Luc Ngan focuses on intensive citrus cultivation toward export

In 2019, Luc Ngan district (Bac Giang province) is home to 6,740 hectares of citrus cultivation which yield some 58,000 tonnes of fruits, up 5,000 tonnes comparing to last year figure. The local authority is now instructing the farmers to increase the intensive farming areas under a clean procedure, restructure the varieties and growing technique  toward export.

Focusing on intensive cultivation

The family of Nguyen Van Huu in Xe Cu village in Thanh Hai commune grow more than 10 hectares of fruit trees including 6 hectares of green skin pomelo, 2 hectares of sweet orange and others.

All of the orchard, especially orange and pomelo are cultivated under VietGAP procedure with organic fertilizers and plant protection products. Besides, he equips the semi-automatic water piping system to all the orchard, thus his fruits always have better quality.

Sharing the same method of Huu, the families of Tran Van Tru in Xe Cu village and Ly Van Bao in Min To village in Tru Huu commune promise to have a success year thanks to the bumper fruit trees.

However, many citrus orchards in the district are degraded with low output due to long time cultivation. Chu Van Khai in Sang Noi village, Tan Quang commune said his 7 year old orchard of orange and pomelo became undergrowth and gave few fruits with medium quality. Currently, he replaces many new trees including Phuc Kien pomelo.

Anh Khai household is not the sole case. Many families in Tan Quang commune have exploited too much for years, leading to degraded trees, barren and disease infected soil.

According to Duong Xuan Truong, Chairman of Tan Quang communal People’s Committee said the local authority advises the farmers not to popularize the citrus and only develop this crop in suitable soil.

Additionally, the commune also instructed the villages to grow other fruit tree such as Thailand custard apple or early ripen lychee in the area where they remove the citrus trees.

Building models with new crops

Luc Ngan district is conducting the pilot model to grow new varieties of orange namely BH and CT36 created by Vietnam Institute of Agriculture Genetic in 15 hectares in Phuong Son and Bien Son communes in order to intensively develop the citrus tree under a sustainable method toward export.

These two orange varieties have many prominent advantages comparing to others. Their quality is highly appreciated for its eye-catching bright yellow, light sweet and delicious flavour.

Besides, the competent agencies recommended to use organic and bio fertilizers to produce safely and sustainably. The district has 1,800 hectares of citrus trees developed under VietGAP and Global GAP procedures, increasing 500 hectares against the figure last year.

The farmers were suggested to change the cultivation technique with suitable density to ensure nutrition and lighting to well develop, extend the tree circle and reduce the production cost while boosting the application of science and technology to improve the working efficiency.

Le Ba Thanh, Vice Chairman of Luc Ngan district People’s Committee said the district authority is building the geological identification to Luc Ngan orange and pomelo to facilitate the commodity protection and accelerate the trade promotion to consume the product easily.