Ministry outlines production targets for agriculture
Ministry outlines production targets for agriculture
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry plans to actively expand agriculture and forestry production by at least three percent next year, which would represent some 23.7 percent of Gross Domestic Production (GDP).
The ministry aims for farmers to produce about 4.2 million tonnes of rice while meat and fish for people’s consumption should reach about 53 kg per capita, the Director General of its Planning and Cooperation Department, Mr Xaypradeth Chounlamany told yesterday’s meeting.
Mr Xaypradeth outlined the targeted production figures at the opening of the annual agriculture and forestry meeting in Vientiane.
He said the ministry also plans to reforest 60,000 hectares outside of production forests, 120,000 hectares within production forests and 30,000 hectares of planting areas.
Also slated is the rehabilitation and repair of irrigation systems to supply water for dry season crops on around 185,000 hectares of land, of which 135,000 hectares shall be for dry season rice and 50,000 hectares for other crops.
To meet the target, the ministry will encourage farmers around the country to plant about 126,000 hectares of dry season rice with yields averaging about 5.13 tonnes per hectare or 650,000 tonnes of total production.
Wet season rice should reach 772,600 hectares with yields averaging four tonnes per hectare or 3.15 million tones and upland rice would be planted on 100,000 hectares with 200,000 tonnes, said Mr Xaypradeth.
Other crops such as sweet corn should be planted on 36,200 hectares aiming for 228,400 tonnes of total production, yam and taro should be planted on 27,800 hectares with 303,500 tonnes of total production, fruit should be planted on 45,000 hectares with 700,000 tonnes of produce and other cash crops should be planted on 155,000 hecatres, yielding some 1.55 million tones of produce.
The ministry will also pay more attention to promote livestock breeding by about 10-12 percent especially two percent for cattle, four percent for pigs, four percent for goats and sheep and five percent for poultry, he explained.
Last year, the agriculture and forestry sector expanded at 2.9 percent, which covers about 24.4 percent of GDP.
Various food products, especially rice have been developed through planting promotion in priority areas, the establishment of farmers’ groups and cooperatives and the adoption of new techniques and technologies.
At the meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr Vilayvanh Phomkhe stressed the ongoing promotion of rice product following the promotion of other cash crops.
Every sector under the ministry should take responsibility to work actively and do everything possible to reach the targets, he advised.
During the two day meeting from September 16-17, participants also discussed preparing dry season rice product in the coming season and the implementation of the ‘three builds’ pilot programme.
vientiane times
