[Audio] Binh Giang is a pioneer in agricultural mechanization

Binh Giang is one of the leading localities in the province in terms of machine planting area (documentary photo)

With close attention from district to commune levels and changes in farmers' production thinking, over the past time, Binh Giang district has become one of the leading localities in mechanizing agricultural production.

Attention from district to grassroots

To realize the agricultural production goals set forth in the Resolution of the 28th District Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term, Binh Giang District Party Committee has issued the Project "Improving the quality and efficiency of agricultural production towards concentrated commodities with high economic value; promoting the application of science, technology and mechanization in agricultural production in the period of 2020-2025".

The leadership and direction of the project implementation have been paid attention to by the Party Committee and authorities from the district to the grassroots level, considering this as one of the solutions for economic development and increasing income for the people. Every year, the District People's Committee organizes conferences to deploy the implementation plan for each content related to the project. Every quarter, the District People's Committee organizes meetings to review and evaluate the progress of the plan implementation and direct specialized agencies and localities to continue implementing specific tasks in the following period.

To effectively implement the project, the Party Committee and the People's Committee of communes and towns have issued implementation plans suitable to the actual conditions of each locality. Organize propaganda and disseminate the project of the District Party Committee and the plan of the District People's Committee through many forms such as organizing expanded military-civilian conferences, production deployment conferences, regular propaganda on the grassroots radio system, through Party Committee meetings, Party cell secretaries' meetings, etc.

Mr. Duong Xuan Khoat, Vice Chairman of Tan Hong Commune People's Committee, informed that in the 2023 winter-spring crop, the area of ​​rice transplanted by machines accounts for about 65% of the total 483.5 hectares of rice in the commune. To facilitate the application of mechanization in agricultural production, the Party Committee has directed the Commune People's Committee to develop a specific plan to implement the construction of a rice production area of ​​one region, one variety, one time. As a result, each year the commune plans 3-5 concentrated commercial rice production areas with a scale of 30 hectares or more. The locality also invests in upgrading intra-field roads to facilitate the process of harvesting and transporting agricultural products. To date, Tan Hong commune has 25 main intra-field roads with a total length of more than 12 km, of which 11.2 km are concreted with a road surface width of 3.5-4m.

Outstanding performance

Long Xuyen Commune is one of the first localities in Binh Giang to pilot the model of spraying pesticides using drones. Mr. Hoang Huu Bac, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director of Long Xuyen Agricultural Production and Service Cooperative, said: “In the 2023 winter-spring crop, the commune has 26 hectares of pesticides sprayed by drones, accounting for 10% of the total rice cultivation area of ​​the commune. The cooperative will continue to deploy and replicate the model in the following crops.” According to Ms. Vu Thi Kieu, a farmer in Long Xuyen Commune, spraying pesticides is one of the hard jobs in the process of taking care of rice. The deployment of spraying pesticides by drones has helped farmers reduce pesticide costs because the amount used is less, and there is no worry about affecting health.”

Applying drones to spray pesticides in agricultural production has contributed to reducing production costs, reducing the amount of pesticides, protecting farmers' health and reducing environmental pollution. Spraying time by drones is reduced compared to the traditional method of spraying by hand sprayers, while improving the ability to prevent pests and diseases, because the droplets at the nozzle are many times smaller than when sprayed by hand, thereby increasing the contact rate between pesticides and crops. Because of the effectiveness of this model, in recent times, not only Long Xuyen but also the authorities and Agricultural Service Cooperatives in many communes and towns of Binh Giang have implemented and achieved initial results. Currently, on average, each crop has about 500 hectares in communes and towns in the district applying the model of spraying pesticides by drones.

Binh Giang is also one of the localities with the largest area of ​​machine-planted rice in the province. Localities with large areas of machine-planted rice are concentrated in the communes of Tan Hong, Long Xuyen, Thuc Khang, Vinh Hong, etc. The application of machine-planted rice has increased labor productivity compared to manual rice planting, reduced costs of sowing and planting, reduced costs of pest control, and increased rice productivity and efficiency by an average of over 30% compared to manual rice planting. Machine-planted rice is a breakthrough solution to increase productivity, economic efficiency, protect the environment, develop sustainably and solve the "problem" of labor shortage in agriculture. The district encourages organizations and individuals to build tray-planting centers, invest in buying transplanting machines and expand the scale of tray-planting production of existing centers.

According to Mr. Vu Quang Thai, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Giang district, in 2021, the whole district had 1,165 hectares of rice transplanted by machines, accounting for 19.3% of the area. This area has increased over the years. In the winter-spring crop of 2023, 1,365 hectares were transplanted by machines, reaching 22.3%. In the whole year of 2023, the district strives to have 1,488 hectares of rice transplanted by machines, accounting for 25% of the area, equal to 50% of the project's target.

HUYEN TRANG