Planting lily, orchid flowers or roses has opened up new opportunities to farmers in Hanoi's districts of Chuong My and Dan Phuong to considerably increase their sales revenues and profits, said the Communist Party of Vietnam Online newspaper.

Each hectare of flowering fields is estimated to generate an average income between 300 billion and billions VND for growers, as a matter of fact, high-quality flowers are chosen by many localities to facilitate crop rotation, added the online newspaper.

Le Viet Do, Head of the Van Quan Agricultural Service Co-operative, said that previously all 170 hectares of farmland in the locality grew mainly vegetables and other crops with a low economic value. Since 2012, the farmland has been turned into an immense flower field thanks the project on high-quality rose development.

Apart from approximately 36 hectares of high-quality roses from the Hanoi Agricultural Encouragement Centre, farmers in the locality have planted flowers varieties from the Netherlands and France over 53 hectares. On average, farmers earned between 450 and 500 million VND per hectare of roses.

Nguyen Huu Thang, Head of the Thuy Huong Flower and Ornamental Plants Co-operative, said that the co-operative had leased land to plant high-quality lily. So far, the co-operative had 3,000 square metres of specialised houses for lily and gerbera daisy. The co-operative had modern glasshouses with automatic watering, ventilation and temperature control systems to produce Phalaenopsis.

Madona lily flowers were planted alongside daisies and roses. In order to help the growers sustain a strong and effective business model, the cooperative shared knowledge on varieties and effective growing techniques, said Thang.

Currently, many communes of Hanoi are replicating the floriculture models. According to Nguyen Van Suot, a florist in Tay Tuu commune, Bac Tu Liem district, lily is very difficult to cultivate and it depends highly on climatic conditions. Initially, Thang was very disappointed with the economic return from his business. Sometimes, his flowers didn’t grow well and the income was hardly enough to support his family. However, thanks to a training course on advanced technical application on the cultivation and care from the Hanoi Agricultural Encouragement Centre, the production has steadily been improved.

Models of planting lily, orchids, gerberas daisy and roses are developing well in many localities. So, Hanoian flower growers have been able to provide these kinds of flowers to both local and foreign markets.

Nguyen Hong Anh, Director of the Hanoi Agricultural Encouragement Centre, said that since implementation of models and projects, many areas of high-quality flowers have been formed. In the coming time, the centre will cooperate with localities to train and transfer technique to all florists so that they can develop production effectively.-VNA