An orchid garden is applied high technology in Đồng Nai Province. — VNA/VNS Photo

ĐỒNG NAI — As one of the leading provinces in agricultural production, Đồng Nai Province is giving a lot of priority to supporting farmers in high-tech agricultural investment.

Agricultural production in the province has been affected by abnormal weather conditions, climate change, and diseases over recent years. Many farms in southern Đồng Nai have applied high-technology in agricultural production in order to cope with the situation, helping increase quality and output.

High-tech production requires massive investment, not just capital but also technology, equipment, and knowledge, to adapt to cutting-edge manufacturing methods.

High-tech manufacturing models have been expanded around Đồng Nai, especially in animal husbandry and on poultry farms.

Lê Văn Quyết, director of Long Thành Phát Hi-tech Agriculture Co-operative in Long Thành District, who has more than 20 years of experience raising chicken, is one of the pioneer farmers investing in developing large-scale chicken farming that is eligible for export to strict markets like Japan.

He also successfully established the first high-tech agricultural co-operative to raise chickens for export.

With the determination to raise disease-free chickens and protect the environment, Quyết spent a lot of time researching high-tech chicken farming models around the world before setting up his own.

He was a pioneer in building a chicken farm in Đồng Nai Province that installed automatic cooling, lighting and a temperature, humidity and wind speed control system that automatically adjusted every day according to the ages of the chickens.

According to Quyết, these are the prerequisites for success in raising chickens.

“Understanding the necessary technical parameters in the farm helps farmers actively control and prevent pathogens from reaching the chickens from outside,” Quyết said.

“As the result, the loss rate is low while productivity is increased three times compared to the conventional farming model,” Quyết said.

The chicken farm uses bio-buffer substances and odour removal technology so it does not discharge waste water and pollute the environment, he said.

In 2017, he co-operated with some chicken farmers in the district to establish Long Thành Phát Hi-tech Agriculture Co-operative, with an aim to form a modern and large-scale chicken farming model for export.

At present, the co-operative has 17 permanent members and eight partners.

In order to support members, Quyết sponsored them to borrow bank loans to invest in closed cold henhouses.

Hoàng Thị Thanh, one of the founding co-operative members, said that although she had experience in animal husbandry, when participating in the linkage chain, she was greatly supported by Quyết.

"To date, my farm has a total of 800,000 chickens for export. Thanks to participating in the livestock linkage chain, my family's income has increased dramatically," she said.

Currently, the total chicken flock of the co-operative is nearly 2 million.

Conventional livestock production requires more than 300 workers to work continuously, but high-tech farming requires only 100 people to work.

On average, each worker can take care of about 30,000 chickens.

Similarly, Nguyễn Thị Lành, a farmer in Thống Nhất District, started to invest in growing butterfly orchids using high technology in 2018.

Lành grew 35,000 orchid plants in an area of 2700sq.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 17 degrees Celsius in the spring-winter season and below 25 degrees Celsius in the summer-autumn.

Her orchids met technical standards and are popular in the market.

She said that thanks to the application of high technology, her flowers are not affected by the weather and the quality is the same.

Every day, she provides about 1,000-1,500 orchids to the market, and on peak occasions like Tết, up to 3,000 orchids per day. Every year, she earns a profit of about VNĐ600 million, twice as high as traditional orchid growing.

The farms of Quyết and Lành are among hundreds of high-tech farming models of Đồng Nai farmers.

Agriculture attached to high technology has become a breakthrough in farming production in Đồng Nai Province.

Local authorities have offered incentives to invest in agricultural and rural infrastructure and to support high-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.

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

Applying high technology to agriculture helps farmers increase productivity and quality. — VNA/VNS Photo

Local authorities also created favourable conditions for land lease.

Nguyễn Tuấn Anh, Chairman of the Đồng Nai Farmers’ Association, said that high-tech agricultural development is a necessity, especially in a province with a narrow natural land area, a high population density but has geographical advantages like Đồng Nai.

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 and technology transfer and application. — VNS