Farmers irrigate a jackfruit orchard in Định Môn Commune in Cần Thơ City’s Thới Lai District. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Liêm

CẦN THƠ — The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta city of Cần Thơ is expanding linkages among stakeholders in agriculture production and is promoting online sales of agricultural products to increase income for farmers.

The city aims to increase its farming area of mostly rice linked to this programme by 2,000-3,000ha this year, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Nguyễn Tấn Nhơn, deputy director of the department, said in the 2021-22 winter-spring rice season, the city had more than 16,428ha of rice planted under farm contracts, up 1,200ha from the 2020-21 winter-spring rice season.

Rice planted under farm contracts and in large-scale rice fields was purchased at a price of VNĐ50-150 a kilogramme higher than the market price, he said.

Farmers who participate in large-scale rice fields earn profits of VNĐ2.2-2.6 million (US$94-110) per hectare a crop higher than traditional farming methods.

The city is also encouraging farmers to grow rice to organic standards to protect the environment and meet the requirements of domestic and export markets.

The city’s farmers have also increased the cultivation of vegetables and industrial trees in recent years.

The city has more than 12.740ha of vegetables and industrial trees, up 327ha from last year.

The model of growing vegetables or other industrial crops has offered farmers a higher income than growing only rice, according to the department.

The city has also expanded fruit growing areas in recent years.

It has more than 23,500ha of fruits now compared to 21,000ha last year and harvests more than 160,250 tonnes of fruit a year.

The increased area growing fruit has improved the efficiency of agriculture production and income for farmers, according to the department.

Huỳnh Tuấn Kiệt has a 1.7ha durian orchard in Phong Điền District’s Nhơn Nghĩa Commune and grows mostly Ri 06 and chuồng bò, two specialty durian varieties.

“I am growing an additional 400 Mongthong durian trees to increase output and meet market demand,” he said.

The yield of his orchard also increased this year, with each tree having a harvest of 50-70 fruits, he said.

The city has developed various concentrated fruit growing areas in Phong Điền, Ô Môn, Thới Lai, Thốt Nốt and Cờ Đỏ districts.

These localities have developed collective brand names for various fruits such as Xoàn king orange and Thới An Ido longan in Ô Môn District and, Tân Thới durian and Trường Xuân A milk apple in Phong Điền District.

These brand names have helped increase fruit sales and competitiveness, according to the department.

Nguyễn Văn Sử, director of the department, said the department was co-operating with farmers to develop brand names for more fruits.

“We also plan to expand fruit growing areas by turning unproductive rice fields into fruit growing areas to increase production value,” he said.

The city has taken various measures to support farmers to sell their products and linked with companies that produce agricultural products to increase yields, quality and secure, stable prices.

To promote online sales for agricultural products, the department in co-operation with the Cần Thơ City Post Office, has set up e-commerce platform chonongsancantho.vn to sell its agricultural products.

It has also co-operated with relevant departments and agencies to provide the skills of selling agricultural products on e-commerce platforms to companies, co-operatives, establishments and households.

It has more than 5,000 households selling their agricultural products on e-commerce platforms.

Nhơn, deputy director of the department, said the department aimed to increase the number of local people selling their agricultural products on e-commerce platforms or using digitalisation to trace product origins by 2,000 - 3,000 people this year.

The city would implement more policies and projects to support agricultural production, including investing in irrigation work, he said.

Nguyễn Ngọc Hè, deputy chairman of the city's People’s Committee, has asked the department to focus on developing concentrated farming areas for aquaculture, animal husbandry and rice to produce agricultural products on a large scale with consistent quality.

The department should speed up the development of agricultural co-operatives, he said.

OCOP products

The city has sped up the implementation of the country’s “one commune - one product” (OCOP) programme in the city to increase income for rural people.

OCOP includes commercial products and services such as food and beverages, handicrafts and rural tourism services.

The city has 56 OCOP products ranking from three to four star level, with the highest level of five stars.

Its OCOP products, such as Đức Hưng purple rice, Phục Dân rice noodle, Long Giang sour sop tea and rice paper, have helped to promote the city’s tourism.

The city has combined the development of OCOP products with agricultural production and tourism development to increase production and income for rural people, according to the department.

With its dense river network and riverine islands, the city has many popular tourism destinations such as Cái Răng floating market, the Ninh Kiều Wharf, Mỹ Khánh and Ông Đề tourism villages and fruit orchards. — VNS