Planting vegetables in a glasshouse at a high-tech agricultural area in Binh Phuoc province (Photo: VNA) Da Nang (VNA) - Localities need to set upplans for hi-tech agricultural areas in accordance with regional growing and climateconditions.
This is the solution that delegates emphasisedat an agriculture forum with the theme "High-tech application inagricultural production adaptation to climate change in the south centralcoastal areas". The forum was held last week in the central city of DaNang by the National Centre for Agricultural Extension and the Da NangDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Ho Huy Cuong, Director of the AgriculturalScience Institute for Southern Coastal Central Vietnam, said that the area had 4.42 million hectares of natural land, of whichagricultural land accounts for 18.7 percent. The region has two distinct rainyand dry seasons and rainfall varies from 500 to 2500mm annually.
The area is affected by typhoons and heavyfloods, causing great damage to local farmers’ crops. In order to reducevulnerability to climate extremes and disasters, high-tech agriculturalproduction is essential. However, the application of such technology was stilllimited, he said.
Dang Van Hong, Director of the Da Nang Centrefor Agriculture and Forestry Extension, said that in the central city,high-tech agricultural manufacturing focused mainly on the application oftechnical advances in planting and aquaculture.
The application of information technology,automation, biotechnology and advanced farming processes in agriculturalproduction to produce quality agricultural products was still low, he said.
Research and high-tech application was not high,application models are unsustainable and unscientific and do not meet therequirements of urban markets.
Hong added that in recent years, Da Nang hadmade great efforts in setting up preferential policies to support high-techagriculture. However, accessing the policies remains difficult for farmers,especially accessing investment land.
In addition, representatives from differentlocalities shared difficulties, such as the fact that high-tech manufacturingneeded much investment but carried many risks, so investors were wary. Localfarmers’ capacity for accessing science and technology was weak.
Tran Van Khoi, Acting Director of the NationalCentre for Agricultural Extension, said that localities needed to develophigh-tech agricultural areas suitable for each province and region.
Duong Hoa Xo, Deputy Director of the HCM CityDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development, emphasised that it wasimportant to plan suitable areas for high-tech agriculture.
"We should not invest widely. We shouldplan the areas that are least affected by rainstorms instead,” he said.
While setting up plans, infrastructure measuresshould be considered, such as fencing to minimise flooding.
Xo said that capital was the most difficultproblem for most people who want to develop high-tech agriculture. To helpthem, the bank should recalculate loans based on the products they would createin the future, not the land that they mortgaged.
Cuong added that biotechnology application inagricultural production was necessary. "Crossbreeding technology with theapplication of molecular biotechnology and biotechnological multiplicationtechnology is the preferred solution,” he said.
Cuong proposed building models of seedlingdemonstrations so that farmers can learn from experience and then expandproduction and develop a policy of supporting seedlings and other supportprogrammes.-VNA
VNA
