Farmers harvest giant freshwater prawns in Kien Giang province’s U Minh Thuong district (Photo: VNA)Kien Giang (VNA) – The Mekong Delta provinceof Kien Giang will spend about 80.3 trillion VND (3.45 billion USD) onpromoting safe, sustainable and effective agricultural production in the2021-2025 period, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture andRural Development.
Of the total, 37 trillion VND will be used to developcultivation and breeding,43 trillion VND invested in fisheries, and the restfor forestry expansion.
A representative from the Kien Giang People’s Committee saidthat the locality will maintain growth and enhance the competitiveness throughthe improvement of productivity, efficiency and added value, thus meeting thedemand of consumers.
Alongside, the province aims to increase the income forfarmers as well as the living conditions of rural residents, reducing the rateof poor households.
In the 2021-2025 period, the added value of the agriculturalsector is expected to grow 5-5.5 percent annually. In 2025, the production offood will reach 4-4.2 million tonnes, including 4 million tonnes of rice, and800,000 tonnes of fisheries products.
Meanwhile, the production value of the agricultural sectoris hoped to reach 130-170 million VND per hectare. The province will also focuson concentrated production, enhancing the connectivity and selling of productsin value chain, while building trademarks for major farm produce.
Vice Director of the department Do Minh Nhut said that Kien Giangwill continue effectively implementing the project to restructure theagricultural sector in the areas of cultivation, breeding, fisheries andforestry. At the same time, the development plan for the production region ofmajor agricultural products of the province will be reviewed and adjusted.
The province will gradually transform inefficient rice fieldsto the model of rice-shrimp or rice-other food crop production, whilecultivating vegetable, industrial plants and fruit trees in suitable regions,and applying the GAP standards on the production process in association withthe storage, processing and selling of the products in value chains of eachproduct.
The province has about 62,500ha of shrimp – rice farmingarea, the largest in the delta. Under the model, farmers grow rice in the rainyseason and breed shrimp in the dry season on the same rice fields.
The shrimp – rice farming model has been used for more than 20 years as it is environmentallyfriendly and more effective than rice monoculture.
At the same time, the province will also review the planningof breeding, encouraging large-scale production, while continuing to expandingfisheries production.
The province will optimise its potential in sea surface areafor fisheries farming, while strengthening off-shore farming using hightechnology. Kien Giang will create optimal conditions for major firms such as MinhPhu Group to implement its project to build a complex of high technology applicationon developing effective and sustainable shrimp chain in Kien Giang.
For forestry development, the province will continue to takecare of the existing areas and plant new preventive forests in coastal areas,striving to maintain 11 percent in forestry coverage.
Kien Giang, the country’slargest rice producer, targets producing 4.3 million tonnes of paddy this year,as well as catching and breeding a total of 755,000 tonnes of aquatic products,including 85,000 tonnes of shrimp.
Last year, the province harvested more than4.2 million tonnes of paddy and high quality rice farming area accounted for 72percent of the province’s total rice farming area.
The province also had 56 large - scale ricefields with a combined area of more than 33,000ha in many districts like HonDat, Go Quao, Tan Hiep and Chau Thanh.
It caught and bred a total of 845,430 tonnesof aquatic products last year. Of the figure, the sale ofshrimp cultivation was more than 82,000 tonnes, up 11 percent against 2018./.
VNA
