Bac Giang striving to develop key farm produce hinh anh 1Nam Mountain Ginseng have been selected by the local administration as a potential product for development. (Photo: VNA)

Bac Giang (VNA) – The northern province of Bac Giang is stepping up the development of its key products and production areas towards the realisation of a series of targets set for 2030.

The main farm products include rice, fruit, pork, poultry, and OCOP goods.

By 2030, the province targets about 48,748ha of paddy field area for a total output of 582,800 tonnes of rice. Bac Giang is set to develop organic rice production in ecologically suitable areas and boost the certification of intellectual property for rice brands, and typical rice production areas of each locality.

The province also aims at having some 55,000ha of fruit plantations, with a focus on developing high quality production zones of lychee, citrus fruit, longan, custard apple, pineapple, and guava. The zones, mostly concentrated in the districts of Luc Ngan, Luc Nam, Tan Yen, Yen The, Son Dong, and Hiep Hoa, are expected to meet Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP) and GlobalGAP standards.

On the other hand, Bac Giang is working to maintain and develop pig herds of between 1 million and 1.2 million head, located mainly in the districts of Tan Yen, Lang Giang, Hiep Hoa, Viet Yen, and Luc Ngan.

Meanwhile, the province's total poultry herd is expected to have 22 – 25 million head, mostly concentrated in the districts of Yen The, Tan Yen, Luc Nam, Hiep Hoa, Luc Ngan, Lang Giang, and Son Dong.

The local agricultural sector has so far proposed a number of policies to support agricultural production and assist farmers by helping them obtain good agricultural practice certificates. They also plan to provide financial support to make analysis of pesticide residues in lychee, and provide 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 of available raw materials as feed in livestock.

In the first half of 2022, Bac Giang worked to develop commercial-scale agricultural production along with value chains, increasing incomes for local farmers. In the last winter crop, the province earned 1.9 trillion VND (76.61 million USD), up 8.8% year on year. In the spring crop this year, the province recorded an average rice capacity of 6 tonnes per hectare and even over 7 tonnes per hectare in farms cultivating high quality rice varieties. The province also enjoyed a bumper litchi crop with over 180,000 tonnes, meeting the requirements of many foreign markets.

Meanwhile, Bac Giang has shown good control of diseases in 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. This fulfilled 50.9% of its target for the whole year.

Bac Giang striving to develop key farm produce hinh anh 2Harvesting early ripe litchi in Phuc Hoa commune, Tan Yen district, Bac Giang province. (Photo: VNA)

Concerning products under the One Commune, One Product (OCOP) programmes, Bac Giang targets to have 350 products by 2030, making it one of the top five leading localities nationwide. Of the total, there are up to five products ranked five stars, over 130 four stars, and the rest three stars. By the end of September this year, the number of local OCOP goods amounted to 180, of which 42 achieved 4 stars.

According to Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Ba Thanh, in order to further develop and upgrade local OCOP products, in the time to come, the province will focus on popularising safe farming and breeding methods among local farmers, while directing localities to speed up the restructure of the breeding sector towards a larger scale.

It will also strengthen the popularisation of forestry production regulations and strictly handle violations.

This year, Bac Giang plans to organise two OCOP product classification sessions, with 31 products evaluated in the first session./.

VNA