The 2019 – 20 winter – spring rice crop being planted in Kien Giang province’s Go Quao district with support from the Vietnam-Sustainable Agriculture Transformation programme. (Source: VNA) Kien Giang (VNS/VNA) — The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang hasidentified 16 key products to focus on to increase the competitiveness of itsagriculture.
Its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said they include rice,vegetables, mango, pineapple, sugarcane, high-value seafood, and livestock andpoultry.
Do Minh Nhut, its deputy director, said: “The province develops keyagricultural products in four sub-regions: the Long Xuyen Quadrangle, thewestern part of the Hau River, U Minh Thuong, and the sea and islands.”
It would zone crops, aquaculture and animal husbandry suitably in eachsub-region and develop safe, sustainable and efficient production, he said.
To improve the yield, quality and value of key products, it has adoptedadvanced farming techniques and focused on environmental protection, he said.
It has more than 100,000ha of specialised farming areas with value chains inplace for rice, vegetables, mango, pineapple, sugarcane, and some others since2017.
The country’s largest rice producer has created 163 large-scaled rice fieldswith a total area of 47,680ha by pooling individual farmers’ holdings andinvolved 20 companies in it to guarantee demand for the participating farmers.
It has developed 300ha of shrimp farms that use advanced breeding technologieslike semi-biofloc and biofloc and harvest 30-50 tonnes per hectare per crop.
It has also set up six two-stage industrial shrimp breeding sites for farmersto learn the model under which juvenile shrimp are bred in a nursery pond for afew weeks before being transferred to a main pond.
The pond beds are covered with plastic sheets and equipped with oxygenationfacilities. Nets are hung above the water to protect the shrimp from sunlightand the inclement weather.
The model offers a yield of 26 tonnes, and wastewater is treated before beingreleased into the environment.
The province has also developed models for breeding marine fish in floatingcages based on Norwegian techniques off Phu Quoc Island.
Many areas it has zoned for farming rice, vegetables, pepper, and pineapple andbreeding aquatic species meet good agricultural practices (GAP) standards./.
VNA
