A Lộc Trời’s rice field that grows rice based on the Sustainable Rice Platform. The company and the Plant Protection Department have signed a commitment to help make farming safer. — Photo courtesy of the company

HCM CITY — Lộc Trời Group Joint Stock Company and the Plant Protection Department have signed ‘A commitment to guide the safe and effective use of pesticides, and develop production and use of biological pesticides” to support farmers and improve the quality of agricultural products in Việt Nam.

It will be implemented from 2022 to 2025 at a cost of over VNĐ180 billion (US$7.9 million), which will be provided by the company.

It includes some important programmes like helping use pesticides safely and effectively, implementing a programme called ‘Together with farmers protecting the environment’, collecting and destroying used pesticide packages in accordance with regulations, investing in production and promoting the use of biological, organic and microbiological plant protection drug products; and developing production models following the value chain, and enhancing linkages with cooperatives and unions of cooperatives to promote the use of technology in production and optimise the amount of pesticides used.

In 2022 the agricultural engineering teams of Lộc Trời Group will hold meetings with more than 100,000 farming households in 40 provinces and cities nation-wide to improve their knowledge of safe and effective use of pesticides it produces and distributes.

It will also guide distributors by training over 4,000 agents in 52 provinces and cities.

It will help provinces build storage tanks and collect and process used pesticides in the Cửu Long (Mekong) River Delta and the south-eastern and the Central Highlands regions.

Nguyễn Duy Thuận, CEO of the company, said the hope was that the programme would help improve farmers' understanding and enable green and sustainable production. VNS