Thanks to favourable weather, plus adoption of new varieties with high yield and quality as well as new techniques in production, Son La has seen increases in crop yields in the past year.
In particular, the cultivation area of feeding crop with nuts reached nearly 182 thousand hectares, bringing production of over 690 thousand tonnes.
Total current coffee area of the province is 6,371 ha, 110.1 percent of the plan, in which the area with products is now 3,736 ha. The newly planted area is 584ha, up by 33.3% as planned. The increase in newly planted coffee area originates from its gradually stable economic efficiency, which has made people actively change crop pattern from short-day, low efficiency crops to coffee with high economic efficiency. The production is estimated at over 6,000 tonnes, up by 6.5 percent year by year.
In 2012, Son La agriculture sector has witnessed 398 ha rubber newly planted, increasing total accumulated area to 6,755 ha, up by 6.2 percent against 2011.
The province has cultivated over 8,000 hectares of vegetables, beans, flowers and bonsai in 2012. The vegetables accounted for 68.3% with 5,591 ha, beans occupied over 30 percent with nearly 2,500 hectares, while bonsai trees seized the rest 1.3 percent with 108ha.
Director Ha Quyet Nghi, Son La Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: “In 2013, we will continue to shift crop patterns in rural agriculture to raise production value efficiency per cultivation area unit. Meanwhile, the province will reinforce and effectively invest in concentrated agro-forestry production area, specialized cultivation for highly competitive products such as tea, coffee and sugar cane, and emphasize newly planted rubber. Agricultural development will create more jobs and contribute to improving people’s lives.”
It is expected that Son La will gain over 670,000 tonnes of feeding crops this year. To beat this target, the local agriculture sector has continued investment in intensification, increased number of crop seasons and brought in some new varieties with high yield, quality and economic efficiency to guarantee food security. In addition, the damaged irrigation schemes will be repaired so that the farmers can be active in irrigation and drainage.
The maize area has been replicated to 121,600 ha by adopting sustainable cultivation methods on slope land. The solution given out to beat this target is to select short-day varieties with high yield and quality to cultivate spring-summer crops so that the land will be available for the autumn crop. The province will strengthen variety quality management over those assigned to produce and supply varieties, aiming at over 98% cultivation area covered by hybrid maize varieties.
Industrial plants, fruit trees, vegetables and flowers are developed in the direction of intensification for yield increase.
It is anticipated that the locality will newly plant about 236 ha coffee in Thuan Chau district and Son La city, with arrangements under which enterprises provide seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides and guidance on techniques for farmers and then collect products. The people will spend their own money or make loans from credit institutions for this crop development, while enterprises will collect and guarantee output of the products at market price.
Additionally, 378 ha of selected high quality Kim Tuyen and Shan Tuyet tea will be planted in Moc Chau, Phu Yen and Thuan Chau districts, making up total area of 4,197 ha.
Tran Tung
Vietnamese
