Economy

Lesson 3: Green production and anti-desertification

Economic Reporter Group • December 5, 2024 13:51

Agriculture is gradually transforming its production model to meet green growth and consumption. Green production in agriculture aims to ensure sustainable agriculture on both economic, social and environmental pillars, contributing to the overall green economic development.

In the cold of the end of the year, from the Lam River dike looking out to the alluvial land, stretching under the Yen Xuan bridge is a boundless green, rich with cucumbers and burdock. Few people know that, five or seven years ago, this alluvial land was all barren sand, drought before sun, flood before rain, only reeds and reeds growing taller than a person. For many years, this alluvial land was left fallow, used as a grazing place for buffalo and cows because no plants could survive.

Until Nguyen Van Thanh (born in 1982), a young man from Lam Dong came to Nghe An to sign a contract to rent this land from Long Xa commune (Hung Nguyen), despite many people saying he was "crazy", because with such poor and bad land, what crops could he grow to eat?...

Thanh hired people, hired machines, leveled and improved the land. The land was poor, often eroded and washed away, so the only way to improve it was to add nutrients to the soil. He bought manure, coconut fiber, green manure plants and mixed corn stalks, beans, peanuts, and used composted microorganisms to feed the soil... During the cultivation process, only weeding was done by human power with the support of machines, only using organic fertilizers: manure, microorganisms from biological products; fertilizing with self-soaked nitrogen; using automatic irrigation systems...

Thanh has been working tirelessly to produce and improve the land, turning 7 hectares of wasteland in Long Xa commune into a rich, fertile land. “Every year, I add tons of decomposed cow manure and tons of composted microorganisms to the soil. At the same time, I use fish head nitrogen treated with biotechnology. Thanks to that, I specialize in growing crops, especially cucumbers, squash, and burdock for high yields…”, Thanh said excitedly.

Currently, from 7 hectares of alluvial land, each year, Nguyen Van Thanh earns 2 billion VND in income, creating jobs for 25 local workers with an average salary of 6-7 million VND/month. His entire production land area is certified as organic in Vietnam. In addition, he has also cooperated with more than 40 households in Hung Nguyen, Nam Dan, Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Anh Son districts to cultivate more than 2,000 hectares of squash and cucumbers organically, opening up a new production direction for farmers in the alluvial area.

In Do Luong district, in 2023, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the District Farmers' Association deployed a biochar production model as fertilizer for 20 households in the district. Accordingly, households use biochar burners with a simple structure, the raw materials for this biochar burner are agricultural waste, organic household waste such as rice husks, straw, wood chips, branches, leaves, vegetable leaves, grass... dried about 70%. After burning agricultural waste for about 5 hours, biochar will be harvested. Biochar helps improve soil porosity, has a very high water retention capacity, prevents evaporation loss or seepage into deep layers after watering in the dry season; prevents soil erosion, creates favorable conditions for beneficial bacteria to live in the soil, attracts and retains nutrients to gradually release to plants...

Mr. Nguyen Ba Chau - Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Do Luong district said: "Through practice and application of the product, it has been shown to reduce household waste, take advantage of agricultural waste and by-products; at the same time, create a high-quality organic fertilizer for agricultural production. In the coming time, the model will be widely replicated. In addition, we are currently implementing a parallel model of raising black soldier flies and calcium worms from microorganisms and waste, as feed for livestock."

Nowadays, facing the damage caused by diseases and epidemics, people have become aware and concerned about their health. Organic production methods to replace inorganic production methods have begun to be focused on.

Therefore, the demand for organic fertilizers is very large. It is estimated that each year the amount of organic fertilizers serving the needs of agricultural production in the province is at least about 90,000 tons. Meanwhile, the amount of manure and by-products in farming is very large, which will become good raw materials for processing into organic fertilizers with biological products to reuse by-products, provide nutrients for crops and revive beneficial microorganisms to improve the soil.

