Improving quality of Binh Duongs agriculture - Part 1

Part 1: Development in right direction

Under provincial Party Committee’s Program No.26 on the shift of the local agricultural structure towards hi-tech and urban agricultural models in association with processing industry and the Project on “Urban agricultural development in the southern region of the province for the period of 2016-2020”, the province’s agricultural sector has made a variety of positive changes.

A model on growing vegetables under the water-culture method introduced at the WTA summit 2018

“Sweet fruits” from hi-tech agriculture

In the local strategy on urban agricultural development, Binh Duong province has approved the Project on  “Urban agricultural development in the southern region of the province for the period of 2016-2020”, aiming to foster valuable chains sustainably.

The province has so far developed hi-tech agricultural parks, farmsteads under VietGap standards and facilities processing safe agricultural products. The province’s farming land has reduced by nearly 20,000 hectares compared to 2010. The province has also witnessed the birth of hi-tech agricultural centers, stations on nurslings and breeding animals together with the evolution of preliminary processing activities, technologies after harvest. Especially, many organizations and individuals in the province have applied sci-tech advancements in cultivation with a total area of more than 2,754 hectares. Whilst, the whole province now has 171.7 hectares of urban farming land, including 78.7 hectares of ornamental plants, 78.7 hectares of vegetables under water culture, 16.2 hectares of orchids, 3.8 hectares of mushrooms and vegetable sprouts.

An Thai hi-tech industrial park in Phu Giao district invested by U&I Agricultural Joint Stock Company is a typical model on urban agricultural development of the province. The park has 409,9 out of 411.75 hectares put into use with 3 main plants: banana, citrus tree and rock melon. The annual revenue of rock melon in the park reaches VND3billion per hectare while the figure of banana is VND400million per hectare…The park’s products are exported into Japan, South Korea, UAE, Malaysia. The park has also signed contracts supplying Saigon Coop, Big C, Aeon, Lotte…with its agricultural products.

Income rising strongly

Although Binh Duong province’s agricultural production accounts for a small proportion of the local economic structure, but it still keeps a very vital role in the local overall picture of socio-economic development. The local agricultural sector has sufficiently met the local people’s demand for main foods and provided a large source of materials for food processing.

After many years of promoting urban agricultural models, the whole province has had hundreds of stable urban agricultural facilities with income, 15-20 times higher than the previous period with traditional production methods. Many facilities have preliminarily processed their agricultural products and moved them to distributors under a closed process…

Nguyen Thanh Kien, Director of Thanh Kien Guava Cooperative in Phu Giao district said that the cooperative has bravely changed 18 hectares of guava to the model of organic production, with a desire of supplying customers at home and abroad with hi-quality products.

According to provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province’s total agricultural production value till 2020 will reach more than VND3.78trillion. The value of products on a hectare of farming land will be VND98million while the figure on a hectare of water surface for aquaculture will be VND1.6billion. Till now, farmers in the province have widely applied sci-tech advancements into production. The ratio of using new varieties has obtained 80%-100%...All will open up a new prospect for the local agricultural sector in the coming time.=

It is known that the whole province now has a total of 90 farms meeting VietGAP standards. Among them, there are 55 enjoying support policies from provincial People’s Committee’s Decision No.11/2014/QD-UBND. The whole province is home to 26 product groups recognized as safe ones…