Mekong Delta farmers turn straw, stubble into gold

Farmers harvest rice straw in Thanh Bình District in Đồng Tháp Province. – VNA/VNS Photo Nguyễn Văn Trí

HCM CITY – Farmers in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta are increasingly utilising straw and stubble for various purposes, reducing the widespread practice of burning them.

This shift helps protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from crop residue burning.

The delta, known as Việt Nam’s rice bowl, produces approximately 24 million tonnes of paddy annually, generating an equal amount of straw and stubble.

According to the Cửu Long Delta Rice Research Institute, about 30 per cent of this is collected for other uses, while the rest is either buried in rice fields or burned.

Burning straw and stubble was traditionally aimed at destroying disease pathogens but has led to environmental pollution, degraded soil quality, health risks, and the waste of valuable agricultural by-products.

Agricultural officials in the delta are encouraging farmers to cease burning crop residues and instead repurpose them for income-generating uses, aligning with Việt Nam’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Farmers are being trained to use biological products to treat straw and stubble, converting them into organic fertilisers.

Nguyễn Văn Kết, a farmer in Đồng Tháp Province’s Cao Lãnh District, stopped burning straw and stubble in 2022 after receiving guidance on treating residues with biological products. This method has made his soil more fertile and softer, improved rice plant growth, and strengthened root systems, reducing vulnerability to bad weather.

“The new method has increased my yield to 9 tonnes per hectare and cut production costs by 40 per cent,” he said, adding that avoiding burning has prevented soil degradation and reduced pollution.

In Đồng Tháp Province, agricultural officials have been conducting training on growing rice straw mushrooms and treating straw and stubble.

The province is also fostering connections between suppliers and buyers of straw-derived products to ensure stable markets for farmers.

Lai Vung District in Đồng Tháp is piloting a project across 100ha in four communes to collect straw and stubble using machinery.

Mai Bá Nghĩa, chairman of the project, said its aim is to teach farmers techniques for collecting and preserving these materials, which can be used to grow mushrooms, raise livestock, and produce organic fertilisers. Products like rice straw mushrooms and fertilisers are purchased by the Hoà Long Commune Co-operative.

In An Giang Province, a major rice-growing area, many farmers have adopted similar practices.

Nguyễn Thanh Hà from Châu Thành District has been growing rice straw mushrooms in eight greenhouses since attending a training course in 2020.

“I now harvest about 70kg of mushrooms each month, selling them for VNĐ100,000 (US$3.2) per kilogramme. Within two years, I recouped my initial investment in the greenhouses and started earning profits,” he said.

Hà now earns VNĐ24 million ($940) monthly from mushroom cultivation and uses the leftover straw to breed redworms and produce organic fertilisers.

Phạm Thị Như, from the Châu Thành District Agriculture Extension Centre, said the district has intensified awareness campaigns to educate farmers on the benefits of avoiding straw burning and finding alternative uses.

“These practices have increased farmers’ incomes while protecting the environment,” she said.

Many farmers and co-operatives in the delta now own machines to bale straw, earning VNĐ400,000–500,000 ($13–16) per hectare by selling the bales.

The Mekong Delta, comprising 12 provinces and Cần Thơ City, is implementing a Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development project to sustainably develop one million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice cultivation.

By 2025, the project aims to repurpose 70 per cent of straw from rice cultivation, increasing to 100 per cent by 2030.

This initiative is part of Việt Nam’s broader effort to achieve its net-zero emissions target by 2050.

Lê Thanh Tùng, deputy head of the ministry’s Plant Cultivation Department, said the project generates a substantial amount of straw, which individual farmers cannot manage alone.

He suggested forming farmer groups or engaging traders to handle collection and treatment efficiently. – VNS