Lesson 1: Closing the green production chain
Identifying that investing in organic agricultural production is an inevitable trend, meeting strict international standards, in Nghe An, there have appeared autonomous fields from production to finished products, providing raw materials for the chain of factories and stores. Not only that, these models also provide products directly to consumers, both saving maximum costs and increasing the value of agricultural products, maximizing profits in production.
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Thu Huyen - Hoai Thu
31/07/2024
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In fact, in the agricultural production chain, to create clean products for consumers, the raw material area is considered an important and decisive step. Currently in Nghe An, the trend of building clean raw material areas, especially for farms, agricultural production models in the direction of organic, VietGAP, GlobalGAP are being applied more and more widely. In particular, in the province, there are now businesses implementing organic production and have been certified by competent authorities to meet standards.
An agricultural production enterprise certified to meet organic production standards means meeting the standards to export products to demanding markets around the world. The common point of enterprises and organizations producing and trading organic agricultural products and clean agriculture is to prioritize building and maintaining clean raw material areas and clean production processes. One of such enterprises in Nghe An is the Sunmart farm of Hung Cuong Company Limited, located in Thai Hoa town.
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We had the opportunity to learn about the reality and discuss with Mr. Pham Van Hong, an agricultural engineer who has been invited by Hung Cuong Company Limited to be an expert in charge of production techniques at Sunmart Farm for more than 3 years. Sharing about the process of turning a "difficult land" in Nghia Thuan Commune, Thai Hoa Town into an organic farm, Mr. Hong said that it was a long process of perseverance of the enterprise as well as each worker. Mr. Hong has a master's degree in agricultural production, used to teach at the Agricultural Academy, and has worked for many years as a technical expert for many clean vegetable farms of large domestic corporations.
“The opportunity to come to Nghe An when meeting and seeing the enthusiasm and determination of the owner of Sunmart farm, I accepted to go to Thai Hoa town. At first, it was very difficult, because this was an infertile land due to long-term sugarcane cultivation, with sandy soil mixed with loam, soft in the rain, hard and barren in the sun. The entire farm invested nearly 800 trucks of soil to raise the ground and add organic fertilizer and coconut fiber to reduce the adhesion, creating more porosity for the soil. Working and improving each area in a rolling manner, after more than 3 years, the farm's land was temporarily stable in terms of land level for mass production on a total of 10 hectares" - engineer Pham Van Hong said.
To ensure product safety and to persist in organic production, Sunmart Farm both raises and grows crops to create a cycle of input materials as food for plants and animals. Specifically, livestock waste by-products are composted to make fertilizer for plants. Crop by-products are used as animal feed. In addition, the farm also raises earthworms, buys more manure from large farms for composting, buys more coconut fiber to serve seasonal production... To limit pesticides and move towards organic production, this farm implements pest management from the stage of land preparation and soil treatment, seed treatment and does not monoculture one type of plant on one land area and only buys plant seeds from facilities with guaranteed origins.
In particular, according to Mr. Hong, the important step in agricultural production is to regularly check the fields to promptly detect disease phenomena and have thorough treatment measures. To do so, the person checking the fields also needs to have knowledge about the sources of disease on each crop to detect it promptly. To repel, limit, and kill insects that harm crops, farmers can use biological products to kill insects; make biological traps. If using biological pesticides, it is also necessary to follow the principles of use, correct dosage and quarantine date.
In fact, large corporations and enterprises investing in agricultural production prioritize building clean raw material areas. And building clean raw material areas is difficult, persistently maintaining quality is even more difficult. However, if this is done, the next steps such as care, processing and even product marketing will be easier.
Mr. Pham Van Hong
In Nghe An, in addition to Hung Cuong Company Limited, there have been many other businesses choosing organic production and have gradually gained a foothold in the market, even reaching out to the world, such as the organic dairy farm of Vinamilk Dairy Group, farms of TH Group, Hai An Company Limited (Do Luong)...
The direction of organic production has been directed by the Government through Decision No. 885/QD-TTg dated June 23, 2020 of the Prime Minister approving the Project on organic agriculture development for the period 2020 - 2030. To implement this policy, the People's Committee of Nghe An province is also finalizing to issue the Project on Organic Agriculture Development in the province for the period 2022-2030. The draft project has been sent for comments from relevant ministries, branches, 21 districts, cities and towns. Based on the comments of the departments, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has received them for completion.
The Project on Organic Agriculture Development in the province for the period 2022-2030 has 7 key products for organic production, including: Rice, fruits (oranges, grapefruits, pineapples); raw materials for processing (tea, sugarcane); meat (pork, poultry); fresh cow's milk, wood and wood products; shrimp, fish. Selection basis: Prioritize key agricultural products, agricultural products with local advantages; at the same time, ensure socio-economic and environmental efficiency. Prioritize traditional, indigenous products with specialty value, products that have met VietGAP, GlobalGAP, OCOP quality standards, etc.
