Tourists visit a dragon fruit orchard in Hàm Thuận Nam’s Hàm Mỹ Commune in Bình Thuận District. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyễn Thanh

BÌNH THUẬN — The south-central province of Bình Thuận is boosting the development of agricultural tourism as it helps promote the province’s tourism and improve farmer incomes.

With its special location in the coastal south-central region while neighbouring the southeast and Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands) regions, the province has rich natural and cultural resources for developing green tourism.

Besides exploiting its beautiful beaches, forests, lakes and waterfalls for tourism development, the province has developed tourism services in fruit orchards and farms in recent years.

The services are offered in grape and jujube orchards in Tuy Phong District, grapefruit and durian orchards in Đức Linh District, and dragon fruit and honeydew melon orchards in Hàm Thuận Nam District.

Hàm Thuận Nam has the largest dragon fruit growing area in the province.

Nguyễn Văn Chín in Hàm Thuận Nam’s Hàm Mỹ Commune began to offer tourism services in his dragon fruit orchard in 2019 under the assistance of the provincial Tourism Promotion Information Centre and the Hàm Mỹ Commune People’s Committee.

The 1ha orchard has become a popular tourism destination as tourists can participate in tending and harvesting dragon fruits, and eat fresh dragon fruits and dishes made from the fruit.

The orchard also grows coconut trees, and has a paved lane around it for tourists to walk and see dragon fruit plants. In the back of the orchard there are Chín’s rural-style house, a fish pond, and other things used in rural areas such as a rice millstone and straw haystack.

To serve tourists, Chín grows the fruit under Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) standards and keeps ripe fruits on the plants for tourists to harvest.

Offering tourism services, his family has additional income to cover the family’s living expenses and has more money to tend the orchard better, he said.

The services also help to advertise the province’s dragon fruit and tourism, he said.

Bình Thuận is the country’s largest dragon fruit producer, having 26,429ha of the fruit as of the middle of this year, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Bình An High-Tech Agriculture Co. Ltd. in Hàm Thuận Nam’s Thuận Quý Commune offers tourism services at its fruit farm in which tourists are introduced to the processes of growing dragon fruits, grapes and honeydew melons.

The company has 3ha of dragon fruit and 4ha of grapes that have been granted certificates of USDA and EU organic standards.

To develop agricultural and rural tourism, the Hàm Thuận Nam People’s Committee has combined the development of agriculture and rural areas with the development of tourism.

It has instructed relevant agencies to link tourism destinations and tours in the district and increase advertising for agricultural tourism.

Other districts grow jujube, grapes and durian and have potential to offer tourism services in their fruit orchards.

In Tuy Phong District, many grape and jujube orchards along National Highway No 1 have attracted a large number of tourists.

Hồ Công Tiền, head of the Tuy Phong District's Culture and Information Bureau, said the district plans to develop tourism service models for grape and jujube orchards to increase incomes for farmers.

“The district has identified yellow grape, yellow jujube, red chili, lime and bananas as agricultural products serving tourists,” he said.

Some households in the district’s Phước Thể Commune have made grape wine and grape-related products to sell to tourists.

Besides fruit orchards, animal farms in the province offer tourism services.

Ba Tường Farm in Phan Thiết City’s Thiện Nghiệp Commune uses clean farming methods to grow Thiện Nghiệp xiêm coconut (a type of coconut grown for drinking juice) and breeds animals such as pigeons, forest chickens and butterfly lizards.

Visiting the farm, tourists can participate in tending the animals and feeding them, and enjoy specialty dishes made from the animals.

Phan Văn Tấn, deputy director of the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: “The development of agricultural tourism in combination with building new-style rural areas will be boosted.”

The province will focus on developing specialised farming areas that apply advanced techniques, VietGAP, GlobalGAP and organic farming while developing agricultural production in combination with tourism services, he said.

It has set targets of producing organic agricultural products by 2030, including 3,000ha of rice, 350ha of vegetables and legumes, 1,250ha of dragon fruit and 500ha of durian.

To promote agricultural tourism, the province has introduced its agricultural tourism products on mass media and to travel companies in the province and other provinces and cities.

It has encouraged farmers to participate in a programme of developing rural tourism in building new-style rural areas in 2021-25.

This year, the province hosts the National Tourism Year themed “Bình Thuận-Green Convergence” and this will help it receive more tourists.

It received nearly seven million tourists in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 76 per cent year-on-year, including 200,000 foreign tourists. — VNS