Hanoi, April 9 - Vietnam's Mekong Delta food basket will increase rice production by 2.4 percent this year as the government allows farmers to plant a larger third crop to boost supply in the face of soaring global prices and food security worries.
Output from the delta -- which produces about 58 percent of the rice in the world's second-largest exporter -- would be 21 million tonnes of paddy, a government official told Reuters on Wednesday, or about 10.5 million tonnes of milled rice.
News of the increased supply should help ease some of the mounting anxiety around Asia, Africa and the Middle East about the availability of rice following export curbs imposed by Vietnam, India and other nations trying to fight food inflation.
"Food security is very important this year so we have instructed farmers to focus on planting at the same time and apply measures to fight pests," Pham Van Du, deputy head of the Agriculture Ministry's Crop Department, said in a telephone interview.
"We can guarantee the paddy output target will be achieved," he said.
The Delta grows three rice crops a year and the winter-spring season -- which is being harvested now -- is its best-quality crop, with the grain mainly used for export.
Du said while the winter-spring crop area is slightly smaller than usual, the acreage for the next summer-autumn crop will be expanded.
Vietnam's government will also gives its backing to a third rice crop, usually the smallest, which it normally discourages to give the land enough resting time between harvests.
"The policy of the Agriculture Ministry this year is not to reduce the third rice crop," Du said.
Rice prices have doubled this year as Asian countries grapple with production shortfalls and government policies to boost stockpiles and limit exports.
Farmers in Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, have also been scrambling to plant a third crop to capitalise on record high prices. [ID:nBKK214520]
The Vietnamese government has lowered its rice export target this year to 3.5 million to 4 million tonnes, from an initial target of 4 million to 4.5 million tonnes and down from 4.5 million tonnes shipped in 2007. ($1=15,961 dong)