Creating conditions to realize high-tech agricultural goals

(Baonghean) - Nghia Dan district has fertile land, creative and hard-working people, and a legal corridor for restructuring the agricultural sector has been issued. Under these conditions, how can the central land of Phu Quy become a high-tech agricultural center? This is the issue that was raised and focused on analysis and clarification during the recent working session of Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh in Nghia Dan.

Vivid practical models

Besides the highlight of large-scale projects worth hundreds of millions of USD in the field of processing agricultural and forestry products from input to output such as milk, vegetables, tubers, fruits or wood, the question is how the restructuring policy of the agricultural sector implemented in practice in Nghia Dan has affected individual farming households. Therefore, instead of visiting large production facilities, recently, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Dac Vinh and the working delegation during their visit and work in Nghia Dan chose to visit individual economic models to directly "see and hear" the farmers in the context of restructuring the agricultural sector which is extremely urgent.

Comrade Le Hong Son - Chairman of Nghia Dan District People's Committee awarded Certificates of Merit to individuals with outstanding achievements in the movement of joining hands to build new rural areas in Nghia Hung commune. Photo: Document

Nghia Loc commune is considered the most populous and largest commune in Nghia Dan district. In general, the Catholic and non-Catholic people here always join hands and unite to exploit the local potential to build economic development models. The family of Catholic Nguyen Quoc Thuan in Dap Danh hamlet is one of those typical examples.

Welcoming the Provincial Party Secretary to visit in his well-built house, this gentle and simple farmer confidently confided about his career path. He focused on raising porcupines with a scale of 90 - more than 100 animals and a herd of wild boars with a scale of 40 - 50 animals. Impressed by Mr. Thuan's creativity and diligence in business, Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh discussed many issues with Mr. Thuan such as the application of science and technology in production, product output and encouraged this farmer to guide and help other households in business.

Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh visited the economic model of the family of parishioner Nguyen Quoc Thuan, Nghia Loc commune, Nghia Dan district. Photo: Thanh Duy

The land of Nghia Phu commune is also witnessing great changes from the hands, minds, and diligence of farmers; with the support of the Party Committee, the government as well as the accompanying role of businesses. In the dry, hot sun and Lao wind, the 250-tree avocado garden of 3 years old, lush with fruit of Mr. Tran Hung Dao's family in Phu Loc hamlet, has proven the hard work of the garden owner. The farmer couple, the owner of the avocado garden, could not hide their excitement when welcoming the Provincial Party Secretary to visit. Introducing the prospects of working with avocado trees, Mr. Dao said that it only takes effort to take care of them in the first years, but in the following years when the trees grow and close their canopy, they work "very well". The family's concern is the output for the product. "If the output is stable, we will expand the avocado growing area by 2 hectares. Because avocado trees have proven to be suitable for local soil conditions", - Mr. Dao's wife proposed to the Provincial Party Secretary and the working group.

The Provincial Party Secretary listened to Mr. Tran Danh Hai - Head of the sugarcane growing cooperative introduce the high-quality sugarcane growing model in Nghia Phu commune (Nghia Dan). Photo: Thanh Duy

On the fertile basalt land, a Cooperative Group for producing high-yield, high-quality sugarcane varieties in Nghia Phu commune has also been formed with the participation of 22 households. Mr. Tran Danh Hai - Head of the group excitedly introduced to the Provincial Party Secretary: "The high-quality sugarcane variety planted on the initial 15 hectares has now been expanded to 50 hectares. The exploitation cycle of this sugarcane variety is up to 5 years and yields from 80 - 100 tons/ha. When harvested, sugarcane provides seeds for farmers". This is really good news because the farmers who cooperate in production in cooperative groups are vivid proof of the solution to the problem of land accumulation to do big business that is posed in the current context.

