A bitter melon crop in what used to be a rice field in Đồng Tháp Province’s Thanh Bình District. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyễn Văn Trí

ĐỒNG THÁP — Farmers in Đồng Tháp Province have switched to growing short-term crops and perennial trees and breeding aquatic species on nearly 5,000ha of rice paddies.

The crops include vegetables, watermelon, corn, and lotus and the trees include mango, jackfruit, lime, and orange.

Mango, jackfruit, longan, and lime offer them a profit of VNĐ50-200 million (US$2,000-8,200) per hectare per year, two to eight their income from low-yield rice fields, according to the province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Nguyễn Văn Long of Thanh Bình District’s Tân Mỹ Commune has turned a one-hectare rice field into an orchard and grows guava, milk apple, along with some types of vegetables like bitter melon, gourds and okra.

He earns more than VNĐ100 million ($4,100) a year, he said.   

The restructuring has followed the province’s agricultural zoning plans, market demand, water availability, and weather conditions, according to the department.

The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province has created concentrated farming areas by pooling lands and linkages between various stakeholders to develop agricultural value chains.

Lê Quốc Điền, deputy director of the department, said farmers are encouraged to switch to suitable crops, especially if their rice fields are unproductive.

The restructuring aims to exploit the natural advantages in each locality and ensure sustainability, he said.

This would help develop specialised farming areas to ensure large outputs and develop brand names for agricultural products to serve exports, he added.

The province, one of the largest Thai jackfruit producers in the delta, has more than 3,000ha under the fruit, whose prices are now high and farmers earn profits of VNĐ10,000-20,000 per kilogramme.

With local soil conditions being ideal for it, the average yield is 40-50 tonnes per hectare per year.

The province aims to increase the Thai jackfruit growing area to 4,067ha by 2025.

During the ongoing flooding season and the autumn-winter crop, farmers there have grown 6,281ha of vegetables and other short-term crops.

They have harvested nearly 3,000ha of lotus, corn, taro, gourds, and watermelon and earned profits of VNĐ12-77 million ($500-700) per hectare per crop.

Most vegetable growing areas have adopted integrated pest management, safe farming methods and Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) or organic standards.

In Lấp Vò District, taro is the key product and is grown on nearly 500ha in autumn-winter.

Trần Hoàng Nam, deputy chairman of the district People’s Committee, said taro has a yield of 10-11 tonnes per hectare and fetches profits of VNĐ70-80 million ($2,900-3,300).

The district has 100ha planted using safe farming methods, 108ha have received VietGAP certification and eight growing areas have production codes to serve domestic and export requirements. — VNS