On the afternoon of June 29, Pham Van Bong, Director of provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development had a meeting with Thuan An city on the support policy for the maintenance and development of specialty orchards under provincial People's Council’s Resolution No. 61 dated December 16, 2016 for the period of 2017-2021. Currently, this policy is unvalid and relevant sectors are collecting ideas to develop other support policy for the development of orchards in the future.
The area of orchards in Thuan An city is mainly in 4 communes and wards, namely An Son commune, An Thanh, Binh Nham, and Hung Dinh wards. Currently, the whole city has about 935 hectares of orchards, a decrease of about 236 hectares compared to 2016. Of these, the city’s total area for mangosteen orchards is now about 663 hectares, down nearly 20 hectares. The city’s orchards are mainly mangosteens and durians intercropped with green berry, bon bon, and jackfruit trees. According to the province's support policy, since 2017, nearly 8,300 households in the city has been supported over VND 20 billion in fertilizer and orchard care with a total area of more than 2,000 hectares.
At the meeting, delegates raised the city’s advantages and disadvantages in developing specialty orchards. They wanted that the province will continue having support policies for the local farmers to maintain orchards although economic value from them is not high, consumption market for fruit products is still difficult, and the area of orchards is narrowed. Hence, the province’s support policies will contribute to preserving and developing specialty orchards as well as preserving cultural values of Lai Thieu land. The province also needs to have timely solutions such as making reasonable zoning, upholding the effectiveness of orchards, setting up goals for ecotourism development... so that the local farmers can rest assured to develop orchards in a sustainable way.
Reported by Van Tien-Translated by K.T
