The Plant Protection Department, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dong Thap Province and CropLife International signed an agreement yesterday on implementing the programme.
Director of the Plant Protection Department Hoang Trung said that the cooperation programme recognises the efforts and initiative of the parties towards the common goal of helping farmers understand and use pesticides safely and effectively towards protecting production and contributing to the building of responsible agriculture.
The programme will also support the building of a process for collecting and treating pesticide packaging in the locality, contributing to protecting the environment and the health of farmers.
Co-Chairman of the CropLife Vietnam Tran Thanh Vu said that the Plant Protection Department and CropLife have collaborated to implement a programme on guiding drug use and building planting area codes for mango and longan trees for export in Son La Province in addition to programmes on training in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of rice in the Mekong Delta region and providing guidelines for the safe and effective use of plant protection drugs in seven provinces in the Mekong Delta region, among others.
These programmes have achieved outstanding results in raising awareness and improving habits of pesticide use among farmers while improving the management and communication capacity of local officials, contributing to efforts to help local agricultural products meet the export standards of fastidious markets.
“We believe that this cooperation programme, with the technical support and resources of the Plant Protection Department and CropLife, will create the impetus to expand the scale and replicate similar cooperation models in the whole of Dong Thap Province,” said Nguyen Phuoc Thien, director of the Dong Thap Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
