Tay Ninh Aims to Develop Sustainable Hi-tech Agriculture

11:43:03 AM | 12/5/2019

In the current integration megatrend, Tay Ninh agriculture has a great opportunity for expanding production scale and market for agricultural products. To create competitive products that meet rigorous technical standards of importing countries, the agricultural sector of Tay Ninh province focuses on carrying out consistent solutions, particularly the application of advanced technologies, towards sustainable development.

Mr. Vo Duc Trong, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tay Ninh Province, said local agriculture is mostly constituted by cultivation, with key crops being rice (146,000 ha), cassava (56,000 ha), rubber (97,000 ha), sugarcane (10,726 ha) and fruit trees (21,785 ha). Specifically, rubber latex, cassava starch and fruits have been exported to China, South Korea, Japan and other markets, accounting for 80%, followed by livestock husbandry with key products being hogs, beef cattle, dairy cattle and poultry with 15%; and forestry and fishery accounting for 5%. Currently, centralized cattle and poultry farming accounts for 70% of the total herd.

To increase productivity and quality and reduce production costs, many advanced technologies and techniques have been applied and achieved significant progress. The structure of crops has strongly changed, with the aim of forming centralized specialized crop areas where processing factories are also installed. The most outstanding point is the sharp conversion of low-efficiency agricultural products such as rice, rubber and sugarcane to cassava and fruit trees. Livestock farming has changed rapidly from traditional smallholding scale and large-scale farms.

The application of information technology, biotechnology and new technology enables automatically controlled production and smart production such as vegetables and flowers grown in greenhouses with economical drip systems (7,050 ha); melon grown in plastic film houses (21.3 ha); pruned orchid farming (85 ha); and Aqua Ogasnis model. Agricultural production is mechanized from planting to harvesting, starting with sugarcane and rice and being scaled up to other crops.

Organic agricultural development is also of great concern of Tay Ninh province. Currently, over 20% of its agricultural products are produced according to GAP standards. This process has initially brought effective outcomes to ensure benefits for both farmers and businesses. In addition, to meet product transparency requirements applied to fruit trees, the province introduced KIPUS electronic traceability software to farmers and register regional information of farming area and packaging facility of local fresh fruits to grant export code to the Chinese market. Presently, 42 farming households installed KIPUS software to manage 608 ha and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development granted 46 farming area codes for a total area of 1,975 ha. The average crop value is expected to reach VND100 million per hectare by 2020, an increase of 15.7% compared to 2016 (the added value of VND13.6 million).

Irrigation infrastructure system has been much invested to ensure water supply for agricultural production, daily life and livestock farming. To date, the irrigated area reaches 51,326 ha and the drained area for replaced crops is 50,143 ha.

The production and processing of agricultural products in the province is being increasingly developed to process sugarcane, cassava, processing and cashew nuts. Currently, 24 new projects are invested in cultivation, husbandry and aquaculture with a total registered capital of over VND1,652 billion. Especially, the province successfully attracted a fruit and vegetable processing project capable of treating 500 tons of products a day, powered by European modern equipment and technology, a GlobaGAP-certified dairy cow farm, and a modern cattle slaughter facility.

Director Trong said, from now till 2021, Tay Ninh province strives to build three high-tech farming zones with a total area of 500 ha, plan at least 11 high-tech farming and organic farming zones covering 4,000 ha. At the same time, the province is reviewing five public land plots of 114.6 ha to formulate investment criteria and attract investors to carry out high-tech agricultural development projects. Tay Ninh is also endeavoring to transform and develop at least 15,000 ha of fruit trees and 30,000 ha of vegetables.

To achieve these goals, Tay Ninh will strengthen trade promotion with other provinces and cities in the region and big cities in Vietnam and other countries to produce and sell locally strong agricultural products, especially high-tech applied products. At the same time, the province regards transfer of high technology as a breakthrough step in local agricultural development in 2020.

Van Hung