Bananas sold in Ca Mau City’s Ward 7 Market (Photo: VNA) The southernmost province will also combine the banana orchards witheco-tourism services to add to farmers’ incomes.
It will encourage farmers to turn mixed orchards, areasaround fields growing other crops and near forests and unproductive rice fieldsinto banana plantations.
Banana farmers will use intensive farming to increase yields, tissue culture and high-quality varieties. In the plantations, farmers will be encouraged to breed fishand livestock.
Besides, the province will strive to strengthen linkages betweenfarmers and processors to increase the output of various products made from thefruit and its by-products.
Ca Mau, one of the largest banana growing provinces in the Mekong Delta, has5,400ha under various varieties of the fruit, including 4,800ha of xiem, withan annual output of 60,000 tonnes.
The banana growing areas are located mostly in U Minh and Tran Van Thoidistricts.
Nguyen Tran Thuc, head of the department’s Plant Protectionand Cultivation Sub-department, said demand for xiem bananas remains steadydespite the COVID-19 pandemic, and it fetches farmers a price of 3,500 VND akilogramme, the same as before the outbreak.
The province’s bananas are sold in the delta and Ho Chi MinhCity and exported to Cambodia through local traders.
Most are sold for eating fresh, with a quantity meant forprocessing into products like dried banana and banana cake.
Ca Mau plans to expand its area under banana to 6,000ha and annual output to120,000 tonnes by 2025./.
VNA
