Rice · Rice · Short entry
Nang Thom Cho Dao
Gạo Nàng thơm Chợ Đào
A traditional fragrant rice from My Le commune in Can Duoc district, Long An province, in the Mekong Delta. It is a long-season crop of 170 to 185 days, so only one crop is grown a year. In 2014 it was reported to have received a US certified trademark, and a Vietnamese geographical indication application has since been published.
One long crop a year
The rice is sown in the sixth and seventh lunar months and harvested in the twelfth, a cycle of 170 to 185 days. The grain is long and slender; broken in two, its inside shows a faint pink tint. Officials have tied its quality to the soil of My Le, where production was put at about 500 ha in 2014.
By 2023 farmers reported that the rice had lost its aroma and cooked hard and dry. They blamed degenerated seed, dykes that ended the yearly floods, salt intrusion and silt deposits, and poor fertiliser use. Only 5 of the 11 hamlets that once grew it still did. Can Tho University ran a restoration project from 2017 to 2021, and its 2018 and 2019 trials gave rice judged close to the original. About 52 ha are now grown under VietGAP contracts by 63 households.