Farmers face ‘difficulties on top of difficulties’ due to low rice prices and sharp increase in fertilizer prices

In the context of farmers facing difficulties due to low rice prices, only around 5,000 VND/kg for IR 50404 and OM 5451 varieties, fertilizer prices have increased by 78% over the past half year. At the online conference on rice consumption in the Mekong Delta (MD) held today, August 7, Mr. Tran Thanh Nam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that localities in the region are continuing to harvest the 2021 Summer-Autumn rice crop and preparing to harvest 250,000 hectares of early Autumn-Winter rice crop in September and October 2021. According to Mr. Nam, in terms of rice output, from now until the end of the year, there is a good trend, because the epidemic situation is under control, while the weather this year has not changed. However, due to traffic congestion, rice prices have fluctuated strongly recently. Mr. Nam said that the decrease in rice prices combined with the epidemic situation has made farmers wonder whether they should continue to plant more rice or not? Where to produce and sell rice during this epidemic season?…, especially when input materials have had a sudden increase in price as recently. #farmers #fertilizer #rice_prices

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