Automatic harvesters are more efficient than humans and there are various kinds of reapers available in the market, posing the question of why there are so few harvesters in the fields.
As of late, rice reaping has become something of an obsession with farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, as the cost of hiring farmers to cut rice has rapidly increased while their numbers have diminished.
"It’s difficult to hire farmers to reap, despite ripening rice in all the fields," said Nguyen Van Nhi of Cho Gao District in Tien Giang Province.
"In 2007, employment costs shot up to VND1 million(US$63) per hectare, in comparison with just VND400,000 ($25) a few years ago," said Pham Hong Son, an agriculture staffer in Dong Thap Province.
Recently, it has been recommended that farmers sow rice at the same time to help avoid yellow stunted rice. Moreover, more and more people in rural areas have come to cities and towns to work in service and industry sectors.
Farmers must hire labourers in order to avoid losing their crops, especially during the rainy season, despite high employment fees and accelerating rice prices.
In all of the Mekong Delta, there are about 2,000 harvesters and approximately 1,000 combine harvester machines, which satisfies the needs of only about 10 per cent of the cultivated lands (nearly 3.9 million hectares each year). Kien Giang and An Giang provinces own the highest number of combined harvesters.
There are many kinds of combined on the market, and the productivity of a combine is equal to 100 reapers, reducing the cost by VND350,000-500,000($22-31) per hectare. However, many farmers often worry about owning one.
"It is difficult to choose a harvester appropriate to this region. Some machines made in China break down often," Nguyen Van So in Kien Giang Province said. Moreover, a combine harvester’s price is rather high, about VND150-175 million ($9,375-10,938). As a result, when rice crops ripen, the functional combine in the area cannot meet the demand of farmers.
To solve this problem, some districts in An Giang, Dong Thap and Kien Giang have issued policies supporting capital for agricultural co-operatives and farmers to buy combines, and credit for co-operatives and farms buying on deferred payments. However, this capital will not satisfy all of the local demand.