Following Uncle Ho's words, Hai Duong continuously develops winter crops.

This spring marks the 65th anniversary of Uncle Ho's visit to Hai Duong, the third of his five visits and work in the Eastern region. During this visit, Uncle Ho gave instructions on a number of tasks that needed to be done to develop winter crop production.

Northern typical

On April 1, 1959, President Ho Chi Minh visited and worked in our province. At the Provincial Party Committee's office in Hai Duong town, Uncle Ho talked and worked with comrades in the Provincial Party Committee's Standing Committee, the Administrative Committee and cadres of the provincial departments and branches. During this meeting, Uncle Ho talked about the tasks that the province must carry out in the coming time, which are to well implement the State's assigned plans, strengthen organizations... Uncle Ho praised the achievements of the cadres and people of the province, especially the agricultural production movement. Uncle Ho reminded and instructed some tasks that need to be done to develop winter-spring crop production such as adding more fertilizer, making efforts to fight drought...

Over the past 65 years, keeping in mind Uncle Ho's teachings, in addition to rice cultivation, Hai Duong province has also continuously developed winter crops, becoming a typical example of the North.

We searched for many sources of information but could not find data on the winter crop area at the time Uncle Ho visited at the end of 1959. Fortunately, when reading the book "Hai Duong Geography" (volume 1), we found some data on the area of ​​various vegetables and fruits in 1960, which can also be used as a reference to prove the expansion of the winter crop area. Specifically, in 1960, Hai Duong province had 2,780 hectares of various vegetables and fruits. Since then, the area of ​​various vegetables and fruits has increased almost continuously. Up to now, the whole province has grown 3 crops of vegetables a year with a total area of ​​nearly 42,000 hectares, of which about 22,000 hectares are winter crops, accounting for 52% of the total vegetable area of ​​the year, many times higher than when Uncle Ho visited. Hai Duong is the leading province in the Northern Delta in building many large-scale concentrated commodity production areas in the winter crop.

In recent years, due to the development of industrialization and modernization, many areas of cultivated land have been reclaimed to make way for factories, enterprises and businesses. However, in the past 5 years, the province has maintained a fairly stable area of ​​winter crop cultivation from 21,000-22,000 hectares, even some areas specializing in traditional winter crop cultivation have expanded their areas. Many areas of winter crop cultivation with low economic value have been replaced by areas of crops with higher economic value. This is a great effort of Hai Duong.

According to the provincial Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection, concentrated production areas, large-scale goods, stable consumption markets, high economic value such as onion and garlic area of ​​more than 6,200 hectares, concentrated in Kinh Mon, Nam Sach; cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower area of ​​about 4,100 hectares, mainly in Gia Loc, Tu Ky, Kim Thanh, Thanh Mien and Hai Duong city; carrot area of ​​nearly 1,300 hectares in Cam Giang, Nam Sach, Chi Linh...

Improve quality and efficiency of farming

Hai Duong always focuses on developing the productivity and quality of winter crops. Many winter crops with high productivity, quality, and good resistance to weather and pests are brought into the fields. Farmers actively apply mechanization, helping to reduce labor, increase labor productivity and save costs.

Grasping the need for safe food, for many years, Hai Duong has been interested in producing vegetables according to VietGAP standards. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that this winter crop, the whole province has 18 vegetable growing areas with an area of ​​275 hectares that have achieved VietGAP certification. The whole province currently has nearly 50 hectares of greenhouses and net houses, concentrated in Gia Loc, Kim Thanh, Nam Sach districts and Kinh Mon town.

In order to promote the strengths of the winter crop, the provincial Party Committee, government and many localities have implemented effective support policies. In the 2023-2024 winter crop, the Provincial People's Committee supported the expansion of more than 400 hectares of winter crops in many localities with an additional VND 4 million/ha. The province's support policy aims to accumulate and borrow fields for large-scale production; expand the area of ​​greenhouses and net houses; use water-saving irrigation technology in production; produce safe vegetables, etc.

In addition to the province's support policies, many localities also implement their own support policies.

Help people get rich

Comrade Luong Thi Kiem, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: Remembering and implementing Uncle Ho's teachings during his visit to Hai Duong, the province has had many policies to encourage farmers to produce winter crops with high economic efficiency. Hai Duong closely links production with consumption, with many trade promotion solutions for farmers to conveniently consume products. The province's functional agencies support farmers in promoting their brands and granting OCOP certificates for many key crop products. In early 2022, the Provincial People's Committee organized the Carrot Harvest Festival in Duc Chinh commune (Cam Giang) as a typical example. In addition, the functional agencies also support entities participating in the production - consumption chain linked to the requirements of importers. Therefore, many winter agricultural products have been exported to markets with high requirements, bringing in great profits.

Thanks to such practical support, winter crop production has been an important source of income for people in many localities. Thousands of households have become rich thanks to winter crops.

Just looking at some statistics of the agricultural sector, we can see that the Party Committee, government and people of Hai Duong have done well what Uncle Ho taught. The area of ​​winter vegetables in the whole province currently accounts for 14.3% of the annual crop planting area but accounts for 32 - 33% of the total production value of the crop industry. The production value of winter crops in 2022-2023 at actual prices reached 4,622 billion VND, an increase of 28 billion VND compared to the previous winter crop. The production value per hectare of winter crops reached an average of 223.5 million VND, 2.2 times higher than the average of the northern provinces and cities.