A hi-tech flower garden in Bắc Ninh City. — Photo baochinhphu.vn

BẮC NINH — Farmers in the northern province of Bắc Ninh have turned to technology to enhance their farming techniques, increase productivity, earn higher incomes and contribute to building new rural areas.

Nguyễn Thị Yến, a farmer in Võ Cương Ward, Bắc Ninh City, started to invest in growing butterfly orchids using high technology in 2019.

Yến grew 10,000 orchid plants in an area of 500sq.m and carefully protected them with a five-layer model consisting of a heat-retaining layer and an insulation layer.

Her garden also has a system of humidity monitoring and a device maintaining a temperature of more than 18 degrees Celsius in the spring-winter season and below 31 degrees Celsius in the summer-autumn.

Her orchids met technical standards and were sold to the market.

The first harvest of orchids in 2019, which fell on the Lunar New Year, brought high profits to Yến.

The hi-tech butterfly orchid model was then expanded to 20,000 plants.

Nguyễn Thị Trâm in Lương Tài District was among one of the first high-tech agricultural establishments given a VietGAP certificate in Quảng Ninh Province.

Her farm has advanced machines, including sprinkler and drip irrigation systems.

So far, Trâm’s high-tech farming model has four products on the province's One Commune-One Product (OCOP) programme list.

Many products have been supplied to big supermarkets like Big C and Winmart.

Trâm said the hi-tech farm brings her family an annual revenue of up to VNĐ18 billion.

Trâm and Yến's farms are two among hundreds of hi-tech farming models of Bắc Ninh farmers.

Agriculture attached to high technology has become a breakthrough in farming production in Bắc Ninh Province.

Local authorities have offered incentives to invest in agricultural and rural infrastructure and support hi-tech agriculture.

A series of scientific and technical advances in seed production, VietGAP production processes, the technology of net houses, greenhouses, tillage, and automatic irrigation have been widely applied and brought high economic efficiency.

According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, there are 72 farming applying high technology in the province, covering more than 161ha.

By 2022, the province will have eight VietGAP standard-recognised safe production areas.

The province has twenty-eight vegetable and flower greenhouses covering about 23ha.

The bonsai flower and plant areas in Tiên Du District, Từ Sơn Town and Bắc Ninh City bring an income of more than VNĐ500 million per year to farmers.

Perilla leaves grown in a greenhouse in Lương Tài District by Hồ Gươm Garment Company are exported to Japan, bringing an annual income of about VNĐ3 billion per ha.

The provincial People’s Committee has launched incentives to encourage the new establishment of hi-tech agricultural businesses and form hi-tech farming areas. Hi-tech agricultural businesses have been offered loans with preferential interest rates.

Local authorities also created favourable conditions for land lease and ground clearance.

Đặng Trần Trung, director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said hi-tech agricultural development is a necessity, especially in a province with a narrow natural land area, a high population density but has geographical location advantages like Bắc Ninh.

The province will continue to attract resources to develop high-tech agriculture sustainably, thereby creating valuable products, increasing incomes and improving the life quality of farmers, he said.

He said local authorities would continue supportive policies such as bank loans and seed support and promote scientific research, technology transfer and application.

He said: "We would focus on centralised and large-scale hi-tech areas in line with each region's natural conditions and advantages." — VNS