Growing lotus in combination with tourism in Tháp Mười District's Mỹ Đông Commune. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyễn Văn Trí

ĐỒNG THÁP — The Mekong Delta province of Đồng Tháp aims to expand lotus farming, increase the value chain of lotus products and promote tourism based on visits to lotus fields.

Đồng Tháp Province's Tháp Mười District strives to have a total lotus growing area of 1,000 ha by 2025 and develop five lotus material areas in Tân Kiều, Mỹ Hòa, Trường Xuân, Hưng Thạnh and Thạnh Lợi communes.

The district aims to form a chain linking production and processing to product consumption in order to improve the value of lotus products, ensure sustainability and improve competitiveness.

Farmers in Đồng Tháp grow six varieties, mostly in the district, where conditions are conducive.

Lotus farming requires low investment and fetches incomes four to six times higher than rice, according to farmers.

Besides fresh flowers, seeds and roots, the province also produces various types of lotus-related products such as essential oil, cosmetics, wine, milk, tea and other beverages and food.

The province, well known as the land of pink lotuses, has developed tourism products such as lotus field tours and foods made from the flower.

Lotus is one of the five key products in the province’s agriculture restructuring plan, as products made from the flower have been exported, providing high incomes for farmers.

The province has 50 lotus products recognised under the national ‘One Commune – One Product’ programme, including lotus flower tea, lotus plumule tea, lotus leaf tea, fresh lotus seeds, and dried lotus seeds.

Tháp Mười District also aims to develop lotus products combined with eco-tourism and lotus cuisine.

The district has established the Tháp Mười eco-tourism area with more than 40ha of lotus, with local households offering homestays and foods made from the flower to tourists.

Its breath-taking natural landscapes and distinctive cultural and historical treasures have proven to be ideal for the Mekong Delta province of Đồng Tháp to develop a host of appealing tourism products, especially those relating to lotus flowers.

The flower’s beauty with its sacred position in Buddhist precepts impresses many who come to visit these wild wetlands of Đồng Tháp, or The Plain of Reeds.

In Đồng Tháp, the lotus not only carries an image of beauty but also of high-value agriculture, making it the perfect symbol of the land and the people.

For many, it has long held a reputation as the “Land of the Lotus”.

Eco-tourism sites around Đồng Tháp often feature the lotus as the centrepiece, encouraging weekend visitors to come out to fields in communes in Tháp Mười District, particularly Mỹ Hòa and Tân Kiều. The community-based tourism model these sites have promoted is now being widely expanded.

Visitors say they find peace and serenity in the fields of pink and white lotus blossoms, with fatigue and stress seeming to float away.

Associate professor Đặng Văn Đông from the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute said that Đồng Tháp is a locality with favourable conditions for lotus growth.

The province is strengthening research into and cultivation of new lotus varieties, and will establish more lotus area in Tháp Mười for growing new lotus varieties, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

It will expand the cultivation of specialty varieties meant for producing various products such as flowers, seeds, roots, and others, it said. — VNS