Farmers work at a mixed rice-prawn farm. (Photo: thuysanvietnam.com.vn)The People’s Committee of the southernmost Ca Mau province targets to increase local integrated rice-prawn farming grown under VietGAP standards tenfold to 10,000 hectares by 2020, mainly in the Thoi Binh, U Minh and Tran Van Thoi districts.
It is part of the provincial plan to develop 45,000 hectares of mixed rice-prawn fields, which are expected to produce an output of 200,000 tonnes by 2020.
According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ca Mau has a large estuarine land area with naturally high soil fertility suitable for growing the locality’s high-quality indigenous rice varieties, such as “mot bui do”, “mot bui bo dia”, “trai may” and “tep hanh”, without the use of fertilisers or pesticides.
The province will also zone its farmland into areas for mixed rice-tiger prawn, rice-giant freshwater prawn, rice-prawn-crab and rice-prawn-vegetable farming based on the ecological conditions of each area while developing space for high-quality seed rice.
Additionally, it will focus on transferring VietGAP cultivation techniques to local farmers and improve irrigation systems to ensure water supply.-VNA
