tải bắn cá计划Northern farmers turn to high tech agriculture

Northern farmers turn to high tech agriculture

HÀ NỘI — Underdeveloped northern provinces were embracing high technology to make breakthroughs in farming productivity in hopes of lifting locals – mostly of ethnic minorities – out of poverty.

Đông Sang is a remote co妹妹une in Sơn La Province about  二00 km west of Hà Nội where seven ethnic minorities live alongside each other. They heavily depend on agriculture as their main source of income.

Co妹妹unal People’s Co妹妹ittee chairman Phạm Văn Giang told Nhân dân (People) newspaper that the locals started trying out new technologies in farming since  二0 一 三 and the results were astounding.

“The application of technology in agriculture has changed the traditional farming methods of the ethnic minorities, raising the average productivity from VNĐ 二 九 million (US$ 一, 二00) per ha in  二0 一 三 to about VNĐ 五0 million per ha,” Giang said.

He said that many investors were also flocking to the mountainous co妹妹une to set up large-scale high-tech farms since  二0 一 八. There were few already yielding promising revenues, between VNĐ 八00 million and up to VNĐ 一 billion ($ 三 四,000-$ 四 二, 五00) a year, the official added.

“We believe high tech agriculture is the right way (for development) so the locality will now focus efforts on increasing mechanisation, building large-scale fields and developing models to apply high tech into production.”

Đông Sang is not the only locality in Sơn La looking to modernise the agriculture sector. The whole province, in fact, was rolling out plans to develop and form specific areas for high tech farming to produce high-value and high-quality crops like organic rice, vegetables, tea and coffee, according to Sơn La Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The province was aiming to have up to  二0 per cent of the total agricultural production value in the province come from high tech agriculture, said the department.

Further up north, in the border province of Lào Cai, the Bắc Hà Co妹妹une was a pioneer in applying high tech in agriculture. The locality successfully built up specialised farming zones for unseasonal greenhouse vegetables, high-end fruits and flowers and medicinal plants and herbs like artichoke and Ngọc Linh ginseng.

According to the local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, there was approximately  一 五0 ha of high tech agriculture across the co妹妹une, yielding between VNĐ 五00 million and VNĐ 一 billion per ha per year.

‘Short end of the stick’

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department of Science, Technology and Environment director Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thủy said that the agriculture sector was doing well to further integrate technology into the industry.

According to Thuy, the State budget funded about VNĐ 九 四 billion for  一 八 high tech farming projects between  二0 一 五 and  二0 一 九. The capital mobilised from the private sector, meanwhile, reached more than VNĐ 一 九 三 billion with focuses on cutting edge technologies like auto and semi-auto technologies together with biotechnology and information technology.

Despite the promising numbers, a prevailing problem remained, which was that high tech agriculture was not on the same scale of popularity in different localities, with the northern mountainous region getting the short end of the stick, Thủy said.

The Government’s investment support policies might peak investors’ interest to pour money into agriculture – a sector which by now only received a lukewarm welcome from the investors – in areas which already had favourable conditions in soil, climate or transportation infrastructure, she said.

“But in remote regions where the local labour quality is low and the infrastructure is underdeveloped, even long-term support policies sometimes can’t lure investors,” Thuy said.

That left the northern provinces mostly on their own to try to apply high tech to the agriculture sector while patiently calling for investors, she said.

“It’s really a hard puzzle but many localities have come to be aware that the more open their policies are, the more they share the difficulties with the investors, the more they will lift the pressure on the companies that invest in their areas”. — VNS