Dong Thap (VNS/VNA) – The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Dong Thap plans to increase thearea under fruits cultivation to more than 35,000ha by 2025 with a focus onenvironment-friendly farming methods and developing value chains for fruits.

Italso plans to enhance the means of origin tracing for the fruits and tourismservices involving orchards in the period.

Ithopes to have 928ha of orchards adopting Vietnamese good agricultural practices(VietGAP) standards and 53ha grown to GlobalGAP standards.

Ithas more than 33,000ha of orchards that will produce more than377,000 tonnes of fruits this year, up 43 percent in area and 45.9 percentin output from 2015, according to its Department of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment.

Mango,longan and citrus fruits are the key fruits and are grown in large,concentrated farming areas.

NguyenPhuoc Thien, director of the department, said the rapid growth in fruitproduction has been a big factor in the province’s successful restructuring ofits agriculture.

Theincome for farmers from the province’s key fruits is three to eight timeshigher than from rice, he said.

ACat Chu mango orchard provides an income of 115 million VND (4,960 USD) perhectare per year, while the figures are 261 million VND (11,260 USD) and 850million VND (36,700 USD) for the Edor longan and the Xoan orange.

Underthe province’s agriculture restructuring plan, many farmers with low-yield ricefields have switched to fruits and adopted VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards andadvanced techniques to produce quality fruits that are also exported.

NguyenVan Hai in Thap Muoi district’s Phu Dien commune has switched to growing Thaijackfruit one his one-hectare paddy and has three to four harvests a year. His500 – 700 kilogrammes of fruit per harvest mean he earns 600 million VND (25,900 USD) a year.

Theprovince, the delta’s largest mango producer, has more than 9,650ha under thefruit and an annual output of 127,000 tonnes.

Farmershere use advanced techniques to grow mangoes even in the off-season to andreduce the output during main harvest season to keep prices steady.

Sincethe province grows many different fruits with steady quality, many companieshave invested in processing them.

Thereare 25 small and medium – sized companies that produce more than 60 types ofprocessed fruits and vegetables. 

Ofthem 20 have been identified for the country’s ‘one commune – one product’(OCOP) programme and are sold in supermarkets.

Thiensaid based on the OCOP products, many localities in the province have chosenkey fruits to restructure agriculture and develop value chains.

Theyhave developed concentrated growing areas with value chains to reduceproduction costs and improve farmers’ incomes, he said.

Theprovince has 11 cooperatives, 80 co-operative groups and 58 farmers clubs thathave developed value chains for fruits.

Thereare 133 fruit-growing areas covering a total of nearly 6,000ha that have beengranted production unit codes for export purposes. 

Mostof these areas are under mango, longan, dragon fruit, jackfruit, andrambutan.  

Tobe granted a production unit code, each fruit growing area should be a minimumof 10ha, grow a single kind of fruit and to Vietnamese VietGAP or otherequivalent standards. 

Thefarmers also have to carry out many other tasks like keeping a cultivationdiary for traceability and follow regulations on pesticide use./.