Kinh Mon builds multi-value agricultural area

Rich in potential

Bach Dang Clean Agricultural Products Production and Trading Cooperative is no longer a strange name to those who love agricultural experiences when coming to Kinh Mon. The cooperative has a 10-hectare dragon fruit growing area that meets GlobalGAP standards and the product has been certified with 4-star OCOP. With the desire to create many new agricultural products, the cooperative has introduced black grape and peony plants with a total area of ​​nearly 8,000 m². Recently, the area of ​​black summer grapes has yielded a harvest of 3 quintals/star. In addition to its economic value, the black summer grape garden also attracts many tourists to visit and experience.

With its existing agricultural advantages, Bach Dang commune is building a model of "experiential fields". This area covers an area of ​​about 32 hectares located in Dai Uyen and Tram Lo villages with more than 100 households participating in production. It is expected that in the period of 2025-2026, the experiential fields will be completed and put into operation. Coming here, visitors can visit, take photos, experience picking dragon fruit, grapes, fishing... Local agricultural products are further processed to increase product value.

“The locality has strengths in producing onions, garlic, dragon fruit, etc., along with a favorable geographical location, so the experimental field model is expected to attract tourists when coming to Kinh Mon town. By 2030, Bach Dang commune strives to build an agricultural area with diverse crops and livestock, developing clean agriculture, organic agriculture combined with agricultural experiences. At that time, agriculture will develop in the right direction of multi-layered, multi-value exploitation, bringing higher income to the people,” said Mr. Tran Van Tang, Chairman of Bach Dang Commune People's Committee.

When mentioning multi-value agriculture in Kinh Mon, we cannot fail to mention the ostrich farm of Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh in Minh Tan ward. The farm covers an area of ​​over 10 hectares with nearly 800 breeding, commercial and breeding ostriches. This is the second largest ostrich farm in the North with a variety of services provided to customers. The farm's breeding ostriches are often supplied to farmers in provinces from the Central region and beyond. In addition to supplying the provincial market, commercial ostriches are also sold in many neighboring provinces and cities such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Hung Yen, etc.

When the concept of agricultural experiences was not as popular as it is today, Mrs. Binh's ostrich farm opened its doors to welcome visitors to come and experience. Along with watching the giant birds, visitors can also enjoy products made from ostrich meat such as eggs, sausages, ham, glue, etc. There was even a time when the farm allowed visitors to experience ostrich riding.

In addition to raising ostriches, Ms. Binh has a garden growing black grapes and peony grapes with the desire to build an eco-tourism farm to serve tourists to visit and experience.

Kinh Mon is considered the "capital" of onions and garlic in the country with about 4,000 hectares, bringing in economic value of about 2,000 billion VND/crop/year. Kinh Mon onions and garlic have large, firm bulbs, a special spicy aroma, and are always highly appreciated by consumers for their quality and are sold in many traditional markets across the country and in large supermarket chains. Onions and garlic also promote the development of many other industries in Kinh Mon such as preliminary processing of raw products, specialized processing into precious foods and medicinal herbs, and the development of OCOP products... to increase value.

Most recently, the Onion and Garlic Harvest Festival in Kinh Mon town in early 2024 was held for the first time with the participation of a large number of people and tourists, bringing a "new breeze" to Kinh Mon agriculture. At the Onion and Garlic Festival, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan once said: "Selling onions and garlic of low value, selling the emotional space of experiencing the craft village of onion and garlic production will open up a space of much greater value".

In addition to garlic, dragon fruit, cassava, That Hung oranges, Kinh Mon also has high-tech melon production areas in many other wards and communes such as An Sinh, Long Xuyen...

What to do to maximize value?

In addition to keeping up with the trend of modern agriculture, Kinh Mon also focuses on investing in infrastructure to serve production, supporting communes and wards with funds to build roads, water-saving irrigation systems, etc. Priority is given to support strong, high-value crops so that farmers can expand their planting areas. The town also focuses on clean production, aiming for a green agriculture.

Nature has endowed Kinh Mon with beautiful landscapes and fertile land. The system of temple relics associated with historical stories, along with green onion and garlic fields, cassava, dragon fruit, oranges, etc. are conditions for Kinh Mon to develop tourism and develop multi-layered, multi-value agriculture. Potential and advantages are available, but not every locality has favorable conditions to exploit and develop.

An Sinh Ward is located right at the An Phu - Kinh Chu - Nham Duong National Special Relic Site with a winding river surrounding the vast onion and garlic fields. In addition, the locality also has OCOP standard products such as wild honey, banh long... However, An Sinh Ward has not yet promoted the strengths of the locality. Mr. Nguyen Van Hinh, Party Secretary and Chairman of An Sinh Ward People's Committee shared: "Geographical location is one of the biggest barriers to local development. Onions and garlic are still only preserved dry and sold after harvest, there are no deeply processed products to maximize the value of local agricultural products".

This is probably not only the concern of An Sinh ward. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ha, Head of the Economic Department of Kinh Mon town, said that the first onion and garlic harvest festival held has had a great impact on changing people's awareness. The festival is not only an opportunity to encourage and motivate farmers but also contributes to changing their mindset from agricultural production to agricultural economics. "After the festival, the locality actively called on individuals and businesses to invest in post-harvest preservation and deep processing. However, deep processing has only stopped at the small-scale level according to production households, without any linkage, so the efficiency is not high. The Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) has come to survey and support the construction of post-harvest preservation and processing warehouses. However, calling for investment in this field is still very difficult," Mr. Ha added.