Van Don: For sustainable development of agriculture associated with tourism

Agriculture associated with tourism is an effective direction, contributing to the promotion and creation of local output for products; at the same time, creating new tourism products, improving the living standards and incomes for rural people. With great potential for agricultural tourism development, Van Don district is determined to deploy and promote more and more models of modern agricultural production combined to become an attractive tourist destination; since then, gradually realize the goal of agricultural development associated with new rural construction.

Destination "attracts" guests

In the mid-November, when the orange orchards of Van Yen (Van Don district) begin to ripen and become attractively red, it is also the time when gardeners here welcome guests. Guests not only buy oranges to enjoy, but more importantly, they want to immerse themselves in the peaceful rural environment, see the ripe sweet fruits and freely record beautiful moments with nature.

 Visitors experience at a Van Yen orange garden (Van Don).

From that time to December, on social networking sites, beautiful pictures and moments in Van Yen orange garden were posted and shared everywhere, continuing to create a strong spread, attracting more and more people. More tourists come to experience orange garden tourism.

Mr. Tran Van Hau, owner of Nong farm page 68 in Van Yen, said: Orange orchards have long become the main source of income for the family. Recently, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, the consumption of oranges has decreased, but instead of selling normal oranges, my family opened the door to welcome tourists to visit. The opening of the garden to welcome tourists has brought additional income for the family. Every day, my garden welcomes nearly 1,000 guests to visit, take photos and buy oranges to bring home, bringing in tens of millions of dong in income.

 The images of tourists experiencing at Van Yen orange gardens are spread on social networks.

With this new form of eco-tourism, orange gardens quickly become attractions, picnics, and souvenir photos that attract many tourists. This year's orange season, many garden owners have invested in building rest and dining areas to serve the needs of outdoor play, enjoy typical local dishes, so that after experiencing at the orange garden , visitors can participate in other activities. From there, creating an additional source of income for gardeners in Van Yen.

It can be seen that, in the past few years, not only selling finished oranges, tourism to experience orange gardens is becoming a new and very popular tourism model in Van Don; both spreading the image of Van Yen orange specialties and affirming the orange brand in the market. This is a new direction, helping to develop both agriculture and tourism in parallel that Van Don district is focusing on and encouraging.

Many potentials and advantages

Van Don is a district with a lot of potential for agricultural development associated with tourism because of its rich and diverse resources of various types of agriculture, from fruit orchards to aquaculture areas. special OCOP products... Currently, there are a number of agricultural production models in the area that can develop attractive tourism products, such as: Orange plantations in Van Yen, Ban Sen, Ha Long peach orchards, marine raft areas on the sea...

Specifically, up to now, there are more than 180 households growing oranges in Van Yen commune, with a total area of ​​about 183 hectares. The average output per year is about 200 tons. Regarding peach trees, the whole district has nearly 60ha of peach trees, concentrated in Ha Long, Dai Xuyen and Dong Xa communes. Dao Van Don has long been a trademark; At the same time, the peach gardens also create beautiful landscapes for visitors to experience.

 Van Don also has a large area of ​​aquaculture... ...an area that can be developed in association with tourism experiences for tourists.

Particularly in the field of aquatic products, promoting the advantages of sea and islands, Van Don district has increasingly expanded and invested methodically in farming. In the district, there are more than 3,300 hectares of aquaculture, in which, most of them are raising molluscs (2,400 hectares) such as clams and oysters, concentrated in communes: Ban Sen, Ha Long, Thang Loi, Dong Xa, Ngoc Vung, Quan Lan. Remaining, there are about 4,700 cages for marine fish farming, mainly for grouper, persimmon, and springfish in communes: Ban Sen, Ha Long, Ngoc Vung, Thang Loi, Dong Xa and Cai Rong town. Shrimp farming area remained stable with 150ha.

