Ha Giang’s sci-tech agricultural development

Cows, fish and pigs

In many highland communes of Ha Giang Province, ethnic minority residents have mastered agricultural techniques and technologies, from artificial insemination of cattle, production of the rare and precious Bong fish, and breeding pigs in accordance with VietGAHP (good animal husbandry practices for swine in Vietnam). Residents have also learned how to monitor forest developments and warn of forest fires through advanced equipment. Wood harvested in the province’s Bac Quang and Vi Xuyen districts is nowadays awarded the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification and subject to origin traceability.

Science and technology application helps farmers improve income

Mountain residents are also implementing tissue culture of different valuable medicinal herbs, including ming aralia, ginger, filigree orchids, dendrobium nobile, fallopia multiflora, amomum, codonopsis, and polygonatum kingianum, among others. Large cardamom, tea and orange growing areas are cultivated in accordance with the VietGAP (Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices) process in Ha Giang. Many efficient models of science and technology application have been implemented and replicated in the province.

Ha Giang considers science and technology key to its agricultural development, issuing guidelines and policies encouraging enterprises to innovate technology and production. In 2022, Ha Giang certified five scientific and technological enterprises.

Sci-tech businesses have helped transform the provincial agriculture from a small-scale, scattered network to a large-scale consistent system that has reached an average annual growth of almost five percent over the last five years and made a major contribution to the provincial gross regional domestic product (GRDP).

Sci-tech development

The 17th Provincial Party Congress adopted a resolution focused on sci-tech application and innovation as key to Ha Giang’s socioeconomic development by 2025.

However, the director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Hoang Hai Ly, said science and technology are only applied to production but not yet to produce preservation and intensive processing. What is more, no hi-tech agricultural zone has been planned for Ha Giang and sci-tech investment in agriculture and rural areas remains poor. The mountainous terrain, different climate sub-regions, and ethnic groups with traditional farming practices all make it difficult for Ha Giang to implement and replicate science and technology application models.