High Tech Brings Changes in Rural Agriculture

 

The rural economic structure of Can Tho city has moved toward increasing the ratio of industry, handicraft, and rural professional services. The rural infrastructure has been actively changing until now: there have been 82,571 hectares of closed irrigation area (making up 87.7 percent); There are 96.8 percent of households that use electricity; 79 percent of households have a sanitary water source, 61 percent of households use fresh water; 100 percent of communes have medical stations, primary schools, kindergartens, nursery schools, cultural post offices....The city’s production is oriented toward main point-based commodity concentration making its average income over hectare per year increase stably according to the improved quality and commodity value, cost reduction and product cut-price. The city also builds good agricultural practice (GAP) for its main products ( including rice, fish, fruits and vegetables ). Rice productivity gains on an average of 14 tones per hectare per year, including high quality rice and local specialties and fish productivity that is on an average from 250 to 300 tones per hectare. Average income of local peasants increased from 3.34 millions VND per person in 2004 up to 6.48 millions VND per person in 2008. There are 64 agricultural co-operatives, which contains 1,129 households with the total area of 2,087.7 hectares (making up 1,81 percent of agricultural land).

 

However, It is necessary to build a close association between agricultural production of the Mekong River Delta to the city’s agricultural and aquatic processing system in an effort to bring about powerful and active changes in agricultural production. In addition, Can Tho has been investing to build three high-tech agricultural zones, two supporting stations aimed at developing for breed raising, a production process that provides commodity sources to connect the city’s agricultural and aquatic processing system in order to serve the projected export target. Two Additional zones that are located in Song Hau farm and Co Do farm will apply high-technology in mass breed production, process of cultivating, rearing and growing, conserving ; processing of agricultural product; The city also will combine the central zone to implement sample production, exhibition, service and trade. The above-mentioned three zones will have carried out 12 multiplicative projects for programmes dedicated to sapling/young trees, developed fruit gardens in combination with ecotourism, enlarged safe vegetable production and human resource training from now until 2013… These zones will also establish the center of domestic animal breed to livestock and poultry, freshwater aquatic product.