Bac Giang invests more in infrastructure for agricultural production

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Bac Giang (VNA) – Authorities of the northern province of Bac Giang have concentrated on mobilising and effectively using resources from all economic sectors to develop infrastructure facilities serving agricultural production and rural development.

The locality aims to expand the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) growth of agro-forestry-aquaculture by 2 - 3%, and average agricultural labour productivity by 8.6 - 9% per year from now to 2030.

The provincial authorities have paid attention to speeding up the restructuring of the rural economy, creating linkages between agricultural production and industrial and service development; upgrading transport, industrial and service infrastructure; and forming a transport, preservation, processing, logistics and e-commerce network in rural areas.

In the coming time, Bac Giang will focus on developing industrial clusters and craft villages in accordance with the province’s planning and specific conditions; building diversified commercial infrastructure in rural areas; and harmoniously combining traditional business activities and modern trade.

Bac Giang has prioritised resources for the National Target Programme for New Rural  Development, especially building infrastructure towards gradually meeting urbanisation requirements in Viet Yen and Yen Dung districts, and a number of communes in Luc Ngan district.

The province has allocated annual investment capital from the State budget, and proposed a list of projects to build, upgrade and expand clean water supply projects in rural areas in accordance with the provincial development master plan in the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050.

Attention will be paid to mobilising all sources to support the development of farm economic models, agricultural cooperatives, OCOP products, large timber forests, and farming under the forest canopy; and promote land accumulation, the development of rural and intra-field transport facilities, irrigation infrastructure, and deep processing and preservation facilities.

A number of irrigation systems and pumping stations in Son Dong and Luc Ngan districts have been upgraded and constructed in accordance with the approved plan, contributing to better serving agricultural production and socio-economic development in Bac Giang in recent years.

Since 2019, Bac Giang has allocated 2.55 trillion VND (over 102.7 million USD) from the State budget, official development assistance (ODA) capital, and the province’s budget to invest in infrastructure development serving agricultural production; including over 1.56 trillion VND for constructing and upgrading irrigation infrastructure (dykes, culverts, lakes, dams, pumping stations, and canals), accounting for 61.3% of the total public investment capital assigned to the province. These works have contributed to preventing and controlling floods and storms and adapting to climate change in the locality.

During 2019 – 2021, Bac Giang attracted over 570 billion VND in investment, including over 100 billion VND from the State budget, and over 470 billion VND of reciprocal capital of local businesses and people.

The local agricultural sector has proposed a number of policies to support agricultural production and assist farmers by helping them obtain good agricultural practice certificates, providing them with financial support to make analysis of pesticide residues in litchi, and supplying them with equipment and animal vaccines.

Training courses have been organised to guide farmers in how to apply effective methods to reduce input costs and take advantage from available raw materials as feed in livestock.

In the first half of 2022, Bac Giang continued to develop commercial-scale agricultural production along with production and selling chains, increasing incomes for local farmers. In the last winter crop, the province earned 1.9 trillion VND, up 8.8% year on year.

In the spring crop this year, the province recorded an average rice output production of 6 tonnes per hectare and even over 7 tonnes per hectare in farms cultivating high quality rice varieties.

Meanwhile, the province also enjoyed a bumper litchi crop with over 180,000 tonnes, meeting the requirements of many foreign markets.

Bac Giang has showed good control of diseases on livestock, resulting in high productivity, especially in chicken production.

The province’s agricultural sector recorded a growth of 2.7% in the January-June period, with the production scale reaching over 19.9 trillion VND, fulfilling 50.9% of its target for the whole year./.