Inside a high-tech garden in Dak Lak (Photo: hoinongdan.org) Hanoi (VNA) – Weak supplychains and the impacts of climate change are hindering efforts by the CentralHighlands to grow into a thriving agricultural hub.
The region, earmarked as one of sixmajor economic zones nationwide, has two million hectares of industrialplantations, where key exports of the country, such as coffee and peppercorns,are grown.
Local coffee and peppercornplantations span respective areas of 576,000 and 53,900 hectares, 89.4 percentand 55.2 percent of Vietnam’s total coffee and peppercorn plantations.
According to the Central HighlandsSteering Committee, the region has been developing concentrated productionareas for coffee, pepper and rubber products, with basic supply chainsemerging.
However, these supply chains mostlyend with raw processing, which offers low value.
In fact, only five percent ofregional enterprises operate in the agro-forestry sector, most of them runsmall-scale business with average technologies.
Meanwhile, reclamations of forestland and overexploitation of water for development have reduced the proportionof water in the region. These plus climate change and the El Nino phenomenahave resulted in severe droughts.
Last year’s drought was the worst in20 years. A report released by the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment in April 2016 said a total of 160,000 hectares of plants werecritically short of water, creating economic losses of about 100 billion VND(4.5 million USD) for each locality among Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dac Nong, Dac Lakand Lam Dong.
Pushing ahead with high-tech farmingis an urgent task for the region to gain more value added and adapt to climatechange, Tran Duc Thanh, deputy head of the Central Highlands Steering Committee’seconomics department, was quoted by Sai Gon Giai phong.
Nguyen Duc Phong, another officialfrom the committee, noted that sustainable high-tech agriculture is onlyachievable with practical implementation of State policies in attractingprivate investment to each locality and by forming strong links among theGovernment, farmers, scientists, and businesses.-VNA
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