Farmers in the Mekong Delta have begun planting the year's third ricecrop and are likely to plant a total of 455,000ha, according to theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Itwould be 34,000ha more than during the corresponding crop last year, theministry said on the basis of figures from the Department ofAgriculture and Rural Development in each delta province, which alsoforecast a harvest of 1.01 million tonnes.

Toachieve the target, provincial authorities have urged farmers to storefresh water to irrigate the crop and fight drought and pests.

Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mauand Kien Giang have planted high-quality rice varieties on a total of260,000ha.

The varieties include OM 723-7, OM 726-10, Tai Nguyen and Mot Bui, which have a maturity period of 120-150 days.

The provinces have adopted integrated pest management systems for120,000ha and only 4,000ha out of them have been affected by brownplant-hoppers.

The crop is growing well and is estimated to yield an average output of at least 3.9 tonnes per hectare.

Though on average the third crop is not as bountiful as thewinter-spring or summer-autumn crop, prices of the grain are often 20-30percent higher because of higher quality, according to the departments.

The crop is cultivated on a smaller area than thetwo major crops since in many places farmers are encouraged to grow tworice crops and a vegetable crop instead of three rice crops in a year.

This is aimed at keeping the soil fertile and controlling plant diseases.

The third crop is planted in June and July following the harvest of the summer-autumn crop.

The country has harvested more than 1 million hectares ofsummer-autumn rice crop, getting an output of more than 10 milliontonnes, according to the ministry.

The delta alone harvested more than 8.1 million tonnes from 1.6 million hectares, or an average yield of 4.77 tonnes./.