Hanoi (VNA) – The agricultural sector plans to slash rice cultivation by 100,000 hectares in 2016 to grow other grains used to feed animals, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Devꦫelopment Cao Duc Phat.

About 7.6-7.7 million hectares of land will be set aside for rice cultivation with a total yield of 44.5 million tonnes, he stated, highlighting that the sector will enhance quality while reducing costs of rice production by using high-quality varieties with high value and applying comprehensive cultivating methods. The Ministry will continue projects on restructuring the rice sector and building rice trademarks, together with developing such plants as cashew, pepper, tea, cassava, fruit trees, vegetables and flowers which have good markets. In addition, the Ministry will enlarge maize planting areas to 1.22 million hectares, up 22,000 hectares from 2015. A high-yield variety will go into mass production, with a total expected yield of 5.5 million tonnes. The Department of Crop Production will submit a national maize production plan for 2020 to the Ministry for approval, and draw up specific plans to shift ineffective rice cultivation to growing corn, in line with natural and socio-economic conditions, in each locality. In 2015, about 157,000 hectares of land were affected by drought, 5,000 hectares of which suffered from critical loss of crop, and cultivation could not be done in other 36,000 hectares. During the year, localities nationwide converted 34,600 hectares of inefficient rice cultivation to planting grains and aquaculture.-VNA