Tien Giang (VNS/VNA) - Tan PhuDong, an islet district in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, hasdeveloped specialised farming areas to enable local farmers to adapt to climatechange.

Located in the downstream area of the TienRiver, a tributary of the Mekong, the district is often affected by severesaltwater intrusion during the dry season. The agrarian district is also one ofTien Giang’s poorest.

Since its creation in 2008, the district hasbeen zoning areas for aquaculture and crops like lemongrass, soursop andcoconut, which grow well in local conditions.

Nguyen Van Hai, head of the Tan Phu DongBureau of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the district has determinedit would develop its agriculture based on aquaculture and specialised farmingareas.

The area under coconut area has grown from500ha in 2008 to 1,200ha now while that under soursop has increased from 260hato 780ha, mostly in Tan Thoi, Tan Phu and Tan Thanh communes.

There are 7,050ha of aquaculture ponds, twicethe area in 2008.

It has 1,900ha of lemongrass, the largestarea in the province, comprising mostly lands that used to be low-yield ricepaddies that grew only one rice a year.

The district has developed Phu Tan into aspecialised aquaculture commune that breeds shrimp using intensive andextensive farming methods and rotates between rice and shrimp in the samefields. Phu Tan has 500ha under the rotation model.

Ha Van Hai was one of the first farmers toadopt it. He breeds shrimp and mud crabs on his 5ha field in the dry season andrice in the rainy season to earn 360-400 million VND (15,300-17,000 USD) ayear.

The rotation model has helped his familybecome well off, he said.

He is the head of the commune’s aquacultureco-operative group which has 31 members and a total of 115ha of land under therotation model.

It produces clean rice and shrimp sincefarmers do not use a lot of chemicals on their lands.

Local farmers have also adopted the garden -pond - livestock pen model to improve their income.

Le Cong Lu has 6.5ha in Phu Dong commune’scoastal area which regularly suffers from saltwater intrusion.

He grows coconut and breeds goats since theyboth can cope with lack of water and inclement weather and earns more than 300million VND (12,780 USD) a year.  

Farmers in the district also use advancedfarming techniques like integrated pest management, efficient irrigation andVietnamese good agricultural practices.

Nguyen Quoc Khanh, Chairman of the Tan Phu DongPeople’s Committee, said the development of effective farming models has helpedreduce the district’s poverty rate to 16.3 percent from 42.5 percent in 2008. Thedistrict has a population of 43,000.

To mitigate the impact of saltwater intrusionin Tan Phu Dong, the province is setting up local irrigation projects.

In the 2019-2020 dry season, the province hasinvested 13.2 billion VND (560,000 USD) to dredge ditches in fields and buildtemporary saltwater prevention dams to protect nearly 3,000ha of vegetables,fruits, lemongrass and other crops.

The district targets outputs of 28,000 tonnesof lemongrass, 7,800 tonnes of soursop, 2,500 tonnes of vegetables and23,00 tonnes of shrimp this year.

The district’s lemongrass was granted acollective brand name last year by the National Office of IntellectualProperty./.