Urban agriculture is the inevitable trend of Hanoi

Pioneering individuals
How coincidentally, when we came back to witness the scene of releasing mud-free eels into the newly built farming plots of Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung's farm in Xuan Non commune, Dong Anh district (Hanoi city) under technical direction. from expert Nguyen Ngoc Thuy.

Anh Thuy is the owner of a large breeding eel farm in the top of the North in Van Truong commune, Tien Hai district, (Thai Binh) with an area of 10 acres, the seed output supplied to the market every year is about 100,000. After more than a month of providing seeds for Mr. Hung to raise, from tiny eels like toothpicks, Mr. Thuy said they are now large enough to be ready to be released into the tank.

Check the growth of seafood at Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung's farm. Photo: NNVN.

“Eel's instinct is to live in mud, but from a young age they have been taught to live in plastic substrates instead of mud. The best aquarium is to have ceramic tiles around to avoid moss clinging, easy to clean, and if it has been plastered with cement, it must be lined with a smooth paint to avoid scratching the eels. Before releasing into the tank, the entire substrate must be carefully treated, then mixed with electrolytes to soak the eels for about 30 minutes to increase health, avoid shock, and then release.

It is worth mentioning that after 1 month of rearing at Mr. Hung's farm, only 4 of them were lost, not because of illness, because of the way of care, but because of unintentionally lifting the substrate, and the eels got stuck in it. then fell to the ground, not daring to release it back into the tank for fear of infection. I find it very successful, because the allowable rate of raising eel without mud is 10% during the whole farming process”, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy shared.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung told us that tomorrow, he will import another 20,000 eels for incubation, wait until they are strong enough to import again: "Because I have no experience, I have to learn gradually, can't be hasty. Okay. Honestly, my main occupation is producing piles and pressing piles, currently operating an individual business specializing in doing large and small projects everywhere, and at the same time is the Chairman of the Northern Pile Press Association, "said Hung. real. So why do you invest in agriculture? I ask.

Mr. Hung (left) and Mr. Thuy are checking eels. Photo: NNVN.

He replied: “Recently due to the very stressful Covid-19 situation, the whole society was blocked, all personal construction and construction work was stopped, sitting at home I feel so sad. Just came up with this model. At that time, I couldn't go anywhere, but I just phoned and asked schools that teach aquaculture. Later, when the new normal, I traveled around the South and the North to see aquaculture models and gain experience in building farms.

Farming like this cannot be determined every day or two as success, but must be persistent, build a model from small and then gradually expand to large. At first I stocked many kinds of aquatic products such as perch, catfish, banana, eel and soon ca cuong, vannamei shrimp, snail but the main direction is still eel because it is not everyone's ability to raise, the technique is difficult, high value, great demand”.

Worried about the time to rent land
Anh Hung added that if you want to do it on a large scale, you must have a few hectares in size, but as a latecomer, it is difficult to find because the land fund of Dong Anh district is very small, so it is only necessary to consider raising eels without mud to be able to take advantage of it. maximum output per unit area.

Moreover, this method has the advantage of circulating water, treated through a filter, so it is very clean, without affecting the surrounding environment or neighboring households. When children are young, they are fed industrially prepared food, later when they grow up, they will be fed groundworms themselves mixed with sea fish bought and stored in the freezer to reduce costs.

Drop the eels into the media in the tank. Photo: NNVN.

“This farming profession, I think in 5-10 years, when I get old, it will become the main job, so I am ready to invest now, but I am most worried about not being granted land in the long run. The contract with the commune is signed every year, if you don't do it you will die, but if you do it, it's really not secure. If you want to invest in high technology, you have to spend a lot of money, but no one dares to invest in a short time," Hung said.

Sympathizing with that common concern, Mr. Le Quang Duc, Head of the Dong Anh District Agricultural Extension Station, informed that this year alone, the locality will have thousands of hectares of land to be converted from agricultural land to other purposes.

The smaller the land fund, the more difficult it will be to develop traditional agriculture, but must follow the inevitable trend of urban agriculture. Its characteristic is the use of high technology, creating the greatest effect on the smallest farming unit but still ensuring the ecological environment by thoroughly treating pollution, creating a clean green landscape.

Urban extension club formed more than 10 years ago, but development is still slow. Dong Anh currently has hundreds of farms, but mainly small-scale pig and chicken raising, a few are growing vegetables, in which the rate of high technology application is about 20-30%. Because the state has not had specific policies to encourage high-tech agriculture, the development is not fast, not synchronized, but mainly with exploratory nature. Farmers themselves learn from experiences from other places and then put new techniques into practice.

The biggest disadvantage is the stability of the land fund because most communes and cooperatives only lease land to farmers for 1-3 years, so they cannot invest with confidence. There are successful businessmen who want to return to building high-tech agriculture, but because of the problem of the land lease period being too short and fear of not being able to recover capital, the policy has changed.

In addition, in order to develop hi-tech agriculture, large capital is required, so it is necessary to have supportive policies so that people can invest synchronously from the beginning, avoide the situation of patchy, time-consuming investment and ineffection.

Close-up of eel seed. Photo: NNVN.

Implementing the project of construction investment from district to district until 2025, leaders of Dong Anh determined that agricultural development must be planned into a commodity production area, which is safe, ecological, harmonious and sustainable with the environment. environment, contributing to landscape creation, promoting the development of agricultural experience tourism.

Specifically, it will apply scientific advances and advanced production methods, especially biotechnology to improve productivity, quality, efficiency, competitiveness, associated with processing and consuming products. Products. Besides newly established establishments, long-existing pig and chicken farms that cause environmental pollution must be changed by introducing high technology and microbial products, operating in a closed, medium-sized manner. Do not let the waste affect the outside, just so that if there is a problem with the disease, it will not spread to other farms.

Nearly 49 billion VND to support hi-tech agriculture

According to the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, high agricultural development associated with new rural construction, increased land use efficiency and labor productivity, increased income and improved living standards of farmers are the requirements. actual demand is being set.

In 2021, Hanoi has provided funding to support 7 districts to change the structure of seeds, crops and aquatic products to apply high-tech agricultural production with an amount of more than 48.9 billion VND. Specifically, Ba Vi district was granted 15.2 billion VND, Phu Xuyen district 11.9 billion VND, Phuc Tho 9.8 billion VND, Thanh Oai 5.2 billion VND, Me Linh 2.5 billion VND, Thanh Tri 2 ,2 billion VND, Quoc Oai 1.8 billion VND.

From that funding, the districts directly support farmers to change the structure of seeds, plants and animals on inefficient rice-growing areas, creating aquaculture areas such as carp, carp, monogamous tilapia; areas where fruit trees are grown: pomelo, longan, melon, and cantaloupe; areas for growing lilies, chrysanthemums, etc., apply synchronously or apply high-tech stages in production, preservation, transportation and consumption.

The People's Committees of the districts are responsible for organizing the transformation of the structure of plant varieties and aquatic breeds into high-tech agriculture as well as checking and reviewing the objects, contents and levels of support to ensure compliance with regulations. regulations...

Source: Đinh Thanh Huyền/ nongnghiep.vn