Japan supports investment in 'leading the way' models in Nghe An

(Baonghean) - As a country with advanced technology and clean production, high quality products, when coming to Nghe An, Japanese people are very impressed with the rich raw material areas such as oranges, tea, vegetables, rice, Thanh Chuong chicken, Ky Son ginger...

They have surveyed, collected information, hoping to support investment in effective models and find output for the products. Investing in experimental models is a traditional Japanese practice before putting them into larger production.

Matcha tea farmers

One day at the end of 2016, we had the opportunity to visit Mr. Pham Van Quy's matcha tea production facility using Japanese technology in village 5, Hung Son commune (Anh Son). Mr. Quy shared: In October 2016, I was fortunate to be invited by JICA to Japan to visit and study the high-quality matcha tea production model. During this time, I was trained in techniques on how to prepare the soil, plant, care for, harvest and process tea.

Tea is cared for using Japanese technology, no pesticides are used, fertilizers are mainly organic fertilizers, microorganisms are composted from agricultural products, when the tea is good, a black net is used to cover the tea to give it a dark green color, the Japanese side also left a steamer, used to steam the tea before drying.

After finishing the course, we returned and applied this process with the technical support of JICA Japan. Accordingly, the process of planting and caring for matcha tea materials always followed the correct process from the stage of clearing the ground using only manual labor. From there, the clean tea materials met the requirements of the project.

Mr. Quy added: What is special is that the raw materials for making matcha tea are only harvested within a week when the tea buds reach the most standard level. Before harvesting, the tea is covered by 60 - 90% sunlight 25 days before harvesting; in dark conditions, the tea leaves will produce more chlorophyll, making the tea leaves darker green than usual, leading to an increase in catechin and theanine, and the tea will have the best finished product. After being harvested, the tea will be preserved, steamed, and dried properly to bring delicious, high-quality tea products.

Japanese experts and businesses survey and learn about orange production in Quy Hop district. Photo: CL

Discussing the results of the trial production, Mr. Quy said: The project asked me to harvest and produce raw tea, dry it and send it to Saigon for processing. Each sao yields 150 kg of tea each time. They supported me with the cost of producing the model, and they said they would cooperate with me for another year to evaluate the results. If this model is successful, it will contribute to promoting the potential and advantages of land and climate, creating a breakthrough for the tea industry in the area. Thereby, contributing to creating jobs, increasing income for people, and at the same time maintaining the brand of high-quality clean tea of ​​Anh Son district.

Building a clean orange and chicken model

Building a clean orange farm in Quy Hop is also a model that Japan wants to spend time researching and investing in. During their recent visit to Quy Hop in December, JICA project experts were extremely impressed when standing in the long valleys of ripe oranges. They recorded, took photos, analyzed information about household production, markets, prices, concerns about land, irrigation, and fertilizer for oranges... They were interested in some of the farmers' creative directions such as producing orange essential oil and jam from orange peels.

The delegation also surveyed the clean vegetable situation in Vinh city, Quynh Luu district, promising to invest in clean vegetables for Tam Nguyen Company when seeing the company's enthusiasm for the project of bringing clean vegetables to the market. The delegation also surveyed the model of raising free-range chickens for sale in Thanh Chuong. According to project members, Thanh Chuong chickens are also the subject they research to have an output consulting direction for farmers when they know this is a famous product.

In addition to the agricultural projects being pursued, the Japanese side has also invested in the high-tech electrolytic water plant project in Nghi Phu commune (Vinh city) phase 1 with 3.2 billion VND, which has been accepted by the market. The unit is completing the procedures, after market research, it is expected to invest in phase 2 with a larger plant.

Japanese enterprises learn about vegetable production in Quynh Luong commune (Quynh Luu). Photo: CL

Ms. Nguyen Hai Chau, agricultural project assistant at the JICA coordination office in Nghe An, said: According to each project, Japanese experts will regularly visit Vietnam, go to regions and localities to grasp information, investigate, organize small projects like testing and evaluating in practice to see if they are of good quality or effective, then deploy them widely. Small projects focus on famous agricultural products, with quality but unstable output or low value; experts will build a closed production chain model from farming, processing to calling for consumption, making the products more known to more people, bringing higher value, encouraging people to produce what the market needs.

Discussing the prospects for cooperation with Japan in agricultural investment, Mr. Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said: Nghe An has a large land area, more than 1.2 million hectares of agricultural land, of which agricultural land is nearly 260,000 hectares; forestry land with forests is over 970,000 hectares and converges many different ecological zones, with many typical agricultural products. Through the survey, Nghe An has received attention from the JICA project to invest in infrastructure and irrigation projects and hopes that through the discussion at the workshop, from reality, Japanese enterprises and the JICA project will have more investment opportunities to benefit farmers, support Nghe An agricultural products to develop and expand to the world market.

Chau Lan - Huyen Trang