Khmer farmers climb out of poverty

TRA VINH — Khmer farmers of Cau Tre Village in southern Tra Vinh Province have been able to escape poverty by improved their rice yield with advanced farming methods.

Cau Tre Village in Tieu Can District's Phu Can Commune has a population of more than 2,300, 98.2 per cent of whom belong to the Khmer ethnic minority. They cultivate rice on a total of 335 ha.

In 2007, local authorities began implementing a programme that brought the State, private enterprises, farmers and scientists to work together in showing farmers ways to increase their rice output.

Under the programme, farmers were told how to grow rice using new rice varieties and other material inputs in ways that would generate higher yields.

Since then, average rice output has increased from 5.1 tonnes a ha in 2006 to 6.3 tonnes in 2007 and to 6.5 tonnes in 2008.

In the last summer autumn crop, despite unfavourable weather conditions, rice output in Cau Tre reached 6.2 tonnes per ha when the average rice output for the whole province was just 5 tonnes per ha.

Cau Tre has in fact set up a club of farmers who have been able to get yields of 9 tonnes per ha.

Thach Minh, one of the club members, said before participating in the programme, he used up to 30 kg of rice seeds to sow on a 1,000sq.m

"Now I use only 10 kg of rice seeds to sow on 1,000sq.m," Minh said.

"At first I was very worried because the density of rice seedlings looked so thin. But when I harvested my crop, the output was higher than previous crops," he added.

Another club member, Thach Sanh, said before he was taught new rice cultivation techniques, he used to sow rice seeds with a high density thinking it would lead to more rice plants and higher yields.

Now he realises that this will create favourable conditions for pest diseases and cause high production cost.

Agriculture extension worker Le Van Xiem of the An Giang Plant Protection Company, who is responsible for instructing farmers in new cultivation methods, said 90 per cent of farmers in Cau Tre had learnt them so far.

Nguyen Van Tay, chairman of the Phu Can Commune Farmers Association, said CaÀu Tre, after two years of implementing the programme, had the number of poor households reduced by 50 per cent. — VNS