Tra Vinh (VNS/VNA) - The Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh has stepped up support forfarmers adopting advanced techniques to improve product value and income.

Pham Minh Truyen,director of its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said advancedfarming techniques are used on more than 17,400ha of rice, vegetables, fruits,and aquaculture.

The techniques includeusing automatic irrigation facilities, nano fertilisers, net houses, andhydroponic methods for crops and using modern facilities for intensive shrimpfarming.

However, the area andoutput of high-quality products remain small and linkages between farmers andcompanies are not strong.

To improve the valueof agricultural products, the province will spend 368 billion VND (15.9 millionUSD) to help farmers, co-operatives and co-operative groups apply advancedtechniques in the 2021- 25 period.

They will be offeredfinancial assistance to buy equipment and machinery required to grow productsto good agricultural practices (GAP) standards, build brands, carry outpromotions, and link up with companies to secure outlets.

The province will helpfarmers with around 10,000ha change their crops and livestock by 2025.

It plans to help themswitch to high-value crops and more lucrative livestock or aquatic species on1,550ha of low-yield rice fields this year.

It will invest morethan 3.42 trillion VND (148.2 million USD) in aquaculture infrastructure tohelp adapt to climate change, saltwater intrusion and lack of water.

It is calling oncompanies to invest in agriculture to improve produce value.

It is seeking investmentin a number of agricultural projects that use advanced techniques such asbreeding of brackish water shrimp, organic shrimp for export under the shrimp –forest farming and shrimp – rice farming models.

It is also calling oncompanies to invest in processing fruits, coconut and peanut, and will offerthem incentives related to land rents and land clearance compensation andfinancial support to build infrastructure and train their workers.

It targets agriculturalproduction worth 30 trillion VND (1.3 billion USD) in 2025 to account for 21 percentof its economic output.

In the last five yearsit has restructured agriculture on nearly 19,800ha and rolled out variousefficient farming models that use advanced techniques.

Models for farmingwhite – legged shrimp, giant river prawn, vegetables, fruits, and coconutpromise to provide farmers with annual incomes of 100 – 500 million VND (4,300– 21,600 USD) per hectare, according to the department.

Restructuringcultivation

The Department ofAgriculture and Rural Development has strengthened advocacy activities toencourage farmers to reduce the cultivation of a third rice crop and switch toother suitable crops to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

This has persuadedthousands of farmers to switch to growing crops like corn, pumpkin, watermelon, cucumber, and vegetables in unproductive rice fields in elevated areasand those lacking irrigation, and in sugarcane fields.

Tra Vinh is one of thedelta’s largest sugarcane producing provinces, but farmers here have beensuffering in recent years due to low prices.

Huynh Van Thao, headof the Tra Cu District Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development, said nearly2,000 sugarcane farmers in the district have switched to other crops on morethan 1,000ha of sugarcane fields.

“[This] offers farmersan income of 50 – 80 million VND (2,200 – 3,500 USD) per hectare per crop.”

Tra Cu district usedto have more than 5,000ha under sugarcane previously, but has reduced graduallyto 1,431ha now, according to its Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development.

This year the provinceis offering support to thousands of sugarcane farmers in Tra Cu to switch toother crops, livestock farming and aquaculture.

Those who switch tovegetables, mushrooms, fruits, coconut, rice, pig, cow, goat, duck, black tigershrimp, white – legged shrimp, river giant prawn, tra fish, and snakehead fishbased on GAP standards are provided 6 – 10 million VND (260 – 430 USD) perhectare.

Truyen said the supportpolicy also encourages farmers to embrace advanced farming techniques andVietGAP standards, which enables their produce to have high value and be soldeasily, he added./.