Aquaculture areas are oriented to serve the needs of tourists to enjoy, visit and experience. Visitors can directly buy seafood at the cages and cages and can experience the seafood farming process, clearly feel the beauty of Bai Tu Long Bay, the cultural life, living habits and production of the island. Residents here…

Along with that, many OCOP products of Van Don also create attraction for tourists such as sa worm, squid, oyster... Over the years, many agricultural models with high economic efficiency have also been focused on building, helping improve the quantity and quality of OCOP featured products such as oysters, co clams...

Facing the great influence of the epidemic, the district continues to pay attention to organizing production and supporting cooperationcommunes and households with good agricultural production practices (VietGAP); at the same time, promote product consumption; thereby developing agriculture in association with tourism, in order to exploit potential strengths in the area.

Need participation, synchronous investment

Although a number of models have appeared, the development of agriculture associated with tourism in Van Don is still small, without synchronous investment and linkage. Many areas lack infrastructural conditions, such as roads, parking lots, sanitation areas, etc. In addition, tourism-related facilities, such as signage systems, display areas, product introduction… not yet interested in investment; the promotion is almost not done. Human resources for tourism activities from agricultural models are mainly gardeners, directly farmers who have not been trained in tourism expertise. Therefore, many establishments are still spontaneous, without a long-term development strategy. Especially before the impact of the epidemic in the past 2 years, the development of agricultural models associated with tourism in Van Don area has been greatly affected.

However, from the end of 2021 up to now, under epidemic conditions, seeing the trend of experiencing tourism in groups and separate clusters attracting tourists in the area, Van Don district has focused on promoting, paying attention to creating favorable conditions. more favorable conditions for the development of agro-tourism models.

 Tourists rest and enjoy food at the orange garden.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Minh, Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Van Yen commune, said: The commune and district have solutions to support orange-growing households in terms of resources for reproduction, promoting the strengths of experience tourism. . By the end of 2021, the commune has completed and put into use the 10/10 Village Cultural House in combination with parking and turning areas for tourists. This parking area is concreted on an area of ​​​​nearly 1ha, with full public toilets. The commune also directed the orange growing cooperatives in the area to ensure good disease prevention and control when opening to welcome guests; At the same time, it also checks the implementation of epidemic prevention, scanning QR codes of gardeners.

According to Mr. Ha Van Ninh, Deputy Head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Van Don district, in 2021, since switching to safe and flexible adaptation to the epidemic, the department has advised orange growers to open their doors to welcome guests, creating destination for rest and experience. In 2022, Van Don district also develops a project to develop concentrated orange growing areas in combination with eco-tourism, in order to develop this model more strongly. Specifically, the district will open more roads to the area of ​​orange orchards to facilitate the reception of guests, focusing on ensuring food safety, security and order... for the area.

In addition to the model of garden committed to tourism, in 2022, the district will also promote the redevelopment of the model combining aquaculture with tourism; to attract tourists and promote and consume local seafood products.

 Van Don still has a lot of potential for agricultural development associated with tourism, which needs synchronous participation and investment. Photo: Minh Ha

The reality in some localities in the province and the whole country shows that agriculture associated with tourism has brought good socio-economic efficiency, while creating the richness and attractiveness of tourism products and finding local output for local agricultural products, bringing higher income for farmers besides purely agricultural activities, helping people to stick with their homeland. Therefore, rural tourism development has become one of the important contents agreed by the Prime Minister on the policy of inclusion in the National Target Program on building new countryside in the 2021-2025 period.

This is a good condition for Van Don to develop more strongly than agriculture associated with tourism. However, in order to develop agricultural tourism in a methodical, effective and sustainable way, the district needs synchronous participation and investment in both planning and infrastructure; at the same time must propagate, encourage and guide farmers as well as people on the benefits of developing agriculture combined with tourism; promote human resource training, methodically and strongly promote these destinations and models...

Along with that is focusing on restructuring production and comprehensive agricultural development, preserving and developing specific and indigenous products, developing clean agricultural production models, investing in technology in agriculture. to advance to modern agriculture; at the same time, build a model of production chain and association with the participation of enterprises and cooperatives associated with tourism and services; thereby enhancing added value and sustainability for agriculture; contribute to the district's goal of building a new rural area in 2022 and the following years.