Lam Dong is the largest vegetable & flower cultivation area in Vietnam

Lam Dong is a province with many potentials and advantages in terms of land resources, water resources, human resources and climatic conditions suitable for the development of agricultural commodity production, especially agricultural specialties such as high-class vegetable and flowers of temperate and sub-tropial origins. (Lam Dong is a mountainous province in the South Central Highlands, with a total natural land area of nearly one million hectares and a population of almost 1.3 million people)

Hi-tech equipment and machinery are invested in production

As at the end of 2016, the province has had 49,089 ha of cultivated land for high tech production, accounting for 17.8% of cultivated land. Of which, vegetable cultivation area is 17,072 ha and 3,572 ha is applied for hi-tech production. Over the years, with government and professional departments support, focus on high-tech applications in the production of flowers has been gradually paid attention to. On the production of plant varieties: Currently, new varieties with high productivity and good quality are imported and widely grown; over 90% of vegetable varieties are imported ; many new, strange varieties are put into production, for instance, purple tomatoes, giant pumpkins, Kale with long harvest time, Peppilo watermelon for tourism purpose… Tissue culture technology, grafting propagation technology have created disease-free seedlings with uniformity and stability in productivity and quality; Vegetable and flower cultivation areas have been specialized in terms of seed production. Hi-tech equipment and machinery are invested in production such as: Modern sowing machines, greenhouses, mulch coatings, greenhouse mulch, automatic control information technology, packaging technology, agricultural sorting machines and postharvest handling; Dry flower preservation technology etc.; The technology of new substrates and materials include: 3-5 layers of plastic film, humidifier, polymer Regarding cultivation methods: Apply advanced cultivation methods such as hydroponic planting (6.5 ha of vegetables), planting on substrates (41 hectares) tends to increase. Mechanized application in production with modern equipment includes: soil tillage, potting mixer, sowing machine, Plant protection pray machine, water pump, combine harvester, Tea plucking machine….

Enterpreneur being farmer – Enterprise operating agriculture

Preliminary processing, post harvest preservation, packaging technologies widely used in high-tech agricultural production has promoted and developed 16 Lam Dong brands of agricultural products on domestic and foreign markets. Associated with the linkage model of consumption of products, enterprises have paid attention to processing, preservation and product packaging technologies, and have invested in post-harvest preservation technology to increase the life of agricultural products to be delivered to consumers’hands , ensuring quality, and product designs such as: Using fruit and vegetable purifier, using an autoclave sponge tray to keep the product being fresh longer, Vacuum Technology, using a hard plastic box to prevent vegetables and fruit from being bruised, Use plastic baskets to transport instead of bamboo baskets.

The application of high technology in agricultural production has increased the value of production over cultivated areas in terms of productivity and value. Particularly, in 2016, in the province 11,000 ha reached over 500 million VND/ha/year, of which 700 ha have got revenue of 1- 3 billion dong, specifically about 10 hectares of seed production, medicinal plants, dicotyledons, high quality flower pots, plants have revenue of over 3 billion VND/ha/year.

In the following years, implementing the project of restructuring agriculture sector in the direction of enhancing added value and sustainable development in Lam Dong province by 2020 and contributing to building Lam Dong vegetable and flower areas to become the leading brand in Viet Nam, with the motto “Enterpreneur being farmer- Enterprise operating agriculture”, in which investment should focus on a number of areas of operation, such as:

Application of new technologies into synchronous and modern production;

Forming centralized hi-tech agricultural production zones to enhance productivity and product quality;

Increasing the competitiveness of agricultural products, increasing the value per unit of production area, raising the value of products, expanding domestic consumption market and export;

Implementing sustainable farming, adapting to climate change; harnessing and using economically and effectively natural resources while implementing good solutions for environmental improvement;

Developing agriculture in association with tourism: Building landscape models linked with sustainable agricultural production, producing specialty plants, medicinal plants, typical local vegetables and flowers, and traditional crafts products combined with practical experienced tours to improve the efficiency of agricultural production, increase incomes for farmers, and diversify types of tourism…

By Long Chau

flower, vegetable