Golden rice season in Muong Tac fields in the Northwest region

The Northwest with its majestic and wild beauty captivates people. The Northwest is also full of hardships and challenges with harsh climate and terrain conditions, making it difficult for ethnic minorities to make a living and develop their economy.

Let's explore the beauty of Mai Chau rice fields, Hoa Binh, Vietnam with iguide.ai!

The entire Northwest region has only four large, relatively flat rice fields located between valleys that have entered poetry thanks to their abundance of delicious rice varieties considered specialties: "Nhat Thanh, Nhi Lo, Tam Than, Tu Tac".

The largest field is called Muong Thanh in Dien Bien, famous for Dien Bien Tam rice. The second largest field is Muong Lo (Yen Bai) famous for Tu Le sticky rice. The third is Muong Than field (Than Uyen district, Lai Chau) famous for Seng Cu rice. Finally, Muong Tac field (Phu Yen district, Son La) with sticky rice varieties that are exceptionally delicious.

We arrived in Muong Tac on a hot summer day, when people were starting to rush to the fields to harvest the spring-summer rice crop. Muong Tac fields are 1,600 hectares wide, stretching along the Tac stream through the communes of Huy Thuong, Huy Tan, Quang Huy, Huy Bac... all the way to the Da River at the Van Yen ferry terminal in Phu Yen (Son La).

Thanks to the flat terrain and abundant irrigation water, people here (of the Muong, Dao, Thai ethnic groups...) can grow two rice crops per year. The spring-summer crop is from February to June of the solar calendar, and the summer-autumn crop is from July to November of the solar calendar. The hard work, perseverance, and hardship of the ethnic people of Phu Hoa land (formerly known as Phu Yen district) have created golden seasons of prosperity and abundance.

Mr. Pham Van Ba - Deputy Director of Muong Tac Cooperative - told us: "Currently, people here have planted high-yield rice varieties such as BC15, San Uu, Nhi Uu, R64, LT2... along with traditional sticky rice varieties that have changed the cultivation method but the stickiness and deliciousness are still not lost."

Farmers in Muong Tac fields are very proud to say that the average rice yield is 7.5-8 tons/ha. This means that the two rice crops in Muong Tac fields produce 23-25 thousand tons of rice a year, making Muong Tac the largest rice granary in Son La province in recent years.

In the hot yellow sun on the Muong Tac fields, thousands of people are enthusiastically harvesting rice. Some households with many fields but lacking manpower have had to hire professional harvesters to complete the harvest on time. Some households have even pooled together to buy modern, combined harvesters - threshing machines - harvesting - threshing rice to bring to the fields to harvest.

Besides, we still see many people using manual agricultural tools to harvest rice such as sickles, threshing rice by hand, then winnowing rice with woven bamboo and rattan tools.

The atmosphere on the banks and in the fields was extremely urgent and bustling. The laughter and calls to each other mixed with the sound of engines made the whole area bustling. Sitting and resting on a pile of newly harvested rice on the banks, Mrs. Dinh Thi Ngát in Quang Huy commune, Phu Yen excitedly said: "My family has 6 sao of rice growing twice a year in this field (Northern sao is equivalent to 360m2).

Each crop also yields about 1.5 tons of rice, after leaving it for the family to eat, the rest is sold to traders. Because the new rice variety produces very delicious rice, right from the beginning of the crop, traders and rice agents inside and outside the province have come to place orders in the villages and communes around Muong Tac field.

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