HCM City will focus on shifting agricultural production to key crops and livestock to raise average production value and farmers’ incomes, Nguyễn Phước Trung, director of the city’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, has said.
Trung released the plan’s details on January 8 at a conference reviewing the agricultural sector and its plans for this year.
The city’s key agricultural products this year will be vegetables, flowers and ornamental trees, pigs, dairy cows, brackish-water shrimp and ornamental fish.
The city aims to expand cultivation under VietGap standards from 45.5 per cent to 60 per cent of all vegetable gardens, and increase the number of pigs meeting VietGap standards from 45 per cent to 47 per cent of all pigs.
Trần Ngọc Hổ, deputy director of the department, said the city needs new kinds of farming co-operatives that can implement sustainable urban agriculture.
To meet the need, preferential policies will be given to cooperatives so that they will be able to hire quality staff.
Farming households will be encouraged to become members of co-operatives to ensure that production will follow clear planning and have high quality and productivity.
“The city must also provide farmers with better information and forecast harvest volumes as well as supply and demand for each key agricultural crop,” he said.
To increase the value of crops, the city should also promote preliminary processing, processing and trade promotion.
Foreign investment in production, as well as better linkages among producers and businesses, will be encouraged as well.
“This is necessary for sustainability and to continue the national programme on new rural development in suburban areas,” he added.
Source: VietnamNews / www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl