VietNamNet Bridge – The reverse of the “industrialization medal” is that it has brought big corollaries to the rice farming.

A research work by Dr. Huynh Viet Khai from the Can Tho University and Associate Professor Mitsuyasu Yabe from the Kyushu University has pointed out that the agriculture production has suffered from the water resource pollution caused by the uncontrolled industrial production.

The scientists have found that the water pollution in Vietnam has been caused by the development of the key industries in Vietnam, including footwear, plastics, cement and paper production.

The manufacturers, in an attempt to reduce the investment rate, did not spend money on waste water treatment systems, while letting the untreated water discharge directly to the environment.

The research work by Dr. Khai and Associate Professor Mitsuyasu Yabe was carried out with the focus on three factors bearing the influences of the water resource pollution, including the yield, cost and profit.

The surveyed area was Can Tho province, one of the biggest rice granaries of the Mekong Delta, and one of the 10 most polluted localities in Vietnam.

There are six industrial zones operational in the province, mostly in the fields of clothes, consumer goods and farm produce processing. The majority of the industrial zones or workshops located near residential quarters in the province don’t have waste water treatment systems.

The two industrial production centers which were found as the biggest pollutants were the Tra Noc 1 and Tra Noc 2 Industrial Zones.

After three months of surveying the rice fields in Phuoc Thoi, where the waste water from nearby industrial zones (Tra Noc 1 and Tra Noc 2) was used for irrigation, and the rice fields in Thoi An, far from industrial zones, which irrigated rice fields with clean water, the scientists have found a big difference in terms of yield, cost and profit of the two areas.

In Phuoc Thoi, the yield decreased by 0.67 tons per hectare per crop, while the cost increased by VND0.97 million and the profit decreased by 26 percent due to the water pollution.

As such, with the surveyed rice field area of 148 hectares, the total yield decreased by 100 tons every crop, while the total cost increased by VND144 million.

The water pollution has also led to the big changes in the cultivation schedule. In the past, farmers could have 3 crops a year, while they now can do only 1-2 crops in the water polluted area. In the past, rice farming was the main source of income of farmers, while nowadays, in some areas, rice farming is just an “auxiliary career,” because the farming can only bring sufficient food to them.

The researchers have suggested building up reasonable policies to ensure the industrial production development in a sustainable way. Vietnam should learn the environment policies being applied in developed countries by heightening the current environment standards and raising the environment tax.

The tax increasing would not only encourage industrial production workshops to apply advanced technologies which allow reducing the pollution, it will also help raise the funds for compensating the farmers who bear influences from the industrial zones near their residential quarters.

The government has been recommended not to program new industrial zones in the fertile agriculture soil, unless the zones commit to apply the most advanced waste treatment technologies.

Thien Nhien