Building a unique identity for Ninh Binh agriculture

Identify the advantages

With its southernmost position in the Red River Delta, Ninh Binh has a "mountain and water" terrain, converging geographical characteristics of all three regions: the Red River Delta, the Northwest and the North Central. In particular, the province has an 18 km long coastline, which is annually deposited by alluvium, encroaching on the sea by hundreds of hectares. It can be said that Ninh Binh is a miniature Vietnam. The natural diversity has created a rare advantage in the diversity of agricultural, forestry and fishery ecology for the province.

Specifically: Hilly, mountainous, semi-mountainous sub-regions (Nho Quan, Gia Vien, Tam Diep) are favorable for developing hill and forest economy , livestock, vegetables, medicinal herbs; Lowland sub-regions (Nho Quan, Gia Vien, Yen Mo) have strengths for rice - fish, aquatic products, and waterfowl production; Sub-urban sub-regions (Ninh Binh city, Hoa Lu, Tam Diep city) develop high-tech vegetable and flower production; Delta sub-regions (Yen Khanh, Yen Mo and Kim Son) develop rice and vegetable production; Coastal sub-regions (Kim Son) are favorable for brackish water aquaculture, seed production, offshore exploitation, and forestry development.

In addition, as the land of the ancient capital with a history of thousands of years, Ninh Binh has many special products and recipes, such as: Hoa Lu mountain goat, Tam Diep mountain snail, Yen Mac sour sausage, Gia Vien shrimp paste, Kim Son wine, burnt rice, Truong Tong Perch, King Trau fish, Cuc Phuong golden flower tea... Although diverse in products, Ninh Binh agriculture does not have the strength to produce large-scale goods. The area for agricultural production of the province is quite small. Apart from pineapple, Ninh Binh is not the main specialized area of national strategic agricultural products with export capacity.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Dinh Van Khiem, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the province, said: "To bring added value to agricultural products, it is not necessary to bring agricultural products to the world. On the contrary, we will invite the world to Ninh Binh to enjoy agricultural products and unique, fresh cuisine right on the spot. This is a very effective way to export agricultural products."

In fact, recently, Ninh Binh has become a bright spot on the Vietnamese tourism map with many famous tourist areas and destinations of national and international scale such as: Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, Hoa Lu Ancient Capital, Tam Coc - Bich Dong... For many years in a row, Ninh Binh has been voted by international travel websites as an attractive tourist destination, in the group of 10 provinces and cities that welcome the most tourists in the country.

The province has a consistent and consistent viewpoint of developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector, guiding and leading industries and fields to develop in a green and sustainable direction. Therefore, the orientation of agricultural and rural development needs to be synchronized with that goal. The intrinsic nature of agricultural production and rural development activities must become tourism products. Agricultural products and rural goods must prioritize serving local needs and the tourism market.

Building a "nature-friendly" and unique agriculture

In recent times, Ninh Binh agriculture has made strong changes. The restructuring of the agricultural sector has been carried out systematically and synchronously. In particular, production models suitable to actual conditions and adapting to climate change have been effectively deployed; the application of scientific and technical advances and mechanization in production has been enhanced. The irrigation infrastructure system has been improved, natural disaster prevention and control has been enhanced. Determination and creativity in building new rural areas have been promoted.

In particular, in the past 5 years, the province has paid special attention to green development and sustainable development in agriculture, aiming to create quality, safe products, protect human health and the living environment. Up to now, the whole province has expanded the area of high-quality rice production, organic specialties to over 1,500 hectares (using organic fertilizers, applying tray seeding methods, transplanting machines). The area of vegetables produced in an organic direction has increased year by year.

Aiming for a "nature-friendly" production model, localities in the province have converted many areas of unstable two-crop rice cultivation to one-crop rice and one-crop fish production... In addition, the province has built attractive agricultural and rural tourism products.

Ninh Binh has Tam Coc rice fields voted by the travel website Business Insider as one of the 5 most beautiful rice fields in Vietnam and was once in the top 15 "beautiful but little-known" places voted by the Telegraph (UK). In addition, there are many check-in spots that are loved by tourists such as: Dong Giao pineapple field, peach blossom, fruit garden combined with raising specialty animals in Quen Tho (Tam Diep city); lotus pond in Hang Mua, Ha Den grape garden in Hoa Lu, or culinary experience tourism in Khanh Thien commune (Yen Khanh)... This is the first step towards the orientation of producing agricultural products and activities serving tourism.

However, some experts believe that Ninh Binh has not yet fully exploited its advantages. With a locality that is strongly developing tourism services, welcoming 7-8 million visitors every year, the number of businesses and cooperatives doing agricultural tourism is too modest. In particular, we have not yet integrated cultural, social and environmental values into agricultural products, and have not done a good job of promoting and building brands. The rate of deeply processed agricultural products in the province is still low. To serve the needs of tourists buying as gifts, the province needs to build more value chain systems to serve processing, packaging, standard certification, and transportation support.

Mr. Dinh Van Khiem, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: In the coming time, Ninh Binh will focus on building an ecological, "nature-friendly" and endemic agricultural development associated with tourism, on the basis of integrating traditional and modern values to exploit the advantages of each ecological sub-region. Apply safe, organic and circular production processes for key products and specialties. Promote the development of OCOP products, maintain and develop traditional craft villages.

The Department of Agriculture will coordinate with the Department of Tourism to conduct surveys and develop some specific agricultural production areas of the province into experiential agricultural tourism products. Tourists can watch local residents introduce their work, participate in experiential activities, enjoy agricultural products, harvest, buy and take home...

Besides, in the process of building new rural areas, the industry orients planning and embellishing a number of villages, where there are relics and beautiful landscapes (temples, pagodas, shrines, village gates, wells, ponds, bamboo hedges...) combined with consolidating and forming intangible cultural foundations such as festivals and folk arts to form rural tourism products.

In particular, mobilizing the strength of the local community to actively participate in building an agricultural and rural economy oriented towards tourism so that everyone can benefit and be responsible. Creating organic connections between the restaurant and hotel systems and agricultural raw material supply areas...

According to Mr. Dinh Van Khiem, currently, the planning of agriculture and rural areas in Ninh Binh has been integrated into the general planning of the province. In particular, the province has also issued many policies and guidelines to support the goal of building an agricultural sector that develops in the direction of nature, organic, circular, and multi-value integration. This is the basis for Ninh Binh agriculture to gradually create its own identity, different from other localities in the country.

Nguyen Luu

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