Illustrative image (Photo: bacgiang.gov.vn/)

Bac Giang province will promote the transfer and application of scientific and technological advances in agricultural production, forestry and fisheries, according to the People’s Committee of this northern province. 

The province attaches importance to the application of national and international good agricultural standards such as VietGAP and GlobalGAP, clean technology, biological technology, and organic farming, as well as to food hygiene and safety and environmental protection.

Bac Giang authorities will encourage the building of environmentally-friendly agricultural production models in the direction of organic farming or circular agriculture.  

Investment will be focused on key products of the province, with the aim of raising the production value of Bac Giang’s seven key products by an average 5% a year. Production in concentrated farming areas will follow food safety standards; forests will be protected and developed in combination with protecting water resources. Forestry economy will be developed in the direction of both protecting the forest and increasing incomes for locals.

Bac Giang plans to mechanise not only production but also harvesting, post-harvest preserving and processing in order to enhance productivity, quality and competitiveness of agricultural products. Attention will be paid to mechanization and automation of all links in the production process of products under the One Commune One Product (OCOP) programme.

At the same time, the province will push digital transformation in agriculture, focusing on building a database of concentrated farming areas together with electronic farming records to enable the tracking of products; and granting planting area codes, packaging facility codes and identification codes to farms and households practicing animal husbandry based on requirements of export markets.

It will also develop QR codes to help sell local farm produce on electronic platforms and use drones for spraying pesticides, fertilizer and sowing seeds.

The agricultural sector will build linkages with other sectors and fields to gradually develop a smart agriculture that is resilient to climate change and diseases.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, the province will continue to expand the farming area following VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards, aiming for 50% of total vegetable acreage and 70% of litchi acreage meeting those standards. Up to 60% of aquaculture acreage will also apply VietGAP standards.  

Since 2009, the agricultural sector and localities in Bac Giang have promoted scientific research and the application of scientific-technological advances in agricultural production, especially high technology.

Agricultural agencies and district-level People’s Committee in the province have instructed the selection of high-quality plant and animal varieties. For example, local farmers have successfully bred early-ripening litchi varieties, helping increasing the production value of this specility fruit. The province has also experimented and put into use several citrus varieties.  

The province has also replaced the old tea varieties with new ones with higher yield and better quality.

High-quality rice farming areas now reach 42,675 hectares, accounting for 42.8% of the total rice acreage in the province, while there are 15,340 hectares of litchi farms meeting VietGAP standards, 519 hectares of litchi meeting GlobalGAP standards.

The area of orange farming following VietGAP, GlobalGAP is 1,669 hectares and that of pomelo comes to 1,224 hectares.

There are also 11,840 hectares of safe vegetable meeting VietGAP standards, supply vegetables for supermarkets, industrial parks and processing factories in the province.

The province also boasts 80,000 hectares of production forests. Bac Giang will promote the mechanisation and application of science and technology; improve productivity, quality and efficiency of production forests in the direction of optimising the production system, and the value chain of forest products.

Bac Giang will invest in intensive farming and apply techniques to improve the productivity and quality of forests, and plant new varieties with high yield and quality. /.