A seminar was held in the mountainous province of Lao Cai on May 29 to review the growing of tea and cardamom in Lao Cai, Lai Chau and Ha Giang provinces, funded by the Dutch development organisation SNV.

After being in operation for five years, from 2008-2012, the project has helped over 7,000 cardamom growing households to increase productivity, and raise their incomes by 15-20 percent.

The Dutch non-governmental organisation has also helped to link up farmers and businesses with each other.

Under the programme, Lao Cai province developed a 35ha organic tea plantation in Bao Thang district.

SNV provided support for trade promotions and helped to introduce cardamom to the Republic of Korea and Japanese markets.

According to Pham Dinh Que, Deputy Director of Lao Cai’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department, with SNV’s support, this is the first time Lao Cai province has been able to introduce an effective model from production to consumption.

As part of the project, farmers now have much more capacity.

The province has also applied advances in technology to production and processing to improve the quality of products to meet domestic and foreign demands.-VNA