Nghe An strives to supply 41 million high-quality forestry seedlings

Forestry varieties still have many limitations

Nghe An is the province with the largest forest plantation area in the country, with 180,717 hectares. Survey results on the production, business and application of technology and breeding techniques in the province show that the production and business of forestry seedlings have achieved certain results. From organizations, individuals, households producing forestry seedlings to forest growers have been aware of the use of good and quality seedlings for production.

Some facilities have applied technology in breeding, modern irrigation technology in nurseries. Foresters have raised awareness of using good, high-yielding varieties, received training in forest planting techniques, supported with documents on nursery planting, and visited to learn from effective forest planting models.

Some organizations and individuals producing and supplying forestry seeds are trained in-depth in seed source development techniques, and have a firm grasp of and carry out production and business activities in accordance with regulations on forestry seed management.

However, the productivity of planted forests is not high and is not uniform among localities in the province. The reason is that the production technology only focuses on sowing seeds and cuttings. Modern breeding technologies such as cell technology, molecular genetic technology, and gene technology have not been applied.

Not to mention some organizations and individuals operating in production and business without a Business Registration Certificate, without documents proving origin, and not complying with technical processes in production, leading to poor quality of seedlings, causing losses to some organizations and individuals using seedlings.

Some seed sources have not been effective. There are good seed sources but there is no plan to plant forests such as fat, bodhi, and egg-shaped trees... so it cannot create a stable seed market to supply the demand for producing seedlings for forest planting.

Forestry plant varieties are not diverse, mainly focusing on fast-growing, small-wood species, not serving the province's large-wood forest planting strategy. Currently, some nurseries have invested in technology but the quantity is small, lacking quality seed forests and nurseries to provide seed sources for production.

Improve the quality of forestry plant varieties career

In order to gradually improve the quality of forestry plant varieties, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Decision No. 350/QD-UBND dated February 20, 2024 approving the Project "Improving the quality of forestry plant varieties for the period 2024 - 2030 to effectively implement the Forestry Development Strategy in the province".

Accordingly, Nghe An will gradually build, renovate and upgrade the system of research facilities and forestry nurseries to increase the economic value and efficiency of forest planting. Support research facilities, selection and seed production to complete the material facilities serving seed production.

Focus on supporting the completion and operation of the high-tech seed production center in the North Central High-tech Forestry Zone, with investment items including: High-tech Center, Cell Tissue Culture Center; Super-light potting workshop, Seed garden and storage of gene sources; Seed garden of North Central specialty forest products. Build about 10 new permanent nurseries, suitable for scale, capacity and meeting the needs of seed production and supply in the area.

In addition, consolidate, renovate and upgrade about 13 nurseries belonging to forest owners and the State that are currently producing and trading forestry seedlings in the province. Support about 12 million high-quality tissue culture seedlings with technical transfer for care and training to serve high-quality forest planting for protection forest management boards, special-use forest management boards, forestry companies, with the form of post-investment support to access and improve skills in producing high-quality tissue culture seedlings to serve the needs of forest planting in the area.

Develop criteria for selecting and supporting non-state seed production facilities, conduct a number of research projects on selecting, creating, testing and developing a number of native and imported tree species that are key to producing large timber. By 2030, the province will establish a system of forestry tree seed sources that ensures genetic quality, proactively source seed materials for afforestation; the proportion of seedlings provided for afforestation with controlled seed origin will reach 95%, and the biomass of planted forests will grow to 20-25m³/ha/year.

Encourage economic sectors inside and outside the province to participate in seed production to provide enough high-quality seeds for afforestation. By 2030, the demand for afforestation seeds in the province will be about 41,500,000 seedlings of all kinds/year (including scattered trees) and about 1,500,000 - 2,000,000 seedlings of non-timber forest products for planting under the forest canopy.

To achieve the above objectives, the Provincial People's Committee assigned agencies and units to perform the following tasks: Identifying a list of priority tree species in the locality such as groups of timber species for economic forest planting, groups of tree species for forest enrichment planting, supplementary planting in forest regeneration promotion zones, groups of non-timber forest product species, groups of tree species for special-use forests, protective forests, and flooded forests.

Building a forestry seed source system to survey, evaluate, select and recognize about 200-300 outstanding endemic trees of the province (Quỳ cinnamon, green lim, samu, pơ mu, pine resin...). Building, renovating and upgrading the system of research facilities, forestry nursery systems to increase economic value and efficiency of forest planting; Scientific research on selecting, creating trials and developing some native tree species, imported trees that are key to large timber, non-timber forest products with high productivity, quality and competitive advantages. Researching and applying tissue culture technology, advanced technology in seed production, building a database system on varieties, selecting and creating to preserve rare genetic resources.

Improve the capacity of forestry seed management: Review and assign specific tasks to competent authorities responsible for managing the production and trading of forestry seed in the province according to the provisions of law. Develop an information and communication mechanism on forestry seed to ensure full, timely and transparent provision to all interested organizations and individuals. Strengthen law enforcement on management and control of forestry seed production and trading activities.

Focus on perfecting the system of research, transfer, production and supply of forestry plant varieties; improving the capacity of research and production of forestry plant varieties; improving the capacity of management of quality of forestry plant varieties; applying science and technology in forestry plant variety work.

At the same time, provide financial support such as preferential loans, interest rate support, or support for research and seedling production projects. Create investment funds with the goal of investing in research and production projects for new and improved seedling. Focus on investment support, promote the early completion of the North Central Region High-tech Forestry Seedling Production Center to put into operation to form a network for the production of high-quality forestry seedling.

Encourage investors and existing production facilities to upgrade and apply advanced science and technology in building seed sources and large-scale seed production facilities, providing stable and long-term seed supply according to product chain requirements, producing and supplying high-quality and climate change-adaptive yielding seeds...