Cashing in on rice to corn rotation

What is the “Rice to corn conversion” initiative?

Vietnam’s demand for corn continues to increase. The country now annually imports one million tonnes of corn, at ever-increasing prices. Wishing to help both farmers improve their lives and the government solve the issue, we are actively trying to educate farmers in order to help them build a model for rice-to-corn rotation, and work with corn traders to host seminars encouraging farmers to adopt this new method.

After two years of hard work, we and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development last May successfully organised a seminar to announce that farmers participating in the pilot program saw their profits jump after switching from rice to corn.

Today, we have introduced Dekalb’s “Rice to corn conversion” model to all regulators, scientists, partners and farmers.

We hope the model will be transferred to farmers nationwide so that they too can benefit from and improve their livelihood.

What is Dekalb’s investment strategy in Vietnam?

In August 2010, Dekalb Vietnam was established in Vietnam. Before that, we worked as a representative office of Monsanto Thailand in this country.

Amidst challenges of diminishing land, water resources issues, environmental stresses and population growth, all governments in the world, including Vietnam, are increasing their efforts towards encouraging sustainable farming practices and public-private partnership for accelerating yield growth plus environmental protection.

Dekalb, under management of Monsanto - a global leading player in the agriculture field, has also implemented its “Sustainable investment for Vietnam sustainable agriculture” strategy through bringing the best hybrids and global agronomic practices to Vietnam. The strategy also aims to directly transfer these practices to Vietnamese farmers so that they can proactively tackle agricultural challenges, produce more and improve lives. We support this work through three key areas including plant breeding, agricultural biotechnology and improved agronomic solution, for which we spend $3.8 million a day on.

In terms of plant breeding, each hybrid we bring to Vietnam has been through a vigorous plant breeding process. For example, each corn hybrid has experienced a decade of plant breeding and hundreds of field trials. With Monsanto technologies, our plant breeders can see the DNA and genetics of plants and make more informed decisions earlier in the breeding process. We can get access to a large pool of tropical corn genes, thus, our Dekalb corn hybrids are the best fit for Vietnamese farmers.

To be able to bring the best fit hybrid to Vietnamese farmers, every year, we select around 200 new hybrids for Vietnam hybrid development programme. Our research and development team will conduct hundreds of testing location across corn planting regions in the country to test their performance. After three years of field trials, we will select the best three out of the 200 hybrids and plant them in hundreds of fields throughout Vietnam. We will analyse seed performance in each region for at least three years, and then select the best one for commercialisation in Vietnam’s market.

We are seeing a growing need in Vietnam to improve yields as well as high potential to increase corn yields by combining seed quality and genetics with new technology like biotechnology and agronomic practice improvements. We are also making efforts to bring this technology to Vietnam so that Vietnamese farmers can benefit from this technology.

Dekalb Vietnam continues to help farmers maximise their productivity and profits

Are you facing any competition from other foreign rivals in Vietnam? How different is Dekalb’s investment from your competitors?

The competition in the seed industry is growing rapidly, with more and more companies joining the market. The investment that distinguishes us from our competitors is our “sustainable investment”. Specifically, we consider investment for sustainable agricultural development as important as the venture for our own company’s business. We realise this vision through our own hard work, the support we give to the local government, local farmers and the entire community we work in.

Since our establishment in Vietnam, Dekalb has always worked with the government and farmers as trusted partners to address agricultural challenges. More than 45,000 farmers have received our training on agronomic practices and hybrid selection knowledge.

Our “Rice to corn conversion” model has helped farmers to triple their profits in southern An Giang province. Our “Hi-Pop” practice has also been cited as the core factor helping farmers in Son La, Phu Tho, Dong Nai, An Giang and Ba Ria – Vung Tau provinces increase their corn yields by 30 per cent.

For the community, we have provided more than $200,000 for education and provided a means of living for poor farmers in Vietnam’s northern and central regions.

What difficulties are you facing in doing business in Vietnam?

One of the main challenges, not only in Vietnam, but also throughout Asia, is a lack of synchronisation in regulatory systems regarding genetically engineered (GE) crops.

Vietnam has to annually import over one million tonnes of corn grains to make animal feeds. While Vietnam imports corn largely from Argentina, America and Brazil, where almost all the corn is GE, Vietnam’s regulatory system for GE adoption has been delayed for years.

Solid regulatory systems that are transparent, predictable, and strong in intellectual property protection are prerequisites for Dekalb to operate effectively in a country.