The Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang has begun growing seedless king oranges on a pilot basis in Chau Thanh District.

Farmershave received support to grow 4,000 seedless king orange trees from theprovince's Agriculture Extension Centre and the Chau Thanh DistrictAgriculture and Rural Development Bureau. All of the seedlings areexpected to be planted by the end of July.

The seedlings were multiplied from first-line seedless king-orange trees created by the Southern Fruit Research Institute.

Seedless king oranges are not new to the country, as they have been grown in a few other provinces.

Nguyen Van Truong, deputy head of the bureau, said the district looked forward to exporting the seedless oranges.

Overthe past few years, farmers in Hau Giang have earned high profits up to700 million VND (33,300 USD) to 1 billion VND (47,600 USD) per ha ayear from growing seeded king oranges.

In Phung HiepDistrict's Hoa My Commune, for instance, all 19 farming households inHamlet 3 switched from growing other crops to seeded king oranges. TrinhThanh Sang, head of Hamlet 3, turned his 1 ha of banana trees into aking orange orchard, earning profits 20 times higher. Previously, allfamilies in Hamlet 3 planted mostly banana or sugarcane plants.

However,the rapid switch to king orange cultivation while farmers lack properfarming techniques and high-quality seedlings have contributed tooutbreaks of citrus-greening disease.

The province has nearly 10,000ha of seeded king orange trees, mostly in Nga Bay Town and Chau Thanh District.-VNA