Ben Tre (VNA) - The People’s Committee of Ben Tre province plans todevelop Cho Lach district into a national hub for high-yield and high-qualityfruit seedlings at a cost of 85 billion VND (3.57 million USD).

The district, the country’s largest producer of fruit seedlings, uses advancedtechniques to produce them, mostly for durian, jackfruit, mango, and rambutan.

Its area under seedlings has expanded from 400ha in 2016 to 1,500ha now, and itsupplies more than 20 million seedlings a year besides 15-18 million flowersand ornamental plants.

Doan Van Danh, director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, said becoming a national hub for seedlings, flowers and ornamentalplants is a major mission meant to achieve a breakthrough in socio-economicdevelopment.

Under the plan, the district will set up a research and development centre tocreate high-value species.

It will disseminate techniques for producing seedlings that meet goodagricultural practices standards to farmers and co-operatives.

The district plans to produce 40 million seedlings a year by 2025.

It will establish a co-operative alliance for producing seedlings and set up ane-commerce platform next year for trading them as well as flowers andornamental plants.

To improve seedling quality, it has chosen quality trees and register them as‘elite’ trees and develop elite orchards.

It will help households register brand names for their seedlings.

It will set up co-operatives, co-operative groups and craft villages, andcreate linkages between growers and buyers of seedlings.

A growing number of seedling growers are registering with authorities forownership of elite plants and orchards.

The province has more than 90 registered elite plants and 300 elite orchards,according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

To improve infrastructure for seedling production, the district has also builtembankments to keep out saltwater and high tides, and upgraded rural roads./.