Hoa Binh works to promote key agricultural products

Hoa Binh province has nearly 12,000ha of citrus, making up more than 5 percent of the country’s total citrus growing area, with 20 percent of the area in the locality meeting VietGap standards.

High-quality Lac Thuy chickens have become popular among consumers.

The northwestern province expects to harvest some 190,000 tonnes of the fruit in 2020, earning an average of 450-500 million VND per ha.

Many local households, cooperatives and cooperative groups have applied scientific-technological advances in production to rake in up to 800 million VND per ha.

The local soil and climate are suitable for many varieties of orange and pomelo of high quality like On Chau mandarin, Xa Doai (Doai commune) orange, Canh orange, and Dien pomelo, among others.

Thanks to red-flesh pomelo, living standards of residents in Muong Bi (Tan Lac district) have been improved significantly. Data shows that Tan Lac is home to over 1,000ha of red-flesh pomelo, including nearly 500ha that are harvestable.

Concentrated pomelo areas have been formed in Tu Ne, Thanh Hoi and Dong Lai communes, and Man Duc town. Each ha of pomelo earns local farmers an average of over 700 million VND, even exceeding 1 billion VND.

Last year, Giang Loc red-flesh pomelo of the Tan Lac red pomelo production, processing and consumption cooperative meets provincial OCOP standards, contributing to affirming and developing the local red-flesh pomelo brand name.

Apart from developing key agricultural products, Hoa Binh has also focused on breeding buffaloes, cows, pigs, goats and poultry. Statistics unveil that last June, the province had 116,200 buffaloes, 84,700 cows, 418,800 pigs, 51,200 goats and 7.6 million heads of poultry.

Large-scaled, closed farms have developed significantly, gradually replacing household farming models. Lac Thuy and Lac Son chickens that are being raised in local farms and cooperatives have become specialties and won the provincial OCOP status last year thanks to their good quality.

In addition, the province has made the best use of the Hoa Binh reservoir to develop cage fish farming. The number of fish cages in the locality is expected to increase from 1,000 in 2015 to 4,600 this year, with a total output of about 8,300 tonnes.

As many as 35 businesses, production groups, farms and households have invested in large-scale models, making up 60 percent of the total cages and 70 percent of the cumulative output.

Hoa Binh’s key agricultural products have affirmed their prestige to domestic consumers. Some of them like sugarcane and Cao Phong orange have been used as dissert for passengers onboard flights of national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.

The provincial agriculture and rural development sector aims to improve the quality of the products in the time ahead, towards exporting them to foreign markets.