Truong Dinh Dut works on his organic farm in Dong Thap province’s Cao Lanh district. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - More and more farmers and entrepreneurs in the MekongDelta are realising that new organic farming models help increase their income.
Since the 2017–18 winter-spring crop, the My Dong Agricultural Coop No2 (in DongThap province’s Thap Muoi district) has been collaborating with Rynan SmartFertilisers in Tra Vinh city to introduce the smart rice cultivation model on7.6ha of land.
Farmers use smart fertilisers just once (for the crop), together with otherharmless biological products. Rynan also used water level measuring equipment(using solar energy) to help farmers monitor the water level required for therice plants at each stage of growth.
According to Nguyen Van Khi, a member of the co-operative, the new organic farmingmodels require lower volumes of rice seeds of around eight kilogrammes perhectare.
In the first crop farmers could harvest some seven tonnes of undried paddy perhectare, but earned more as production costs were down to nearly half and theycould sell their paddy to Rynan at 30-40 percent higher than normal prices, hesaid.
After a few bumper harvests, members have expanded the area under the newfarming models to over 50ha.
Recognising the effectiveness of the organic farming models, the Dong Thap provincePeople’s Committee has made plans to expand the members’ farming area to 170ha.
Besides, members of other agricultural co-operatives in Thap Muoi district haveembraced the low-cost organic rice cultivation models.
Ngo Phuoc Dung, chairman of the My Dong Farming Service Coop No2, said the newmodels enable their produce to meet the demands of the market.
Besides rice, other crops are also grown using technologies by companies andfarmers in the Mekong Delta.
Truong Dinh Dut quit teaching to become a vegetable grower and director of KhaQuynh Agricultural Production Company Ltd. in Gao Giong commune in Dong Thap province’sCao Lanh district.
He studied organic farming models around the delta and in early 2018 began todevelop a farm to grow clean and organic vegetables and other safe produce.
No pesticide has ever been used in his farm and only organic fertilisers andother biological products are used.
Dut said he spent some 2.5 billion VND (about 110,000 USD) on a greenhouse, anirrigation system and other facilities.
He never uses manufactured products on his farm, he said.
He grows tomato, cucumber, waxy pumpkin, China squash, bottle gourds, andloopah.
Kha Quynh Agricultural Production Company supplies clean vegetables to shopsand agents around Dong Thap province.
The farm, which produces over 300 tonnes of agricultural produce annually,earns revenue of 3 billion VND.–VNS/VNA
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