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Once a clean raw material area has been built, the production of clean, high-quality products is much easier. In Lam Son commune (Do Luong), Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang has started a business producing herbal products quite successfully thanks to the construction of a clean raw material area and a closed green production chain. "Lam Son has quite fertile fields on the banks of the Lam River, many precious medicinal herbs are grown by people in their gardens, but their medicinal value and economic value have not been fully exploited, such as perilla, lemongrass, noni fruit, grapefruit..." - Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang said.
I wanted to elevate these products and promote the value of my hometown's agricultural products with my fellow countrymen when I decided to establish Hang Moon Herbal Import-Export Company Limited. Currently, out of the company's 15 products, 7 have been recognized by the locality as meeting 3-star OCOP standards."
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang
The main raw materials for the production of OCOP products of Hang Moon Herbal Import Export Company Limited are all contracted with local people in Do Luong and Quynh Luu districts to grow and care for them in a green and clean direction. To demonstrate this, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang took us to visit the alluvial land of more than 1 hectare along the Lam River, where local workers were harvesting perilla leaves. The workers said that perilla is very easy to grow, suitable for the local soil and climate, and is almost free of pests and diseases, so the plants are cared for completely green, clean, and without pesticides. “We both work as daily laborers harvesting raw materials for 250,000 VND/day, and grow more in our home gardens to import for the company. We also witnessed the plants and raw leaves being processed by businesses into perilla tea products, perilla extract cosmetics such as shower gel, soap right at Ms. Hang's production workshop,” said Ms. Nguyen Thi Lam, a resident of Lam Son commune.
“In addition to maintaining more than 1 hectare of perilla and lemongrass in Lam Son commune, our company also signed a contract to supply raw materials with a cooperative in Quynh Luu district. According to the contract, the supplier is responsible for growing herbs to ensure clean processes and quality, and pre-processing the products to supply to the company for the production line of perilla tea, lemongrass essential oil and some other products,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang added.
Thanks to the initiative in raw material sources, the products of Hang Moon Herbal Import Export Company Limited meet strict inspection criteria for green and clean standards. Most recently, the company's products have been certified as products of natural origin, so the amount of products produced has been well received by the market. Thanks to stable consumption, the company has a revolving capital to purchase raw materials for farmers at a higher price than the market price.
Normally, the perilla leaves we grow in our garden and sell at retail markets in the commune cost only about 5,000 VND/kg. However, when we grow them according to orders from herbal companies, the price is 3 times higher and very stable, no matter how much we grow, it will be purchased.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lam, Lam Son commune (Do Luong)
Encouraging deep processing and increasing the value of agricultural products is an agricultural economic development direction that Do Luong district is implementing with many incentive mechanisms, especially investment in high-tech agricultural production. At Doi Choi Farm - Bud Hill Farm in hamlet 12, Thinh Son commune and hamlet 2, Van Son commune, with an area of 15 hectares, a synchronous greenhouse system is invested, irrigation technology to monitor humidity and temperature is applied with modern Israeli technology and strictly follows the agricultural production stages, aiming to improve product quality. Thanks to the investment in high technology, ensuring product quality, agricultural products of Doi Choi Farm when launched on the market also achieve higher revenue, and are ordered by supermarkets in major cities.
In early 2023, the Standing Committee of Do Luong District Party Committee issued Directive No. 15-CT/HU dated August 22, 2023 on the plan to concentrate land accumulation and form concentrated specialized production areas in Do Luong district, period 2023-2025. From there, Do Luong called on businesses to invest in producing a clean vegetable growing model of 11.6 hectares in Trung Son commune; the Bud Hill Farm model - Doi Choi Farm of 8.4 hectares in Van Son commune; a vegetable growing model of 0.3 hectares in Lam Son commune; a banana growing model of 30 hectares in Dai Son commune; intensive models of high-quality pure rice in the spring crop (with a scale of 131.06 hectares) in Van Son, Thinh Son, Tan Son, Thuan Son, Luu Son, Dong Son, Dai Son, Trung Son and Lac Son communes.
In the summer-autumn crop (with a scale of 105 hectares) in Dai Son, Tru Son, Thai Son, Dong Son, Trung Son and Ngoc Son communes, the results of implementing the model helped reduce investment costs and bring scientific and technical advances into production. In particular, the economic efficiency of the spring crop increased compared to the control by 4 - 6.9 million VND/ha and the economic efficiency of the summer-autumn crop increased compared to the control by 2.5 - 5 million VND/ha.
Not only in companies and enterprises implementing the "green process" from growing raw materials to processing output products, currently many farms, households in Nghe An also realize the necessity and economic benefits of this production - processing model, such as models of growing and processing agricultural products such as tea, ginger, black pig, yellow flower tea and medicinal herbs in the western districts of Nghe An. Farmers and enterprises are gradually forming closed production - processing trends from production to processing, completing products to consumers. From there, the value of agricultural products is increased, profits from production and processing of agricultural products also increase accordingly.
(To be continued)
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