(HBO) - Growing vegetables under international standards without using pesticides or chemical fertilisers is a sustainable direction for farming households in Luong Son district, generating higher and more stable incomes.
After a decade of development, Luong Son organic
vegetable brand has become popular among consumers in Hoa Binh and Hanoi. With
over 200 ha of land and more than 200 tonnes of fruits and vegetables each year,
Luong Son has boasted the largest organic vegetable farming area in the
province.
Photo: Farmers in Hop Hoa commune, Luong Son
district, grow organic vegetables meeting food hygiene and safety standards.
Phung Thi Lan, Chairwoman of the Farmers' Association
and head of the district’s organic production group, said since late 2008, with
the support of the Danish-funded Agricultural Development Denmark Asia (ADDA)
project and the North of Vietnam College of Agriculture and Rural Development
in Xuan Mai district, Hanoi, the district has launched an organic vegetable
farming project in the communes of Hoa Son, Nhuan Trach, Hop Hoa, Thanh Lap, Cu
Yen, Tan Vinh and Luong Son town with an aim of creating more livelihoods for
poor women.
After a decade, it has become an outstanding
model for high-quality vegetable cultivation with little impacts on the
environment. It is significant to the district’s agricultural restructuring
scheme, thus raising incomes for local farmers, establishing a specialised farming
area for production in value chain, and supplying safe farm products to the
market.
In order to produce standard organic fruits and
vegetables, Luong Son farmers must take a three-month technical training course
and be granted certificates of organic vegetable farming. As many as 1,750 farmers
were trained and received such certificates from 2008 to June 2018.
Unlike conventional vegetable growing, land for
organic vegetable farming is zoned off and prevented from external
contamination via tests and buffer zones.
The total area of organic vegetable cultivation
in Luong Son has expanded to over 22ha, nearly 12ha of which meet international
standards. About 16 tonnes of safe and quality organic fruits and vegetables are
supplied to the market each month. Most of Luong Son organic fruits and
vegetables will be sold to shops and supermarkets in Hanoi via VinaGap, Trang
An and Tam Dat companies, bringing 3.4 billion VND in revenue per year./.
After several unsuccessful attempts to raise pigs, buffaloes and cows, Nguyen Hong Minh who resides in Mui hamlet, Hoa Binh city’s Doc Lap commune decided to try breeding bamboo rat.
Chairman of the Hoa Binh People’s Committee Bui Van Khanh on February 2 held a Lunar New Year meeting with businesses, investors and cooperation in the locality. The event drew Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’s Council Bui Duc Hinh; Vice President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hoang Quang Phong; representatives from the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Vietnam Association of Young Entrepreneurs; as well as leaders of local departments, sectors and localities and 200 local businesses, cooperatives and investors in the locality.
Following the successes achieved in 2023, the local agricultural and rural development sector, localities and cooperatives are gearing up for first orders of the year, as part of their efforts to boost agricultural exports.
Most workers at enterprises in the northern province of Hoa Binh have turned to work just one week after the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.
The Hoa Binh Power Corporation (PC Hoa Binh) has directed its units to build plans as well as arrange resources to ensure stable electricity for local winter-spring crop production.
On February 28, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Hoa Binh province coordinated with Minh Trung Vietnam Group joint Stock Company, Hoa Binh branch in Luong Son industrial park, Luong Son district organized a ceremony to export Bat Bao lotus porridge to the Japanese.