Using a combine harvester to harvest rice (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – A programme to boost themechanisation of agriculture is being carried out in Ho Chi Minh City to fosterlocal agricultural development in a modern, effective and sustainable manner.
The programme needs total capital of more than538 billion VND (23.56 million USD), about 321.7 billion VND (or 60 percent) ofwhich will be financed by the budget while the remaining 216.3 billion VND (40percent) is set to be funded by local farmers and businesses, according to themunicipal People’s Committee.
The city will need some 263 billion VND (11.5million USD) by 2020 for conducting mechanisation studies and enhancing the useof machines in various types of farming.
From 2021 to 2025, 275 billion VND (12 millionUSD) is expected be spent on creating agricultural mechanisation models,supporting the construction of agricultural product processing and preservingfacilities, and transferring technology and equipment imported from othercountries.
Vice Permanent Chairman of the HCM City People’sCommittee Le Thanh Liem said aside from applying high technologies, theincrease of agricultural mechanisation will create products with consistentquality and appearance to meet export standards.
The southern economic hub hopes its agriculturalproduction value will reach 800 million VND (35,000 USD) per hectare each yearby 2020, roughly three times higher than the figure between 2011 and 2015. Theproduction value is expected to grow by more than 8 percent annually in2016-2020 compared to 2011-2015.
Liem said that mechanisation will also address alabour shortage in agriculture, improve farmers’ income, and help protect theenvironment and people’s health.
The municipal People’s Committee said a largenumber of technical advances were applied in crop and livestock farming andaquaculture from 2011 to 2016.
HCM City had 91 communes and wards that farmedvegetables last year with 14,670 hectares of vegetables cultivated. About 51 percentof the vegetable area was equipped with automatic or semi-automatic irrigationsystems, up 24 percent from 2010, and 40.6 percent of the ornamental plant areawas watered by machine.
In animal husbandry, mechanisation is beingstrengthened in all steps, the municipal administration reported, includingautomatic feeding machines, farm temperature controllers, milking machines, andbiogas technology in waste treatment.
From 2011 through 2016, 3,329 plans asking forloans to invest in machinery and equipment for agricultural production wereapproved, authorities added. -VNA
VNA
