Farming to get extra $8.5 million

The domestic agricultural sector will spend a total of VND137.5 billion (US$8.5 million), a year-on-year increase of 15 per cent, for extension activities this year as part of its efforts to ensure the national food security and increase farmers' incomes.

Dr. Tong Khiem, director of the National Agricultural Extension Centre, says activities this year will focus on improving the quality of commercial agricultural products, raising farmer's awareness of production and trading of agricultural products, and increasing workers' incomes.

"Extension activities will be implemented mainly in the country's most difficult areas and localities involved in the production of commercial agricultural products," Khiem says.

Investment will be pumped into seven kinds of agricultural extension models, each expected to receive VND100 million, he says. "These models will be carried out by more than 150 units and localities nationwide."

Khiem stresses that the most important task is to build effective agriculture extension models that will raise productivity and product quality by 10 per cent higher than that in areas not included in the programme.

The models will be involved in production of commercial hybrid rice, intensive farming of high quality rice in the north, cultivation of high quality clean vegetables, planting of orchards according to the Good Agriculture Practices-GAP standards, farming of short – and long-term industrial trees, rotation of crops, and using ecologically friendly methods to raise livestock.

The results of these models will be disseminated through the media and the Internet.