Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) A part of the area will see corn, watermelon, red chili, lotus, and otherhigh-value crops and aquatic species rotated with rice, while rice will nolonger be grown in the remaining area.
The conversion is aimed at increasing the value of crops and improving theefficiency of land use, thus increasing farmers’ incomes.
Huynh Tan Dat, deputy director of the province Department of Agriculture andRural Development, said the conversion is in line with the province’s landzoning, market demand, water resources, and weather conditions.
It will also establish concentrated farming areas for various crops under valuechains, he said.
The People’s Committee has ordered localities to zone concentrated farmingareas for vegetables and fruits, invest in infrastructure for cropping andprocessing.
Localities should instruct farmers to link up with companies that buy produce,it said.
Farmers are also encouraged to switch to short-term crops in summer – autumn onunproductive rice fields to cope with the shortage of water in the dry season.
In areas protected by flood prevention embankments, farmers can switch to tworice crops and one vegetable crop a year, one rice crop and two vegetablecrops, or one rice crop and one vegetable crop.
The switch will offer farmers higher profits than growing three rice crops ayear, according to the department.
Dat said farmers could earn two to three times the income they get from rice byswitching to other crops, with perennial trees yielding two to eight times.
Mango, jackfruit, longan, and lime, for instance, fetch 50 - 200 million VND (2,100– 8,500 USD) per hectare per year, he said.
Mai Thi Thoa in Hong Ngu city’s Tan Hoi ward has turned her one hectare ofunproductive rice field into a lotus pond and offers tourism services.
Her income has increased by two or three times to 60 million VND (2,600 USD) ayear as a result, she said.
The province encourages farmers to mechanise agriculture to increaseefficiency, and 70% of areas growing industrial and short-term crops areequipped with automatic, semi-automatic or drip irrigation, according to thedepartment.
The use of efficient irrigation has increased yields by 25% and reduced labourcosts by 30% and water use by 30 – 40%.
Linkages
Dong Thap has taken measures to develop more linkages between farmers andagricultural companies in recent years to ensure steady demand and prices forthe former and supply of large quantities of agricultural produce of consistentand high quality for the latter.
In the winter – spring and summer – autumn rice crops this year, companies andtraders had contracts with farmers to grow rice on 60,000ha, and it helped thelatter increase their income by 3 - 8 million VND (130 – 340 USD) per hectareper crop, according to the department.
The province has 195,383ha under rice, 48,229ha of fruits and 11,587ha ofvegetables, and issued production codes for 52,777ha of the grain and 5,714haof mango, longan, seedless lime, and dragon fruit this year.
To get the codes, a fruit farmer should have at least 10ha and apply Vietnamesegood agricultural practices (VietGAP) or other equivalent quality standards.
The province wants to have 190,169ha of rice, 40,810ha of fruits and 10,549haof vegetables with production codes by 2025./.
VNA
