Trịnh Văn Thiện (second from right) at the Thanh Hà Lychee Branding Promotion Campaign in 2025. — VNA/VNS Photo

HẢI PHÒNG — Grounded in both science and lived experience, Trịnh Văn Thiện, PhD in agriculture, has spent years addressing problems with critical weaknesses in the specialty Thanh Hà lychee brand, contributing to the widespread promotion of the fruit and driving tangible gains in local agricultural economic development.

Born and raised in the famous lychee growing region in former Hải Dương Province (now part of Hải Phòng City), Thiện, who is the chairman of the Hải Phòng City Farmers Association, believes that scientific research must begin with directly solving pressing problems faced by farmers.

While serving as chairman of the People’s Committee (Administration) in the former Thanh Hà District, Thiện and other district leaders carried out several programmes and projects on agricultural development, including initiatives focused on effective lychee cultivation.

He chaired numerous research projects addressing practical issues, promoting agricultural production, developing eco-tourism models, and helping improve the lives of farmers.

“Seeing how difficult it was for farmers to grow lychees and then struggle to sell them, I was always concerned about how to alleviate their hardships – how to make it easier for them to cultivate, harvest and sell lychees, thus increasing their incomes and improving their lives," Thiện said.

Due to these concerns, he chaired and directed projects on building roads to fields in the district between 2016 and 2020.

In the past, narrow and muddy roads to and within the fields were hurdles for production and transport, significantly increasing production costs.

But now, roads have been built and paved, meeting the criteria of the country's new rural development programme, transforming the landscape and easing the burden on farmers.

Hoàng Thị Ngọc, a farmer in Thanh Hà Commune, said: “My family has worked in the lychee growing business for decades. Previously, in the harvest season, my father had to transport every basket of lychees to the local market by bicycle or motorbike. This was really a hard job.”

“Now, the wide roads help us produce and transport the lychees more easily,” Ngọc added.

Sustainable agriculture

The joy of the local farmers further motivates Thiện in his efforts to solve the problem of sustainable agriculture in the area.

He has been working on projects aimed at increasing added value to regional produce. These include a project on developing concentrated commercial agricultural production applying high technology and organic farming, and another on developing fruit-growing areas according to VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards for eco-tourism and export.

Projects like these are considered crucial to help Thanh Hà lychees reach international standards.

By June last year, before the merger of Hải Dương Province and Hải Phòng City, Thanh Hà District had 1,006ha of fruit trees certified under VietGAP and GlobalGAP, of which 480ha of lychee, 331ha of guava and 80ha of pomelo met VietGAP standards, and 115ha of lychee met GlobalGAP standards.

Thanh Hà lychees are now present in demanding markets, such as Japan, the EU and the US.

Thiện’s scientific research has helped accelerate commodity-oriented agricultural production, increasing the export value and creating a breakthrough for the local agriculture sector.

Hải Phòng’s lychee capital has today become an eco-tourism centre, bringing new income streams to farmers.

Examples include Đổng Mẩn-Đồng Quao tourism and export-oriented lychee growing area combined with visits to the ancestral lychee trees, and tours to the national historical site of Từ Hạ Temple and the Tiên Kiều sedge mat weaving village.

During lychee season in May and June, thousands of tourists flock to the orchards to visit and experience the harvesting process.

Trịnh Văn Thiện at the opening of the Thanh Hà lychee season in 2025. — Photo by Thiện

The farmers’ movement

Since 2023, Thiện – in his role as the president of the Farmers Association of the former Hải Dương Province – has provided consultation for the provincial authority to issue decisions on digital transformation, consolidation of the association, and the use of digital certificates in association activities, contributing to administrative reform.

He is also a co-author of an initiative proposing solutions to accelerate the installation, activation and use of the Việt Nam Farmers Digital Platform.

One key focus has been building a digital guidance toolkit to help officials and members easily access the platform. This initiative helped the former province of Hải Dương rank among the top five provinces in terms of account installations nationwide, creating an important foundation for organising and managing member data following the administrative unit merger.

"This initiative demonstrates the need for a synchronised implementation of solutions, ranging from management, direction and operation to training," Thiện said, noting the importance of creating video clips that guide the use of the Việt Nam Farmers Digital Platform administration page and uploading and sharing them across various platforms to help association officials and members practise and review when needed.

“From there, it can be applied to other tasks when deploying new applications and software," he added.

For his outstanding contributions during his career, he was one of 32 individuals honoured by the Central Committee of the Việt Nam Farmers Association as a "Scientist for Farmers" in 2025. — VNS