Highlands of My Thanh and Ham Can have crop failures and low corn prices.

Farmers in the mountainous areas of Ham Can and My Thanh (Ham Thuan Nam) are busy harvesting corn. However, this year's corn crop has not only failed but also lost value, making their lives more difficult.

These days, in the mountainous communes of My Thanh and Ham Can, it is difficult to have a long conversation with anyone who is the main breadwinner in the family, except for the elderly men and women who are no longer of working age. Because they are busy "catching work" and harvesting corn for not only their own family but also their neighbors'. "Catching work" is an activity of helping each other between farming households during the harvest season to reduce labor costs. That means in a village with many households, they take turns harvesting each other's crops until the end of the season.

Ms. Reo is cleaning corn kernels and putting them into bags.

Corn is in the harvest season, so everywhere in the commune, you can see the bustling harvest activities, with jobs such as picking corn, transporting it to the gathering place to separate the seeds, bagging, drying... From the outside, it seems that this year's corn crop in the communes is a bumper crop. But after digging deeper, we see that they are worried, because the corn yield is lower than last year, and the price is not high. "My family planted 9 kg of corn seeds/5 sao, harvested less than 1 ton, the selling price is only over 3,000 VND/kg, while in 2022 the crop was better, reaching 2 tons, the selling price is 4,000 - over 5,000 VND/kg. In the same area, cassava is grown for 8 - 9 tons, this year everyone who grows corn is losing money, selling it is not enough to pay for fertilizer and seeds for the Mountain Service Center", Ms. Nguyen Thi Khe, village 1, My Thanh shared. For Ms. Le Thi Reo, in village 3, Ham Can commune, she cultivates 7 sao of corn, last year the yield was high at nearly 5 tons, the selling price was over 5,000 VND/kg, earning over 20 million VND. "This year there are only about 2 tons, the price fluctuates between 3,000 - 4,000 VND/kg, not enough to pay off the debt, not counting the cost of taking care of and plowing the land," Ms. Reo said worriedly.

Other households, even those of leaders and commune officials who grow corn, are in a similar situation... Many people are worried that the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin 2024 will be difficult this year, because ethnic minorities here mainly live on income from agricultural production. Typically, My Thanh commune, where 283 households/971 people mainly grow corn, cassava, and dragon fruit. In 2023, they invested more in growing corn than cassava because they saw that in 2022 corn would have a good harvest and a good price. But man proposes, God disposes, this year corn had a bad harvest and lost value, dragon fruit was no exception, so life was very difficult. “This year, every household owes the Mountain Service Center, which invested in advance fertilizer and seeds for farmers, and when the harvest is converted into corn, it is returned to the center. With poor harvests and low prices, everyone is worried about not having enough food for the upcoming Tet holiday. We hope the government will support us by adjusting corn prices to ease our worries,” many people in My Thanh commune shared the same sentiment.

The above situation is not new but often occurs in recent years. The refrain of good harvest but low price or bad harvest, low price is always a concern of every farmer in general. They have made many recommendations in voter meetings and annual meetings and forums, with the hope of solving difficulties. At the recent voter meetings and dialogue conferences between the heads of the Party Committee, the commune government and the people, the people of My Thanh requested the Party Committee, the government, and the district People's Committee to pay attention to mechanisms and policies to support corn growers. Because the current corn price is too low to cover production costs, affecting people's lives.

The leaders of Ham Thuan Nam district have also taken note, but have not yet found a solution when the Mountain Service Center informed that due to market prices, it is difficult to adjust. Mr. Nguyen Duy Ninh - Deputy Head of the Agriculture Department of Ham Thuan Nam district said that for many years, My Thanh and Ham Can have always grown hybrid corn, which has been affected by armyworms... with low productivity. If people continue to maintain this crop, it will affect their lives. It is necessary to break the monoculture and switch to other crops, such as legumes, in order to limit the risk of crop failure and price loss. The District People's Committee has made recommendations to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee in a recent working session on this issue, because they want to convert to diverse crops in the above communes in the coming time, with the hope of receiving more support from relevant units, departments and branches.

Source