Developing organic agriculture in a new period of development

​The model of growing vegetables and fruits following organic standards at Trang Trai Viet. Photo by Phan Anh

Accordingly, Dong Nai People's Committee has also approved the project of developing organic agricultural production in Dong Nai Province in the period of 2021 - 2030. In fact, a number of enterprises, cooperatives, and farm owners are important investment in organic production. However, converting organic production requires a long-term process, an expensive investment with many problems to pose such as policies, infrastructure, production regulations, certification, and markets.

A long-term and expensive investment

The story of investment in production and market development for organic products has never been a simple matter for both businesses and farmers.

In March this year, Trang Trai Viet Trading Co., Ltd (Viet Farm) in Xuan Truong Commune, Xuan Loc District worked with a delegation to evaluate organic agriculture following the Japanese standards. According to the evaluation report on the change of organic agricultural products, businesses need to continue complying with many requirements according to organic standards such as: must-have an organic production process; production operators or direct production managers must be trained in organic agriculture by the certification organization, and continue to standardize soil and water standards, etc. To achieve organic certification, there are still many more steps that enterprises must take. However, in order to get to the present stage, Viet Farm has gone through a long and difficult journey right from the beginning of investing in the agricultural field in 2008 until now.

Mr. Tran Quang Tinh, Director of Viet Farm Trading Co., Ltd (Viet Farm) said: "It took me the first 10 years to "decode" the chicken to standardize the fully automatic farming process by the system from feeding to collecting chicken manure, the cooling system, the source of manure is dried and treated immediately to preserve nutrients and the farm is odorless and none of flies. Viet Farm is a pioneer in investing in hi-tech organic agriculture in the province, it is not only for producing high-tech organic fertilizers, but also investing in organic farming using high technology from growing crops in greenhouse to the stage of preservation, processing, and consumption. Although the farm's products have only just obtained GlobalGAP certification, from the very first days of production, Viet Farm has built according to the production process following organic standards, applying high technology such as: clean soil for planting in greenhouse is sand that is heated to kill pathogens and fungus which can harm plants mixed with organic fertilizers. The smart negative pressure greenhouse system can adjust the temperature, pressure and wind speed. Thanks to this advanced pest-resistant greenhouse system, the farm's growing process of vegetables and melons does not use pesticides and herbicides. Vegetables and melons are grown naturally, harvested when they are ripe enough without the use of stimulants.

Mr. Tran Quang Tinh shared: “In order to make organic agricultural products, strict conditions must be met such as: soil, water, fertilizer, environment must be clean. The soil here is substandard, so I make clean it myself by bringing sand that has never been cultivated from Binh Thuan Province with organic fertilizers. I also drilled wells to exploit the deep underground water source and treat it safety”.

All products of Viet Farm have been tested and all have passed organic fruit and vegetable product samples, without detecting inorganic fertilizers. However, in order to achieve organic certification, Viet Farm still has many steps to keep on investing. According to Mr. Tinh: "Currently, businesses have many foreign partners who ask for cooperation in exporting organic vegetables and fruits, so they need to make certification for their products to participate well in the export market. In addition to the story of doing business, my goal is to make clean food first for my own family use and then expand to consumers”.

Vinamit Joint Stock Company (Binh Duong Province) is a pioneer processing enterprise investing in large-scale organic farms in Vietnam and exporting well to fastidious markets such as the US, the European Union (EU). Mr. Nguyen Lam Vien, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vinamit Joint Stock Company, shared that organic farming requires a long and expensive investment process with not being overnight, so organic products cannot be available with a cheap price and sold in bulk. In order for the farm to achieve organic certification, it takes many years for businesses to invest and have organic fruit and vegetable products supplied to the market. For example, to make organic bananas in Vietnam, businesses spend a lot of effort and money getting the certification of the non-genetically modified organism by the certification authority in the US. Although the enterprise has a biological center for research, it still takes a lot of time to find a way to control pests in bananas with biological solutions. In addition, there are a mass difficult problem in terms of finding markets and building business brands.

The model of growing vegetables and fruits meeting organic standards at Viet Farm. Photo by Phan Anh

The first steps

Dong Nai is implementing the project of developing organic agricultural production in Dong Nai Province in the period of 2021 - 2030. In which, it includes the following contents: Identifying specific potential concentration areas according to scale, location, plants and animals to develop organically by 2030. Specific projects and point models on organic agriculture development focused on implementation in the period of 2021-2025. -Forming production linkages associated with the consumption of organic agricultural products for export. In particular, the development orientation, the proposed plan, the focus area for organic agriculture development in the province must be consistent with the general orientation on agricultural development in particular and socio-economic development in general having high feasibility according to the plans of Dong Nai Province.

In addition, in the program of sustainable agricultural development in Dong Nai Province during the period of 2021 - 2025, with a vision to 2030, Dong Nai also sets goals to focus on developing organic agriculture. Specifically, the goal is that by 2025, in the cultivable areas, the whole province has 500 hectares of certified organic fruit trees; 630 hectares of industrial plants having organic certification; 200 hectares of vegetables having organic certification; having organic livestock products such as pigs, cows, poultry, etc. The area and output of farming, livestock and aquaculture products which have an organic certification, continues to increase with some nearly doubling by 2030.

The good news is that Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee has recently signed a cooperation agreement to accompany organic agricultural production with Que Lam Group Joint Stock Company (HCMC). The content of the agreement aims to build and replicate models of organic agricultural production in the chain of production associated with processing and consumption of some major products of the province, such as rice, vegetables and beans, fruit trees, cocoa, pepper, coffee, cashew, medicinal products and non-timber forest products as well as livestock, poultry and aquatic products.

In addition, the two sides also cooperated in fostering and training on technical processes and management of organic agricultural products, coordinated in formulating mechanisms and policies on supporting the development of organic agriculture, implemented propaganda to mobilize farmers and consumers to be aware of organic agriculture, in order to build a sustainable agriculture. Having cooperated in transferring technical processes to apply organic and organic microbiological technologies for organic agricultural production, following organic agricultural standards. Having coordinated the development of markets for organic agricultural products, promotion, brand building; developed markets and distribution channels for organic products of Dong Nai Province.

Making a speech at the signing ceremony, Mr. Vo Van Phi, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that Dong Nai is a province having many advantages in agricultural development, with a total herd of pigs and chickens are always on the top of the country and the area of ​​pepper, cashew is the largest in the southern region. Over the past time, the province has paid attention to planning livestock and farming areas, investing in applying high technology in production in order to increase productivity and product quality. Therefore, the signing of cooperation agreement with Que Lam Group Joint Stock Company, an enterprise with a lot of experiences in organic farming that has been confirmed that they will contribute to promoting sustainable agricultural development and bring benefit farmers in the country.

Phan Anh