Farmers earn hundreds of millions from the waste that fills fields

Source: nguoiduatin.vn

In the last days of May, farmers across urban districts in Nghe An are harvesting winter-spring rice with high yields. This is also the time when straw collectors are busy with the harvest.

Nghe An is one of the localities with a large agricultural land area. Each year, this province produces over 170,000 hectares of rice, with an output of over 1 million tons/year. Therefore, straw by-products after each harvest season are also very large.

Most of the rice areas are harvested by people renting combine threshing machines. After harvesting, straw is left in the field and not collected.

Straw is spread by the harvester in rows on the rice stubble. After a day of drying in the sun, the straw dries up and many people come to collect it and sell it.

It is currently the spring rice harvest, the straw source in the fields is very abundant. It is not difficult to see people busy collecting straw in the fields.

Ms. Huong (resident of Quynh Luu district, Nghe An) said that every time the rice harvest comes, she and her family members go to the fields to collect straw to sell to cattle farms. “Very few families take straw back after harvesting rice, so we come and collect it. If we don’t collect it in time, they will burn it. It’s both wasteful and pollutes the environment. We collect and sell each acre of rice fields to them.” 120-150 thousand VND. If we are healthy, our whole family can earn millions every day,” Ms. Huong shared with her Tien Phong.

To harvest a lot of straw, people carry large tarpaulins across the fields to collect straw and then put it on trucks to transport it back. The rice harvest only lasts a few weeks, so many families have to mobilize all family members to collect straw.

Manual collection does not require investment costs, but it takes time and effort and the amount of straw collected is not much. That’s why some people have boldly invested in large machines to collect straw to sell.

Share with the newspaper Nghe AnMr. Hoang Van Anh, Hung Nguyen district – one of the people who has been collecting straw for many years, said: “In the past, people often mobilized human resources to collect straw to store as food for livestock. If you don’t use it, burn it, which is not only wasteful but also pollutes the environment. To take advantage of this by-product source, we have invested in 5 straw collection machines with a total cost of nearly 2 billion VND, and also rented more. human resources to collect straw in all districts of the province”.

Mr. Hoang Van Quan (resident of Nam Dinh province) also said that many years ago he invested in a combine harvester to harvest for hire. As time passed, many people invested in harvesters, so the workload became less. Seeing that the harvester leaves straw in the field after harvesting rice, but people throw it away. Meanwhile, the need to buy straw from livestock farms is large, so Mr. Quan spent nearly 400 million VND to invest in a straw rolling machine.

“Every year I work 2 seasons lasting about 5 months. Every time I go from Thanh Hoa to Thua Thien Hue. I come to collect rice in any area that harvests rice. Every day the income is quite high but the costs are also high. Each worker is paid a daily wage of 800-1 million VND,” Mr. Hoang Van Quan said, after deducting expenses, he earns more than 200 million VND each year thanks to straw rolls.

According to research, the machine will roll the straw onto the reel, then automatically bundle it into pieces nearly 1 meter long and about 40cm in diameter. When the machine rolls the straw, the worker’s job is to arrange the straw rolls neatly and in a straight line to accommodate as many rolls as possible. This job has to be done continuously in hot weather with lots of straw, so the workers also have to wear tight clothes to avoid the sun and avoid pain.

The straw is bundled into rolls. It takes about 1 minute for the machine to make each roll. On average, each acre of rice will yield about 6-7 rolls of straw. After rolling, the straw will be loaded onto trucks, brought to storage and then imported to units inside and outside the province.

Currently, each roll of straw costs from 30,000 – 40,000 VND, and at peak times it can be up to 50,000 VND. People are excited because they have more income from by-products.

However, straw collection depends a lot on the weather, it can only be done on hot days. On rainy days, the straw becomes wet, rolling the straw cannot be done, and the quality of the straw is not guaranteed. to enter for units. Due to continuous operation, machines often have to be refueled to operate all day long.