Seeing biotechnology as a key solution to build a comprehensively developed and sustainable agriculture, thousands of farmers in Hai Duong Province have applied biotechnological achievements in agricultural activities over the past ten years, with agricultural productivity and output increasing year on year.
Agricultural projects have always accounted for a high percentage of the dozens of Hai Duong's annual projects, with most of them being concerned with the application of new practical biotechnology in local agricultural development.
A typical example was the application of biotechnology to hybrid and pure rice in Hai Duong Province, acquiring and mastering the technology to maintain the same parents to produce F1 hybrid seeds from two or three lines. Development of hybrid rice cultivation not only improved the local productivity from 1.5 - 2 tonnes per ha but also increased the quality of rice, which helped raise farmer incomes. F1 hybrid rice has been cultivated in most districts in Hai Duong. Gradually, the province's high-quality rice area increased from 0.17 percent in 1997 to 25 percent in 2007 and then 50 percent in 2011.
Applied biotechnical advances helped raise Hai Duong's annual rice yield from 1.12 tonnes per ha in 2000 to 1.23 tonnes per ha in 2011, with rice output in 2011 reaching 780,976 tonnes. Along with the success of the project, the province also built an experiment greenhouse, an 8,000squ.m modern hybrid rice growing experimental garden and automatic rice drying systems to stay active in F1 hybrid rice seed production for mass expansion of hybrid rice in the province.
In addition, the number of households adopting industrial farming methods in Hai Duong Province also increased, accounting for over 30 percent of the total farming households. These households have successfully mastered the technology for the production of 21 day-old unisexual tilapia. This model has increased local tilapia yields to 10-15 tonnes per ha, while traditional varieties of tilapia only yield between 2.5-3 tonnes per ha. The province's unisexual tilapia farming area reached 4,000ha, located in 27 communes in eight districts, accounting for 40 percent of the province's total fish farming area. Average profit per ha of tilapia farming ranged from VND35-40 million, and may even reach VND75 million.
The project to propagate flowers and medicinal herbs by tissue culture methods was also a major subject for biotechnology, ensuring the production of seedlings of high vitality and adaptability to climate changes and diseases.
In addition to that project, the province's Science and Technology Progress Application Center also expanded the project for modeling high quality flower production on an industrial scale. Every year, the center has marketed about 3,000 Phalaenopsis, 500 Oncidiums, 40,000 chrysanthemums and 1,000 aloe plants. Last year, the center continued the application of advanced technology in production of carnations and gerberas.
According to Hai Duong Province's People's Committee, the province will in the coming time continue to select, study and transfer new varieties of highly competitive high quality plant and animals suited to local ecological conditions; apply biotechnological achievements in production of hybrid rice and maize, seed potatoes; and set up new technological demonstration models including grafting, tissue culture, coatings, and preservation./.
