Thanks to favourable weather conditions and the agricultural extension programme, northern farmers had a bumper crop this year, yielding a total of more than 6.8 million tonnes, up 120,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, farmers in the Mekong River Delta – the country’s largest rice granary - harvested 9.8 million tonnes, up 23,000 tonnes. This year, they focused on planting high-quality rice strains for export and several special strains for local consumption.

The MARD has instructed southern farmers to begin transplanting summer-autumn and autumn-winter rice and at the same time encouraged them to expand the acreage.