Delta seeks to cut post-harvest losses

HCM CITY — The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has unveiled a plan to reduce post-harvest losses in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta by mechanising up to 80 per cent of the harvesting segment by 2020.

This will include mainly reaping and drying activities, according to the Steering Committee for the Southwest Region.

Under the plan, provincial authorities of the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta will provide farmers with high-quality rice varieties that are not susceptible to wind damage during the reaping period.

Under the plan, manufacturers will be encouraged to produce combine harvesters and dryers that suit rice production in localities, while farmers will be provided with bank loans to purchase these machines.

In the next decade, from 20,000 to 25,000 combine harvesters and dryers will be provided to Mekong provinces, according to the plan.

By 2015, some 70 modern drying systems, each capable of drying 10 to 30 tonnes of paddy per hour, will be built in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, ensuring that an additional 4 million tonnes of paddy will be dried in the region annually.

The warehouse systems in the largest rice producing provinces such as An Giang, Long An, Kien Giang and Soc Trang will be expanded to store 1.6 million tonnes of rice, double the current capacity of the existing warehouses in the region.

These projects will help reduce rice production costs by VND30,000 per tonne and to increase revenue from rice by VND500 billion per year.

The additional value of rice from the summer-autumn and autumn-winter crops (due to reduction of post-harvest losses) in the region is estimated at VND4 trillion (US$194 million) per year.

According to figures from the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta Rice Research Institute, the region currently has more than 4,900 combine harvesters and 4,000 reapers (harvesters) which can help tackle only 35 per cent of the areas under rice cultivation. The region also has 6,435 dryers which can handle only 31 per cent of the rice output of the summer-autumn crop (reaped in the rainy season).

The existing warehouse systems cannot store all the paddy harvested from the two crops, leading to huge post-harvest losses annually. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, post-harvest losses in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta could potentially reach 20.6 per cent of rice production value, including 4.2 per cent loss in drying; 3 per cent in reaping; 3 per cent in husking; 2.6 per cent in preservation; and 0.9 per cent in transportation.

In addition, losses in other rice by-products could amount to 50 per cent of their value, leading to total losses of US$635 million per year.

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Agriculture/213628/Delta-seeks-to-cut-post-harvest-losses.html