Hà Nội's agricultural sector promotes safe vegetable farming. — VNS Photo Nguyễn  Hoàng

HÀ NỘI — Hà Nội's hot and humid summer weather is an ideal environment for bacteria and viruses to thrive on farms, increasing the risk of food poisoning.

In the capital, controlling the quality of agricultural products and food in the market is the responsibility of many sectors and localities, including the agricultural sector.

To play its part, the city’s agricultural sector has strengthened the supervision of food quality and safety, focusing on providing fresh products for daily consumption.

Last year, units under the Hà Nội Agriculture and Rural Development Department inspected and took more than 6,000 samples of agricultural, forestry and fishery products, 335 of which did not meet food safety standard, and destroyed 25 tonnes of unsafe products.

According to Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng, director of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Product Quality Control Department, Hà Nội has implemented many programmes and projects to support agricultural production development, building a safe farm product supply chain and ensuring food quality.

The city has formed specialised agricultural production areas focusing on ensuring food safety including more than 5,000 hectares of safe vegetables, more than 1,300ha of fruits and teas, 181ha of aquaculture and 88 animal breeding facilities according to VietGAP standards, Hằng said.

In addition, Hà Nội has nearly 40 hectares of organic farming and 164 high-tech agricultural models and built 141 food safety chains under the "farm to table" method and has nearly 9,5000 agricultural products participating in the traceability system, she said.

Meanwhile, according to deputy director of the Hà Nội Agriculture and Rural Development Department Tạ Văn Trường, to control the quality of agricultural products and foods, it must be supervised at all stages from production to consumption.

Hà Nội has been implementing synchronous solutions to promote production, connect consumption of agricultural, forestry and fishery products and develop safe food production areas, Trường said.

By the end of this year, the city would aim to increase the number of safe agricultural, forestry and fishery product chains by 20 per cent, he said.

Agencies of the agriculture sector will also strengthen inspections of production and business establishments as well as strictly handle violations of regulations on food safety.

The city’s agriculture sector will also work with local authorities to implement solutions to reduce the slaughter of livestock and poultry farms which do not meet veterinary hygiene standards and focus on improving the efficiency of management of the production, trade and use of plant protection chemicals, veterinary drugs, fertilisers and animal feeds.

The sector will continue to develop a traceability system for agricultural, forestry, fishery products and food at hn.check.net.vn and strengthen the management and development of e-commerce markets to consume safe agricultural, forestry and aquatic products.

In addition, to promote information on food safety, the sector works with social organisations to encourage people to produce and trade safe agricultural products. — VNS