A pond for farming giant river prawns in Ben Tre province’s Thanh Phu district. (Photo: VNA)Withits coastline of 65km, it is one of the delta provinces hardest hit bysaltwater intrusion up rivers in recent years.
In2019 – 2020 the intrusion had a severe impact on people’s lives, farming andagricultural companies, said Huynh Quang Duc, Deputy Director of the province’sDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Some5,400ha of rice were damaged and 168ha of vegetables and 27,900ha of fruitswere partly damaged during that dry season, and the losses were worth 1.6trillion VND (69 million USD), he said.
Afterthis the department developed various farming models to adapt to saltwaterintrusion and effectively restructured agriculture.
In2021, the province has expanded these models, which included growing green skinand pink flesh grapefruit in Chau Thanh district, reviving saltwater-affectedrambutan orchards in Cho Lach district, and growing saltwater resistant ricevarieties in coastal areas.
Othermodels like breeding all-male giant river prawns adapted to climate change andraising cows and goats offer high incomes to farmers affected by the saltwater.
NguyenThanh Long, who lives in Thanh Phu district’s My Hung commune, said he used togrow rice until the saltwater intrusion in 2020 severely damaged his crop.
Afterthat district authorities gave him three pregnant cows and calves each andtaught him breeding techniques.
Henow has 18 cows which produce 70 kilogrammes of milk a day, and he earns anincome of 200 million VND (8,600 USD) a year, five times what he got fromgrowing rice, he said.
Theprovincial People’s Committee plans to modernise agriculture, adopt clean andorganic standards and adapt to climate change.
Organicfarming
BenTre, the country’s largest coconut-producing province, plans to develop moreorganic coconut farming as the tree is resistant to saltwater and adaptive toclimate change.
Duc,deputy director of the department, said the province has identified coconut asone of the key items in its agricultural restructuring programme and developedorganic standards to meet the requirements of domestic and export markets.
Theprovince has 14,000ha of organic coconut groves linked with companies thatprocess or sell the products at home and abroad, he said.
ThoiThanh Agriculture Cooperative in Thanh Phu district’s Thoi Thanh commune has120ha under organic coconut and sells 100,000 nuts to the local Luong QuoiCoconut Co. Ltd to produce jam for exporting to the US.
TranQuoc Ung, chairman of the co-operative, said members sell their coconuts at 1,000VND higher than market rates.
NguyenVan Dien, a coconut farmer in Thoi Thanh, said: “Organic coconut farming hashigh production efficiency.”
Theprovince also aims to develop brackish water shrimp farming in coastal areasunder value chains to increase farmers’ incomes.
Itplans to have 36,850ha of ponds for raising the shrimp by 2025.
Theywill include 4,000ha of hi-tech farming in the three coastal districts of Binh Dai,Ba Tri and Thanh Phu.
Halfof which will adopt Vietnamese and global good agricultural practices (VietGAPand Global GAP), organic and other international standards.
NguyenThanh Phong, who has a 2ha farm in Thanh Phu district’s Thanh Hai commune, saidhe gets three shrimp crops annually and earns 1.5 billion VND (65,000 USD) fromeach.
Theuse of technology offers very high incomes since the survival rate of theshrimp is up to 95 percent, he said.
DaoCong Thuong, Chairman of the Thanh Phu People’s Committee, said the district isfocusing on developing hi-tech shrimp farming on a total area of 800ha.
“Themodel is effective and offers high quality, and shrimp can be exported to theUS, Japan and the EU.”
Theyield is 40 tonnes per hectare annually, 3.5 times that of intensive farming,he said.
Thedepartment has acted as a link between farmers and companies for developingvalue chains for shrimp production in the three coastal districts of Binh Dai,Ba Tri and Thanh Phu.
Theyhave a total of 2,000ha under the hi-tech shrimp farming model./.
VNA
