Market and product

Maintaining healthy soil has become an urgent requirement for the Mekong Delta’s agriculture to adapt to climate change, reduce emissions, and ensure sustainable livelihoods for millions of rice-farming households in the region.

In the early rainy season, the rice fields stretching from the Long Xuyen Quadrangle to Dong Thap Muoi are covered in lush green. After each harvest, farmers begin a new production cycle with hopes for yield, prices, and income. Yet behind these green fields lies a major challenge for the Mekong Delta’s agriculture: how to maintain yields while protecting soil health in the face of increasingly severe climate change.

For many years, the Mekong Delta has held its place as Vietnam’s largest rice bowl, contributing most of the country’s rice exports. However, the pressure of producing two to three rice crops per year, combined with the effects of drought, saltwater intrusion, prolonged heat, and unusual weather, has put many farmlands at risk of declining fertility.

Many farmers have noticed that today’s cultivated soil is no longer as “healthy” as before, but instead is increasingly “exhausted.” The soil becomes harder, its water retention decreases, and fertilizer use rises without corresponding effectiveness. This calls for a shift in production thinking—from a sole focus on yield to a more sustainable approach, with soil health as the foundation for agriculture’s future.

Agricultural experts point out that soil is not just where crops take root, but a living ecosystem teeming with beneficial microorganisms. These microbial communities help decompose organic matter, convert nutrients, and maintain the natural balance in the soil.

When soil is overexploited or suffers long-term nutrient imbalance, its structure degrades. The population of beneficial microorganisms decreases, its capacity to retain water and nutrients weakens, and as a result, crops are more susceptible to adverse weather, pests increase, and production costs rise.

This is why Binh Dien Fertilizer Joint Stock Company launched the “Green Journey – Healthy Soil, Healthy Crops” program as a way to accompany farmers toward sustainable agriculture.

The program’s message is not simply to introduce a product or single solution, but to help change the mindset of producers: healthy crops start with healthy soil. To ensure lasting golden harvests, farmers must first preserve and restore their most valuable asset—the land itself.

Across the Mekong Delta, meetings in the fields and exchanges between experts and farmers are spreading this new cultivation philosophy. Farmers are becoming less focused on how much fertilizer to apply or how many tons of rice per hectare they can get, and are paying more attention to soil improvement, organic supplementation, nutrient balancing, and protecting the paddy ecosystem.

Such change is not easy, as traditional practices are deeply ingrained. However, after witnessing the benefits of rational cultivation models firsthand, many farmers gradually believe that caring for soil is an investment that brings long-term benefits for themselves and future generations.

From these real-life stories, “Green Journey – Healthy Soil, Healthy Crops” is more than a technical program; it has become a journey connecting farmers who share the aspiration for sustainable agriculture.

Accompanying Green Agriculture and Emissions Reduction

The healthy soil message is even more meaningful as Vietnam implements the project to sustainably develop one million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice in the Mekong Delta by 2030. This is seen as a major shift for Vietnam’s rice sector. Previously, the goal was mainly increased output; now, agriculture aims to improve quality, raise added value, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and adapt effectively to climate change.

To realize this goal, a range of solutions is being implemented, from using high-quality seeds, optimizing irrigation, reducing seeding rates, and mechanizing production to using fertilizers effectively and in environmentally friendly ways.
Within all these solutions, soil health plays a particularly crucial role. Healthy soil allows crops to absorb nutrients better, reduces fertilizer loss, limits pest outbreaks, and enhances resilience to extreme weather. Additionally, healthy soil helps maintain biodiversity, improves carbon sequestration, and supports the sector’s emissions reduction goals.

In recent years, biotechnology and microbiological solutions have become promising avenues for restoring cultivated land. Adding beneficial microorganisms improves soil conditions, supports root development, enhances nutrient uptake, and gradually rebuilds the soil ecosystem in a more natural direction.

This is also a focus Binh Dien pursues, researching and applying scientific advances to production and transferring them to farmers.

However, the most important factor remains long-term companionship with farmers. Changing cultivation practices cannot happen overnight. Farmers need to directly experience and observe the benefits in their own fields and gradually adjust their production methods accordingly.

That is why “Green Journey – Healthy Soil, Healthy Crops” is defined as a continuous process, moving from one region to another, from one farmer’s story to the next. Each successful model and effective season becomes the strongest proof of the value of green agriculture.

As climate change grows more severe, the Mekong Delta’s agricultural challenges will only multiply. But from these very fields, a new production mindset is forming—one that balances economic benefits with natural resource protection.

When farmers value each plot of land as their greatest asset, when modern cultivation solutions are widely adopted, and when enterprises continue to accompany farmers on their journey of renewal, the goal of building a green, low-emission agricultural sector will gradually become reality.

After all, healthy soil not only yields healthy crops but also nourishes the future of Vietnam’s agriculture. And on the Mekong Delta’s fields today, that journey is beginning with the smallest changes in farmers’ awareness and practices.