Specialised pineapple growing fields in Tiền Giang Province’s Tân Phước District. – VNA/VNS Photo Minh Trí

BÌNH PHƯỚC – The south-eastern province of Bình Phước is intensifying its efforts to develop production codes for farming areas, aiming to increase the value of its produce and meet export requirements.

It is providing support to localities, co-operatives and companies in the development of these codes.

Its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is actively assisting localities in guiding farmers through the procedures for registering production codes.

To raise awareness about production code regulations, the province is also engaging in advocacy activities, and has already taught 500 farmers about production codes.

To ensure proper implementation, it is carrying out rigorous inspections of areas where codes have been granted.

There are a total of 48 such areas in the province, covering 3,800 hectares.

These include 38 durian, one dragon fruit, one longan, one mango, four banana, and three jackfruit growing areas.

To obtain the codes, the growing areas must meet Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) or other equivalent standards.

Their produce is exported to the US and China among other markets.

Last month the department granted codes to 21 durian growing areas spread over a total of 695 hectares farmed by co-operatives and two establishments with the capacity to pack 60-300 tonnes of the fruit a day.

The province’s extensive farming area includes 14,423 hectares of fruit orchards, including 4,800ha under durian that yield 21,800 tonnes.

The orchards are mainly in Bù Đăng, Phú Riềng, Bù Gia Mập, and Lộc Ninh districts and Phước Long Commune.

According to Phạm Thuỵ Luân, the director of the department, durian prices were notably high during the 2022-23 harvest season.

So farmers have been proactively adopting advanced farming techniques and technologies to grow the fruit.

They include automatic spraying and dripping equipment for irrigating and fertilising orchards, and the use of solar power for irrigation.

The province targets expanding the durian growing area to 8,000-10,000 hectares, adopting hi-tech farming methods and fostering strong linkages between in the cultivation and export of the fruit. – VNS