Quy Chau develops native plants and animals

Bpreservation and development of native plant and animal varieties

For over a month now, Mr. Vi Nhat Ke and his wife in Chao village, Dien Lam commune have had more motivation to develop their family economy when the District Farmers' Association supported them with 200 ducks of standard native duck genetics.Quy duckAfter more than 1 month of raising, his family's pigs weighed 1 - 1.2 kg each. "The Farmers' Association gave us 200 breeding pigs and supported us with 2 months of food costs. At the same time, the association's staff gave us detailed instructions on how to take care of them, so my wife and I are very happy, confident and will try our best to take care of the flock to achieve good results," said Mr. Vi Nhat Ke.

Quy duck flock of Mr. Vi Nhat Ke's household in Dien Lam commune (Quy Chau). Photo: Hoai Thu

In the scale of his family farm, Mr. Vi Nhat Ke prioritizes the most favorable location to raise the duck flock on the hillside, with a coop and a water hole for the ducks to bathe in, surrounded by a B40 mesh fence. He also invested in a grass grinder to chop banana tree trunks into food for the ducks.

Along with Mr. Vi Nhat Ke's household, in Dien Lam commune, the Farmers' Association of Quy Chau district currently supports 2 other households with 600 duck breeds of Quy Chau native duck genetic resources. Dien Lam is one of 9 communes of Quy Chau with households supported with duck breeds, both to support people in economic development and to preserve the native duck genetic resources, aiming to develop the main livestock breed of the district.

Currently, the entire Quy Chau district is maintaining and developing 8,000 ducks in 9 communes (except Chau Thang, Chau Binh and Tan Lac town). In which, many are concentrated in some communes with favorable conditions such as Chau Tien, Chau Hanh, Chau Binh, Dien Lam... and based on the selection of the existing duck flock in the area and the Quy duck gene breed stored at the Animal Husbandry Institute.

Mr. Luong Tri Dung - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quy Chau district

In addition to promoting the conservation of genetic resources and developing Quy Chau duck farming into a key commodity product, Quy Chau also develops other spearheads in agricultural production through the implementation of Project No. 06 dated November 24, 2020 of Quy Chau District Party Committee on developing key agricultural products in the period 2020-2025, and Decision No. 1363 dated December 15, 2020 of Quy Chau District People's Committee. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has directed Tan Lac communes and towns to coordinate in developing a plan to develop key seedlings in the area for the period 2021-2025. Regarding the orientation of developing native breeds, in addition to Quy Chau duck, there are other species such as native hill chicken, local yellow cow, native black sow (Sao Va pig), planting medicinal plants under the forest canopy, converting raw acacia to planting large timber forests...

Mr. Luong Tri Dung added that the district's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has directed the development of livestock farming in the direction of farms and family farms at 9 households raising local black sows in Chau Binh, Chau Hoi, Chau Thang and Dien Lam communes. At the same time, the policy of supporting the construction of fish cages on rivers, lakes and dams has reached 100 cages using new technology, mainly concentrated in localities such as Chau Binh, Chau Nga, Chau Hoi, Chau Thang, Chau Tien, Chau Binh and Dien Lam. Currently, the output of fish cages has reached 30 tons, with diverse fish species such as grass carp and climbing fish. In addition, medicinal plants under the forest canopy have also given positive results such as the model of planting yellow camellia in Chau Hanh commune with a total area of ​​10 hectares, planting 52 hectares of other medicinal plants such as turmeric, lemongrass, cardamom, etc.

Quy Chau has also applied the production of high-quality rice varieties with high economic value into production on an area of ​​over 1,000 hectares such as Japonica J02, du huong 8... At the same time, converting new sugarcane varieties KK3, LK92-11 with the advantage of resistance to grass shoot disease, the ability to keep the stem for up to 5 years and not flowering into production on over 80% of the sugarcane growing area in the whole district.

Overcoming difficulties

Along with the positive signs in developing key plant and animal varieties in the district, through the implementation process, the departments and branches of Quy Chau also identified limitations and difficulties that need to be overcome. First of all, in many places, people still rely on the support of the State and have not made efforts to escape poverty.

Besides, there is still a situation where people are not interested in investing in agricultural development when facing epidemics and crop and livestock failures. "That is why, in supporting the Quy duck breed as well as other breeds of plants and animals, the district has a policy of selecting households that are capable of providing capital and facilities and must have the will to improve, commit to intercropping, and maintain the initial number of breeds for reproduction to ensure efficiency" - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quy Chau district affirmed.

Quy Chau District Agricultural Service Center pilots planting aromatic roots under the forest canopy in Chau Hoi commune. Photo: Hoai Thu

In addition, Quy Chau is currently also facingentangledin implementing support for plant and animal varieties under the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction and the National Target Program for New Rural Development. Specifically, currently the appraisal of prices for seedlings is often lower than the market, causing difficulties for facilities in implementing support for agricultural development.

For example, the price regulation for supporting the Quy duck breeding model according to the province's regulations is 20,000 VND/1 duck weighing 3g or more. Meanwhile, the market price for a Quy duck weighing over 3g is over 30,000 VND. By the end of October 2022, the Provincial People's Committee has not yet issued a document directing competent authorities to appraise the price of materials and seedlings to implement national target programs. Along with that, the Provincial People's Council has not yet issued documents guiding the implementation, regulating the support level and investment capital turnover for beneficiaries such as poor households, near-poor households and other subjects in implementing poverty reduction programs and projects, building new rural areas, causing the locality to be in a "dilemma" in implementation.

“To overcome the above difficulties and help Quy Chau district promptly implement its tasks, the district has sent a document to the Provincial People's Committee and all levels and sectors to propose early guidance and regulations on support levels; clearly assign agencies to appraise prices of materials and seedlings. Recommend the Provincial People's Council to issue documents guiding implementation, regulating support levels and investment capital rotation for beneficiaries such as poor households, near-poor households and other subjects in implementing programs and projects" - Mr. Luong Tri Dung said.