Developing the sugar cane industry in the new situation

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During 2020-2021, the area of ​​sugarcane cultivation in the province reached over 5.6 thousand hectares, decreased 3.2 thousand hectares compared to 2019. Although the sugarcane area decreased remarkably, the province was still interested in synchronously implementing the solutions to maintain and build sugarcane material areas with a series of investments in seeding, farming, and harvesting in a chain link. In addition, innovation in sugar cane processing is an important step to increase the competitiveness of this industry.

More solutions are needed in farming

In the past time, the area of ​​sugarcane in the province has continuously decreased, mainly due to the low price of sugarcane, causing people to switch from sugarcane to other crops with higher economic value. Currently, the districts that still grow sugarcane in the province include: Dinh Quan District with nearly 2.2 thousand hectares; Trang Bom has more than 1.2 thousand, Nhon Trach has nearly 1.1 thousand, Xuan Loc has 889 hectares.

Mr. Truong Hung Dung in Hung Thinh Commune, Trang Bom District used to be a giant in sugarcane cultivation, there was a period when he rented land to grow hundreds of hectares of sugarcane. However, at present, Mr. Dung almost no longer rents land to grow sugar cane, and his family's land is gradually converted to fruit trees. Currently, the remaining sugarcane area is only a few hectares, mainly sugarcane fields in the 2nd and 3rd crops that do not need investment in new planting or some areas suitable for growing sugarcane only. According to Mr. Dung: “Sugarcane used to be a crop that helped farmers earn good income, even get rich. But now, even farmers who have cultivated sugarcane for a long time are switching to other crops because the profits from sugarcane are getting lower and lower. In particular, in the last crop, after harvesting, farmers had to make up for losses because of low sugarcane prices and the uncertain selling”.

Accordingly, in the plan to develop the sugar industry in the province in the new situation, many solutions are proposed to build and develop the sugarcane material area. Specifically, the solution on science and technology in the stage of selecting the variety and restoration of good quality varieties. In terms of farming techniques, it is necessary to implement a reasonable intensive farming process, apply processes, systems, integrated pest management, and manage nutrients according to specific regions in planting and caring for sugarcane. In particular, it is necessary to arrange planting season and structure of early ripening, medium ripening and late ripening varieties suitable for spreading the crop, reducing the shortage of sugarcane at the beginning and end of the crop, and excess sugarcane in the middle of the crop. Improve the quality of mechanization in stages of cultivation and harvest; promote mechanization in the stages of care and harvesting; apply various forms of irrigation in the direction of saving water, achieving high economic efficiency.

Formation of chain links

Farmers harvest sugarcane in Xuan Bac Commune, Xuan Loc District. Photo: by Phan Anh

Pointing out the difficulties of sugarcane farmers, Mr. Ngo Ngoc Huong, a sugarcane farmer in Trung Hoa Commune, Trang Bom District said, the biggest difficulty of sugarcane farmers today is the consumption. In the previous crop year, there were sugar factories in the province that stopped working, some factories only operated in moderation, so most farmers had to sell sugarcane to factories in Ninh Thuan Province. Selling sugarcane far away makes the weight and sugar of sugarcane lost, transportation costs are also more expensive. In order to maintain sugarcane industry, our farmers expect that there should be a close link between stage of production to consumption, ensuring stable output for sugarcane.

In addition, the difficulties of the sugar cane industry in the province over the past time such as: The production areas are completely dependent on the natural water, the production depends on the weather, so the yield of sugarcane is not high and the farming cannot controled by the farmers, the fire prevention and fighting could not be conducted well. The process of purchasing sugarcane of factories is still slow, leading to dried sugarcane; reduce productivity and output, affecting people's income. The unstable price of raw cane is mainly due to the low price of sugar, causing sugarcane processing enterprises to face many difficulties in production.

This is also a group of solutions that Dong Nai will implement in the near future. Specifically, the province will pay attention to investing in the transport system in the direction of connecting rural traffic with provincial roads and national highways with the goal of promoting production development and goods circulation. Investing in the development of irrigation systems for production and improving the capacity of infrastructure systems for scientific and technological research, especially in selecting and creating sugarcane varieties and plant protection.

Accordingly, localities with large sugarcane growing areas should review and build concentrated sugarcane production areas, creating stable raw material areas to ensure production and business activities of enterprises in the province. Develop and implement specific plans to strongly develop sugarcane agricultural cooperatives associated with sugar factories; support the establishment of sugarcane cooperative groups to create large fields to promote cooperation and association with cooperatives and enterprises to invest in developing large sugarcane fields with high technology application.

Phan Anh

Solutions for sugarcane processing enterprises include: it is necessary to research, produce and process sugarcane to diversify products from sugarcane and from waste and by-products in sugar production. Enterprises should actively develop a project to restructure sugarcane enterprises in the direction of promoting the application of science and technology and focusing on improving productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness, in line with the current context of international economic integration.