Organic agriculture: Great potential, but still many challenges

QUANG NINH Currently, 'green' agricultural products, produced in an organic direction, are being welcomed by many people. However, expanding production is still a difficult problem.

Mr. Bui Sy Tuyen is checking the farm's organic vegetable garden. Photo: Nguyen Thanh.

On an area of ​​nearly 1 hectare, Mr. Bui Sy Tuyen, owner of TT Farm in Ha Phong Ward (Ha Long City, Quang Ninh) divided it into 3 areas including raising chickens, raising earthworms and growing vegetables. Applying the circular agriculture model, Mr. Tuyen uses chicken manure to raise earthworms, then uses earthworm manure to grow vegetables and earthworms as food for chickens.

Mr. Tuyen said that before, his farm only raised chickens and earthworms. Recently, realizing the market demand, he has spent a lot of time and effort to implement an organic vegetable growing model to bring quality products that are safe for consumers' health.

“My vegetables are grown entirely with vermicompost with an automatic irrigation system, equipped with a net to prevent harmful insects and pests, and minimize the impact of adverse weather. With my growing technique, vegetables can be harvested after 15-18 days, production costs are significantly reduced while product quality is improved,” said Mr. Tuyen.

Vegetables at TT Farm are grown using vermicompost for very high yield and quality. Photo: Nguyen Thanh.

Currently, Tuyen's farm sells 700 - 1,000 chickens/month and 70 - 100kg of vegetables/day. TT Farm's products are all produced organically and have initially been widely accepted and highly appreciated by consumers. However, boosting production and long-term development is still a difficult problem.

Explaining this, Mr. Tuyen said that with the current area, the farm can only produce a few types of vegetables and tubers, so the products are not diverse and abundant. In the past, he has been looking for units and households that can cooperate to form a larger-scale organic vegetable growing area with more diverse types of vegetables. However, he has not yet found any unit to cooperate with.

According to Mr. Tuyen, to do organic farming, farmers need to equip themselves with a lot of knowledge and skills, especially applying science and technology to save time, labor, reduce production costs and ensure product quality.

Currently, based on the province's advantages, Quang Ninh has approved the Project "Developing organic agriculture in Quang Ninh province to 2025, with a vision to 2030" with the goal of developing sustainable, environmentally friendly agriculture, improving productivity and competitiveness of agricultural products, especially encouraging the production of certified and standard organic products.

The automatic irrigation system helps control the amount of irrigation water, thereby ensuring the quality and productivity of crops at TT Farm. Photo: Nguyen Thanh.

According to Mr. Tran Van Thuc - Head of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection of Quang Ninh province, the implementation of organic agricultural production in the province in recent years still faces some difficulties, especially small-scale, fragmented agricultural production, limited space for organic agricultural production and limited practices and awareness of producers. In particular, the standards of organic products are very high, while consumer awareness of organic products is still inadequate.

To promote the development of organic agriculture in the area, the provincial agricultural sector has advised the Provincial People's Committee to have a policy to support agricultural development in general, including organic agriculture, combined with the central government's policy on support for organic agriculture.

Accordingly, encourage the development of research, production and use of organic fertilizers and biological pesticides; assign specialized agencies to advise competent authorities to promulgate crop and livestock production processes so that producers have a basis for application, creating an initial basis for producing organic products.

Source: https://nongsanviet.nongnghiep.vn/nong-nghiep-huu-co-tiem-nang-lon-nhung-con-lam-chong-gai-d398262.html