Three significant accomplishments in the Transition Facility project “Accelerating the development of a modern greenhouse vegetable production sector in Vietnam”, including the first harvest of tomatoes and sweet peppers produced at the six pilot farms, the development of a market brand name and logo for each pilot farmer, and the start of training 720 farmers in modern greenhouse technology. Also, positive reactions from all the guests visiting the Fresh Studio R&D Farm. They were all impressed with the tomato crop in the new greenhouse with automatic irrigation and climate control.
After planting the first crops in August, the Transition Facility project is in full swing and the first crops are looking promising to deliver good results.
For 4 months, the 6 pilot farmers have been using their greenhouses and are now very satisfied. Strong winds and heavy rain did not result in any problems. At the Fresh Studio R&D farm, irrigation and climate (including screening) control for the pilot greenhouse is currently managed fully automatically which is resulting in stable growing conditions. The first tomatoes (end of October) and sweet pepper fruits (November) were harvested with excellent quality. With over 2 kg per plant in the first tomato production, the yield target has also been achieved.
To strengthen the sales position of the products produced by the pilot farmer, a student from Van Hall Larenstein completed research regarding packaging possibilities for tomato and sweet pepper in Vietnam. Advice was provided regarding the packaging options to the pilot farmers.
To distinguish the products in the market a brand name and logo was designed per pilot farmer by Fresh Studio’s Marketing & Business Development team.
Furthermore, next to the production manual for sweet pepper the first Vietnamese tomato production manual was completed. With over 200 slides, the current training manuals for sweet pepper and tomato includes a lot of useful information. Nevertheless, training manuals should be constantly updated and improved.
As part of the project, 8 field days have been organized so far. During these days, a total of 150 sweet pepper farmers and 156 tomato farmers have been trained in sweet pepper and tomato production with modern greenhouse technology. The farmers appreciated the training materials and the opportunity to visit the pilot greenhouses in order to see, experience and discuss the application of modern greenhouse technologies at their own farms.
Certainly there is much interest from farmers to learn more about and to use modern greenhouse technologies. Therefore, it is expected that these training activities will contribute to accelerated adoption of modern greenhouse vegetable production techniques by Vietnamese farmers.
This article was published by www.freshstudio.nl. For more information about the project, click here.