Farmers should increase the application of bio-organic-based integrated pest management to sustain the health of the soil, preserve bio-diversity and improve agricultural product quality and safeguard people’s health, a seminar heard in HCM City yesterday.

People visit a greenhouse filled with safe vegetables in northern Bac Giang Province.

Nguyen Tho, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Plant Protection Association, said Viet Nam’s agriculture has over the last few decades relied mainly on intensive farming using chemical fertilisers, pesticides and other products to increase yields.

The method has succeeded in increasing the country’s production of food crops, and fruit and industrial trees, but caused severe ecological imbalances, making the land less fertile and increasing soil-borne pathogens, he said.

Land and water have been badly polluted in rural areas due to abuse of crop protection chemicals, and pesticide residues in farm produce are high, he said.

Furthermore, with climate change, crop pests are becoming harder to combat, he said.

To effectively combat soil-borne pests, farmers need to adopt bio-organic farming methods, he, as well as many other attendees, said.

Using bio-organic products would help sustain agriculture since it would help protect the environment, preserve bio-diversity, reduce costs, produce safer farm produce, and reduce the threats to people’s health, they said.

Duong Hoa Xo, deputy chairman of the city Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said it is imperative that agriculture protects the environment, ensuring hygiene and food safety and protecting the health of both producers and consumers, to meet the increasing global demand for safe food.

Prof Dr Pham Van Bien said many countries have begun to adopt organic agricultural practices, with the area under organic farming increasing.

In Viet Nam too the area has increased significantly in recent years, though it is still very modest compared to the total farming area.

According to the Viet Nam Organic Agriculture Association, the country exports small quantities of some organic products like tea, shrimp, rice, cinnamon, anise, and attar.

There are some successful organic models in involving tea and vegetables by Ecolink and Ecomart, vegetables by Organik Da Lat, a unique thick-skinned orange in Ham Yen, Tuyen Quang Province, rice by Cà Mau-based Vien Phu Green Farm and others.

But Viet Nam still lacks national standards and a comprehensive legal framework for production, certification and quality control of organic agricultural products, Bien said, adding that the Government should soon have in place policies, mechanisms and a national standard system to make it easy for businesses and farmers.

More than 250 scientists, provincial officials, agricultural scientists and farmers from many southern provinces and cities attended the seminar, which was organised by the Viet Nam Plant Protection Association and Tropical Agricultural Research and Consultancy Centre.

VNS