In Nghia Dan, implementing the Project on restructuring the agricultural sector, over 90% of rice area, 80% of corn area, 60% of sugarcane area, fruit trees... use new varieties with high productivity. Many models apply advanced farming processes, typically: 1/5 Fruit Tree Agricultural Cooperative, growing oranges, tangerines, grapefruits on a scale of 25 hectares, using drip irrigation systems according to Israeli technology, sprinkler irrigation. Mr. Truong Dinh Thong's farm in Nghia Long commune grows oranges and tangerines on a scale of 6 hectares, using drip irrigation systems according to Israeli technology combined with automatic irrigation control systems, monitoring indicators such as: humidity, wind, rainfall, PH...

"Pioneering" agricultural restructuring

Nghia Dan District Party Secretary Vi Van Dinh said: The locality is restructuring in association with key agricultural commodity products to form large-scale concentrated production areas such as: grass growing, growing raw materials for animal feed; sugarcane raw materials and clean vegetable, root and fruit production areas... In forestry, it is also following the direction of linking along the product value chain to serve as raw materials for the MDF wood processing factory...

TH Food Chain Joint Stock Company's dairy farm in Nghia Dan district. Photo: Sy Minh

Expressing excitement that the dream of developing high-tech agricultural production associated with processing that the province has nurtured and is considered a strategic, long-term task, creating a breakthrough in agricultural production is gradually becoming a reality in Nghia Dan, representatives of departments and branches have suggestions and comments to strengthen the belief, methods and directions for the locality. Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Tien Lam assessed the richness and fertility of the red basalt land: "The conditions that Nghia Dan has are the dream of farmers".

From there, from the perspective of an agricultural manager, Mr. Lam stated the proposition: "Building new rural areas is the goal, improving people's lives, associated with sustainable poverty reduction, improving rural infrastructure is the task, then taking the agricultural production structure as the solution". Therefore, Nghia Dan needs to continue to develop high-tech agriculture with 3 main product groups: sugarcane, forestry trees and trees for animal feed associated with large processing enterprises in the area.

Agreeing with the above opinions, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Dinh Viet Hong placed high expectations on the "locomotive Nghia Dan" in restructuring the agricultural sector associated with building new rural areas: "The district should have a serious strategy to expand effective plant and animal varieties. Nghia Dan must be a pioneer in this field, must make a breakthrough in production and livestock models". Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Cao Thi Hien said that the district should evaluate the overall activities of cooperatives and cooperative groups to have solutions to direct and consolidate them to act as a "midwife" for farmers, because up to now, the whole district has only 12 agricultural cooperatives re-registered to operate under the Cooperative Law 2012.

High-yield sugarcane varieties are being grown in Nghia Phu commune (Nghia Dan). Photo: Thanh Duy

Directly visiting the models, listening to comments and suggestions, and having frank and open exchanges with the sectors and district leaders, Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh emphasized that Nghia Dan is on the right track with the model of a developing agricultural district associated with the leading role of enterprises; therefore, it is necessary to cling to potentials and advantages to create new momentum for development.

However, in general, the Provincial Party Secretary noted that Nghia Dan needs to ensure that people have means of production and access to new and effective production methods, because these two factors are the root of the problem of sustainable poverty reduction. In addition, creating output for agricultural products with the role of enterprises and market orientation of Party committees and authorities for farmers must be truly concerned. However, to do this, Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh suggested that the Provincial People's Committee and related sectors have specific instructions and coordinate with Nghia Dan to implement them.

In particular, to successfully restructure the agricultural sector, the human factor must still be put first and decisive, therefore, the Provincial Party Secretary emphasized that Nghia Dan must focus on education to train human resources. "In addition to good general education, the district needs to coordinate with local businesses to carry out vocational training" - the Provincial Party Secretary pointed out.

It can be said that Nghia Dan with extremely favorable conditions was assigned by the province to "pioneer" the restructuring of the agricultural sector. If successful, it will not only bring development momentum to this locality, but also have a profound impact on the development of the whole Western Nghe An.

Thanh Duy