Nguyen Van Hoa, a Tien Giang province farmer honoured for excellence in growing and selling agricultural produce, tends his jackfruit orchard in Cai Lay district. (Photo: VNA)The country’s largest fruit-growing province has 14,000ha under durian in Cai Layand Cai Be districts and Cai Lay town, 9,000ha under dragon fruit in Cho Gao districtand 16,000ha of pineapple in Tan Phuoc district.
It is encouraging farmers to expand cultivation of certain fruits in coastalareas and unproductive rice fields and along canals, according to itsDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Area.
Farmers are encouraged to use advanced techniques to increase yield, qualityand output.
The province plans to set up more co-operatives and co-operative groups to linkfarmers together and with companies to develop value chains and ensure theformer have reliable outlets.
Nguyen Van Man, director of the department, said to meet market requirements,the department plans to teach farmers techniques for growing fruits toVietnamese and global good agricultural practices (VietGAP and GlobalGAP)standards.
This would help them grow clean fruits, ensure origin traceability and reduceproduction costs, he said.
The department has instructed farmers to grow fruits in the off-season to avoidoversupply during the main harvest season, he said.
Each district in the province has advantages for growing one or more keyfruits.
Cai Lay, for instance, grows durian for exports, Cho Gao grows dragon fruit andCai Be grows the Hoa Loc mango.
Cai Lay has 305ha of durian orchards that meet VietGAP standards and 21ha thatmeet GlobalGAP standards.
Some key fruits like Cai Lay durian, Hoa Loc mango and Cho Gao dragon fruithave been granted collective brand names, creating favourable conditions fortheir sales domestically and exports.
Hoa Loc mangoes are exported to the US and served on Vietnam Airlines.
Cai Be has established the Hoa Loc Mango Co-operative in Hoa Hung commune,which has 114 members who farm a total of 68ha to VietGAP standards.
Phan Thanh Son, head of the district Bureau of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, said to improve the quality of key fruits, the district focuses onteaching farmers farming techniques and how to build brand names.
They are instructed to choose disease-free and high-quality seedlings forplanting, grow fruits to GAP standards and become members of co-operatives tosecure outlets, he said.
The province has in recent years turned a lot of unproductive rice and otherfields into high-value orchards that can adapt to saltwater in rivers anddrought.
Go Cong Dong district is normally affected by saltwater intrusion in the dryseason, causing difficulties for agricultural production, affecting the livesof locals.
To cope with this, it encourages farmers to grow high-value fruits like dragonfruit, Barbados cherry, soursop and lime that grow well there and fetch farmershigh incomes.
Nguyen Van Qui, head of the Go Cong Dong Bureau of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, said: “The orchard economy has played no small part in improvingincomes and reducing poverty in rural areas.”
It helped make Go Cong Dong and Cho Gao the province’s first two districts tobe recognised as new style rural districts in 2020, he said.
Cho Gao has turned almost all unproductive paddies into speciality orchards.
The province has granted production codes for 281 jackfruit, dragon fruit,mango, watermelon, banana, rambutan, and milk apple orchards for export toChina, the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and other markets.
The province has helped 105 farmers complete procedures for obtaining VietGAPcertification for their fruits and issued 458,000 origin traceability stamps to13 establishments that grow fruits or process them.
It has 82,700ha under fruits that yielded 1.59 million tonnes last year, 4.2per cent more than in 2020.
It exported 12,400 tonnes of fruits and vegetables last year for 26.6 millionUSD./.
VNA
