Adopting agricultural technologies has enabled the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong to attain socio-economic growth and alleviate hunger and poverty, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has said.

Speaking at a meeting with provincial authorities on September 16, he said the province has taken advantage of its climatic conditions and fertile soil to benefit farmers and the companies in the agricultural sector.

In the province, advanced farming technologies have been used on 35,000 hectares of land, 14,850 hectares of it being under coffee, nearly 12,000 hectares under vegetables, 2,400 hectares under flowers, and nearly 2,500 hectares under high-quality tea.

Embracing high technology has helped Lam Dong farmers achieve higher revenues. On average they earn 400 million VND (19,000 USD) from a hectare of vegetables, 800 million VND (38,000 USD) to 1 billion VND (47,000 USD) from flowers, and 250 million VND (11,000 USD) from tea.

Around 6.3 percent of people in Lam Dong are classified as poor compared with 9 percent for the country as a whole.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh said Lam Dong should choose the best tea varieties to grow because the province has the largest area under tea in Vietnam.

It should also expand the area under fruit trees using high-tech farming methods.

Nguyen Xuan Tien, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee, said the provincial Party Committee has issued a resolution on boosting high-tech agricultural development that also spells out specific strategies.

Areas have been zoned for vegetables, flowers, and speciality crops in 2011-15, especially for tea, coffee, and rice, as well as for fish farming.-VNA