Large rice fields in Ca Mau province. The province plans to switch to other crops on more unproductive rice fields this year. (Photo: VNA) The impacts of climate change, rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion, andflooding have affected agriculture and caused changes in cropping patterns inthe province, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The department has been restructuring agriculture in recent years to suit localconditions and improve yields and farmers’ incomes.
To sustainably adapt to climate change, the department has zoned agriculture,invested in irrigation and transport infrastructure, trained farmers invocational skills and given them financial support for buying seeds andagricultural machinery, determined that a switch to other crops will be basedon local conditions and demand, and sought to develop agricultural valuechains.
It aims to develop agriculture towards enhancing quality, building brand namesand developing markets for produce, especially organic.
Last year it switched to other crops on 1,249ha of unproductive rice fields orrotated between rice and aquatic species, mostly shrimp.
The switch has brought farmers higher incomes, especially in the districts of UMinh, Thoi Binh, Tran Van Thoi, and Ca Mau city, according to the department.
Nguyen Van Quan, its deputy director, said localities should effectively carry outthe restructure this year.
They should develop large-scale farming areas to meet the requirements of themarket and enhance efficiency, he added.
Agricultural extension
The provincial People’s Committee has earmarked 7 billion VND (310,000 USD) toimprove the efficiency of its agricultural extension programme this year.
The province has instructed its Department of Agriculture and Rural Developmentto improve agriculture extension activities to increase yields, quality,efficiency, and sustainability.
It should mobilise individuals and organisations for transferring advancedtechniques to farmers to develop value chains and protect the environment,expand effective farming models adapted to climate change, and promote farmingmodels appropriate for each locality to improve farmers’ incomes and reducepoverty, the People’s Committee said.
The department should focus on improving the agricultural extension system togrow products that meet domestic market and export demands, it said.
Farmers in the province have adopted various effective models like rotatingbetween rice and fish and rice and vegetable crops in the same field.
The model of two rice crops and one vegetable crop offers farmers an income of 80million VND (3,500 USD) per hectare per year.
The country’s largest shrimp producing province has also adopted the shrimp –rice farming, shrimp – forest farming, extensive shrimp farming, and super –intensive shrimp farming models.
Last year it produced more than 218,000 tonnes of shrimp, 4 percent more thanin 2020, and exported more than 1.1 billion USD worth, up 9.6 percent.
It has 280,000ha of shrimp ponds, or 40 percent of the country’s total.
More than 19,000 of shrimp have received international quality certificateslike global good agricultural practices (GlobalGAP), Global AquacultureStewardship Council (ASC), Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), and Vietnamesegood agricultural practices (VietGAP).
Farmers mostly breed black tiger shrimp.
The target this year is to produce 220,000 tonnes of shrimp, according to thedepartment./.
VNA
