentrated rice areas to guide farmers in cultivation according to advanced technical processes and using high-quality rice seeds, adapting to climate change, guiding farmers to plant seeds on schedule, monitoring pests for each rice crop, proactively warning of pests, blast disease, weedy rice, and thrips.

Continuing to invest in completing infrastructure, especially the irrigation system separating salt and fresh water, dredging the canal system, and investing in small and medium-sized pumping stations for rice growing areas in the province will facilitate the development of high-quality rice production areas (fragrant rice, specialty rice) and large-scale, concentrated production of 30 hectares or more, while connecting purchasing with industry more conveniently.

According to Mr. Pham Van Muoi - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ca Mau province, Ca Mau province is currently implementing the project "developing 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice cultivation associated with green growth in the Mekong Delta by 2030", Ca Mau province will continue to implement the rice crop on shrimp farming land this year and the winter-spring crop including 3 pilot models and 27 replication points with an area of ​​more than 1,600 hectares. "There will be more than 1,000 farmers participating in training on technology transfer, production processes and access, practical testing, production efficiency, must help farmers get rich right on their land", Mr. Muoi said.

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Source: https://doanhnghiepvn.vn/kinh-te/ca-mau-thuc-day-lien-ket-chuoi-gia-tri-chuyen-doi-tu-duy-lam-nong-nghiep/20251001112927742