Ninh Thuan (VNA) - The south centralprovince of Ninh Thuan, the country’s largest grape producer, plans to expandcultivation of NH 01-152, its new grape variety, because of its excellentquality and other outstanding characters.    

The variety, created by the Nha Ho ResearchInstitute for Cotton and Agriculture Development, has been grown on a pilotbasis but is in great demand already.

Grown for eating fresh, it is crunchy andsemi-sweet with firm flesh, a slight fragrance and just one or two seeds.

Phan Cong Kien, deputy head of the researchinstitute, said the institute is working with local agencies to transferintensive farming techniques to farmers for growing the variety, which wouldgradually replace certain degraded varieties in the province.

In the third quarter of this year the instituteand relevant authorities would seek approval from the Ministry of Agricultureand Rural Development to grow the grape commercially, and subsequentlyintroduce it to more farmers, he said.

It is now grown on nearly 6ha in major grapegrowing areas like Ninh Hai, Ninh Phuoc and Ninh Son districts, Phan Rang – ThapCham city and the neighbouring province of Binh Thuan. 

Nguyen Khac Phong, who grows the grape on his2,000sq.m farm under Vietnamese good agricultural practice (VietGAP) standardsin Ninh Hai district’s Vinh Hai commune, said he recently harvested the firstcrop, and it yielded one tonne per 1,000sq.m, fetching him an income of nearly 200million VND (8,800 USD).

The cost of growing NH 01-152 is 30-40 million VND(1,300 -1,700 USD) per 1,000 square metre, the same as other grape varieties,but the income is higher, he said.

The variety is suitable for growing in theprovince’s hot and dry weather and soil conditions and is resistant to diseases.
It yields two crops a year. Traders pay 100,000-200,000VND per kilogramme of the grape.

The provincial People’s Committee has instructedrelevant agencies to cooperate with the research institute to grow the newvariety.

The province plans to create a large-scale fieldfor planting the grape in Vinh Hai commune this year, and this is also expectedto be a tourist attraction.

The south-central province has more than 1,300haof land under grapes, mostly the cardinal and NH01-48 varieties.-VNA