Vegetable cultivation in Tien Giang province’s Go Cong Tay district. (Photo: VNA) Tien Giang (VNS/VNA) - The Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang plansto expand rotation cultivation models for rice and other crops in its easternarea in an aim to improve productivity and cope with natural disasters, itsDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development has said.
The eastern area, which includes Go Cong Dong and Go Cong Tay districts and GoCong town, accounts for 28 percent of the province’s total area and hasadvantages in fruit orchards and marine economy, but faces saltwater intrusionand drought in the dry season.
Nguyen Van Man, director of the department, said the province plans to focus ongrowing more vegetables and other short-term crops to 2025 in the eastern area.Only two rice crops a year will be grown, while rice and other crops on ricefields will be rotated.
Under the plan, the province will transfer advanced farming techniques andencourage farmers to use Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP).
Co-operative groups as well as co-operatives will be expected to continue towork with companies to secure outlets for their members.
Go Cong Dong district, one of the major producers of rice and agriculturalproducts in Tien Giang, has 10 agricultural co-operatives that have contractswith companies.
This has helped secure outlets and provide stable incomes for their members.
Nguyen Van Nhan, director of the Tang Hoa Agriculture Service Co-operative in GoCong Dong district’s Tang Hoa cmmune, said the co-operative for many years hashad contracts with companies to produce rice seeds and high – quality rice.
The co-operative produces high-quality rice on 50ha with an output of 250tonnes a crop, he said. Companies purchase its rice at a price of 300 VND akilogramme higher than the market price, he said.
The Tan Dong Clean Vegetable Co-operative in Go Cong Dong district’s Tan Dong communeis growing clean vegetables on a total of 30ha with a daily output of 2.5-3 tonnes,using advanced farming techniques.
Tran Van Buong, chairman of Tan Dong Co-operative, said the co-operative willencourage members to apply more advanced techniques to produce clean vegetablesunder VietGAP standards.
The co-operative will also encourage its members to expand the use ofhydroponic farming, net houses and poly-green houses to grow vegetables.
Nguyen Van Qui, head of the Go Cong dong Bureau of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, said the district has two concentrated clean vegetable growingareas in Binh Nghi, Tan Dong and Tan Tay communes.
The two areas are guaranteed outlets by three agricultural co-operatives – the BinhNghi Clean Vegetable Co-operative, the Tan Dong Clean Vegetable Co-operativeand the Tan Tay Agriculture Service Co-operative, he said.
The three co-operatives have contracted with farmers to buy vegetables andlater sell them to supermarkets and wholesale markets in and outside theprovince.
“Farmers in the concentrated clean vegetable growing areas now feel more secureabout their products,” he said.
All communes in Go Cong Dong have agreements between companies, cooperativesand farmers to secure outlets for rice, vegetables and fruits for co-operativemembers.
To mitigate the impact of saltwater intrusion in the dry season this year,farmers in the eastern area have switched to growing vegetables or short-termcrops on 2,700ha of rice fields that have problems accessing irrigation water.
In the ongoing 2020-21 winter-spring crop, farmers in the eastern area haveplanted more than 11,500ha of various types of vegetables and other short-termcrops, which offer higher profit than high-quality rice, according to thedepartment.
Farmers who grow leaf vegetables can earn a profit 2.6 times higher than thatfrom high-quality rice./.
VNA
