LONG AN — The southern province of Long An has adopted high-tech agricultural methods to improve the quality of its farm produce such as rice, vegetables and dragon fruits to improve farmers’ incomes and raise their living standards.

According to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, since the fourth quarter of last year farmers have been struggling to lift their incomes due to high production costs and post-harvest losses due to lack of advanced technologies.

The shortage of capable managerial staff is blamed for the inability to adopt and apply technologies.

Long An authorities have launched a programme titled “Developing the province’s agriculture using technology along with restructuring of the farming sector in the period 2017 –20”.

The project aims to develop a model using hi-technology that will achieve large-scale production of items that are competitive and environmentally safe, can cope with climate change, and meet the country’s industrialisation and modernisation needs.

Lê Văn Hoàng, director of the department, said the programme focuses on paddy, vegetables and dragon fruit and cattle for meat.

There will be 20,000ha under rice in Đồng Tháp Mười, Tân Thạnh, Mộc Hoá, Vĩnh Hưng, and Tân Hưng districts and Kiến Tường town; 2,000ha under dragon fruit in Châu Thành District, 2,000ha of vegetables in the districts of Cần Đước, Cần Giuộc, and Đức Hoà and Tân An town and an area for raising cattle in Đức Hoà and Đức Huệ districts.

According to statistics from the province People’s Committee, now 1,500ha of rice is grown using hi-tech methods and more than 86ha of safe vegetables are grown in the districts of Cần Đước, Cần Giuộc and Đức Hoà.

Hoàng said the use of technology is a must for developing modern agriculture.

Farmers have begun to apply technology in the cultivation of rice, vegetables and dragon fruit though the cattle breeding plan in Đức Hoà and Đức Huệ has got off to a slow start.

Farmers have to invest a lot of money and time to acquire technology while output is meagre, making them worry about profitability.

To ensure the programme is successful, relevant authorities must ensure participants benefit, Hoàng pointed out. VNS