Applying GAP to Veggie Growing

According to the Lam Dong Plant Protection Committee, the province now has 3,300 ha of vegetables grown under the safety requirements. However, only 153.3 ha have been checked and licensed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. To penetrate global markets like Japan, South Korea and the EU, farmers have to adopt good agriculture practice (GAP) in accordance with standards imposed by the EU (EUROGAP) and ASEAN (ASIANGAP). Phuoc Thanh Cooperative is an example of applying GAP to vegetable growing on its 4.72 ha of land. The main crops are cabbage and onions, with three cropping seasons a year.

 

Aside from improving economic efficiency, GAP-based cultivation can also heighten the vegetable quality. According to analytic results from the Lam Dong Plant Protection Committee and the Ho Chi Minh City Plant Protection Committee (where the vegetables are sold), all 54 GAP-based vegetable specimens of Phuoc Thanh Cooperative are free from pesticide after undergoing test by Thailand’s GT Test Kit equipment.

 

According to farmers, all GAP-based vegetables are cultured under the strict process and criteria imposed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Science and Technology. All cultivation activities are carefully recorded by farmers.

Phuoc Thanh Cooperative and several localities in Don Duong and Duc Trong districts are allowed to grow GAP vegetables by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. This shows that farmers in Da Lat City in particular and Lam Dong Province in general can adopt GAP-based vegetable cultivation under the EU and ASEAN standards in a large scale. The current 0.62 per cent of the total exported vegetables in the province will increase in the coming time.

 

This is the objective of the project to assist farmers to grow GAP vegetables, funded by Metro Cash & Carry (Metro Vietnam) and the Dutch Government. “If the products are safe, they are exportable,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Frank Heemskerk at his visit to a vegetable farm in Don Duong District in March 2008. The goal of this project is to assist small farmers to adopt high-quality vegetables to narrow the gap between local small producers with modern markets. Therefore, Metro Vietnam has built a vegetable collection station in Lam Dong Province’s Da Lat City, Duc Trong and Don Duong districts. At the same time, it provides freezing systems and processing equipment in cultivating areas. According to Metro Vietnam, the project also includes the training of farmers, supervision and coordination of quality vegetable production. The project aimed at teaching farmers to use pesticides safely, control and monitor growing process costs up to 1.3 million euro, in which the Dutch Government and Metro Vietnam equally contribute 50 per cent. Mr. Randy Guttery, General Director of Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam, said: “One of the important contents of the project is the good agriculture practice; thus, Metro trains farmers to use fertilisers.” The company buys GAP products while farmers pledge to apply the approved technique in culturing vegetables, according to Mr. Randy Guttery, restaurants, wholesalers and catering enterprises will be target buyers of GAP vegetables.

 

At present, Metro Vietnam has transferred vegetable-growing techniques to farmers in Lam Dong Province for more than a year. According to the plan, some 500 households will adopt Metro techniques which require farmers to record all activities on the field like growing process, caring process and protecting process. The records help find the source of products. They also help analyse investment costs for production. Especially, farmers will know which kinds of pesticides are allowed to use and which are not. After the visit, Minister Frank Heemskerk said: “The growing and recording methods will create good and stable production and increase productivity. Importantly, farmers must ensure the safeness of the products to export to the Netherlands and other nations. The stable quality and price will help improve the living standards of farmers.