Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Tien Giang (VNA) – The Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang has been promoting agricultural restructuring towards expansion in both area and production of vegetable farming.
According to Nguyen Van Man, Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, incomes from vegetable farming rose to more than 226-271 million VND ((9,711-11,645 USD) per hectare in 2019, much higher than 124.9-143.9 million VND per hectare in 2016.
The central area of Tien Giang has more than 4,500 hectares under vegetable with output of more than 550,000 tonnes per year, making up 50 percent of the province’s total production.
In 2019, the province had 57,753 hectares of vegetable with output of 1.15 million tonnes, surpassing the target by 27.77 percent and 49.5 percent, respectively.
In the 2017-2019 period, Tien Giang saw a 5.69 percent increase in vegetable area and 5.43 percent rise in output. In this period, the province switched about 10,400-11,000 hectares of rice farms into vegetable farms each year, which produced an economic value from 4.7-5.9 times higher than that of rice.
Over the years, Tien Giang has strengthened the transfer of vegetable cultivation techniques to farmers. So far, the province has about 1,000sq.m of poly-green houses and about 10 hectares of net houses for vegetable and fruit cultivation.
Chau Thanh district is Tien Giang’s “vegetable kingdom” with more than 14,000 hectares, producing over 300,000 tonnes of vegetable each year.
Man said that along with the development of vegetable areas, Tien Giang has focused on production organisation and selling. The province has supported the establishment of more than 100 vegetable trading facilities, along with nine cooperation groups and 12 cooperatives for safe vegetable production.
The province also has 20 firms signing contracts to buy vegetable from farmers./.
VNA