Nghe An is one of the sugarcane production centers of the country with 3 large factories and a sugarcane area of ​​nearly 25,000 hectares, the total sugarcane output each year reaches nearly 1.6-1.7 million tons of sugarcane. Along with that, the amount of by-products and bagasse discharged into the environment is very large. Concerned about environmental issues, and at the same time wanting to process quality food from bagasse, Nghe An Department of Science and Technology has researched and successfully produced reserve animal feed products for livestock from sugarcane by-products. This is a batch of scientific and technological products ordered through the technology supply-demand connection between Nghe An Department of Science and Technology and Japan. In August 2024, Nghe An was honored to export a batch of animal feed from bagasse to Japan, opening up great prospects for environmental protection and creating new sources of goods, the batch was highly appreciated by the Japanese side.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Tung - Chairman of the Provincial Farmers' Association - the unit in charge of implementing the Project "Propaganda, mobilization, and guidance for farmers to produce organic microbial fertilizers from waste and by-products of agricultural production in the province in the period of 2023 - 2025" said that the technique of producing organic microbial fertilizers is quite simple, does not require much investment capital, so people can do it themselves to serve the fertilizer needs for agricultural production of households or farms. Using biological products to treat agricultural by-products will contribute to solving environmental problems, while creating more organic fertilizer sources for reinvestment in crops, towards the development of clean and sustainable agriculture. In recent times, with the development of science and technology, many agricultural by-products have been reused by businesses, farms, and farmers, making them an important source of input materials for agricultural production or many other fields. This is the inevitable trend of clean agricultural production and good agricultural practices of Nghe An farmers.

For nearly 25 years of farming shrimp, Mr. Nguyen Cuong (born in 1970) in Dien Trung commune (Dien Chau) has experienced ups and downs. There were times when he thought he would lose all his capital and be left empty-handed... "I started farming shrimp in 2002, using extensive farming methods. In the early years, I was very successful, earning billions of dong each year. However, due to weather changes and diseases caused by a long period of chemical abuse, the shrimp got sick and died. I was left empty-handed."

In 2022, Mr. Cuong used all the capital accumulated from 20 years of shrimp farming to renovate the shrimp farming area, switching from shrimp farming on tarpaulin-lined ponds to high-tech white-leg shrimp farming, in the direction of biosafety. "When applying high technology to 3-stage closed shrimp ponds, with automatic temperature-regulating roofs, I was able to raise 4 crops/year. In particular, high-tech, biosafety farming requires less care, less use of antibiotics for shrimp and ensures disease safety," said Mr. Cuong. From that success, he has now expanded the area to 20 shrimp farming ponds, 6 ponds applying a closed technology model, 2 nursery ponds, 3 waste treatment ponds. The output of commercial shrimp sales reaches 150 tons/year; creating regular jobs for 10 local workers, with an average income of 8-10 million VND/person/month.

To overcome the impact of unusual weather changes, some shrimp farming households in Quynh Luu district and Hoang Mai town have applied Biofloc technology to intensively raise shrimp in 2-3 stages, achieving 2-3 times higher efficiency than traditional farming methods.

Biofloc technology is a process of self-nitrification in aquaculture ponds without the need to change water. Biofloc gathers a mass of organic matter suspended in water such as unicellular algae, multicellular algae, feces, excess food, dead microorganisms, bacteria and even invertebrates, etc. This mass has the ability to assimilate organic waste into bacterial biomass in a very short time to improve the water environment without needing light like algae. At the same time, it is food for aquatic animals with high nutrient content.

Mr. Le Duy Khanh, a shrimp farmer in Quynh Lap (Hoang Mai town) said that applying Biofloc technology helps him divide the shrimp farming process into 3 different stages according to the shrimp's age. "Applying this method helps me raise shrimp at a higher density but still easily control diseases, food sources, and water environment. In addition, raising in a greenhouse helps limit the difference in day and night temperatures, while controlling fluctuations in the water environment; helping shrimp grow well, develop evenly, and minimize risks compared to traditional shrimp farming methods," Mr. Khanh added.

It can be affirmed that the application of microbial products, biological preparations or advanced biotechnology in general in shrimp farming is a necessary solution to limit diseases in farmed shrimp, aiming at sustainable development. Along with that, solving environmental pollution problems, creating clean shrimp products, without antibiotics to improve the competitiveness of commercial shrimp in the domestic and export markets. Faced with the challenges of climate change, infrastructure in some farming areas is increasingly degraded, water pollution, recently, some farming households in the province have made many innovations in investment and farming technology processes. Many shrimp farming models applying biotechnology without using antibiotics, chemicals, applying biological preparations in improving the farming environment are gradually taking shape, need to be replicated.

Not only that, Nghe An also deploys many effective biotechnology models in mountainous areas.