Assessment on Soil Environment and Vegetable Quality of an Organic Farming Model at Trac Van Commune, Duy Tien District, Ha Nam Province, Vietnam

Abstract

Trac Van commune, Duy Tien district, Ha Nam province is one of the first regions in Northern Vietnam that participates in production of safe vegetables according to organic agricultural model. However, assessments of soil environment and vegetable quality are limited. Therefore, this research was performed to supply more data to present efficiency of organic vegetable planting. The result indicates that, in general, soil environment fully meets the requirements for safe vegetables production by organic farming models. Soils in the research area are not polluted by heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd) and the soil nitrate content is not high. Besides, the contents of heavy metals and nitrate in vegetables are much lower than those in the permitted standards for safe vegetables. Water and vitamin C contents in studied vegetables approximate the average content of water and vitamin C of vegetables in the Vietnamese food composition table published by National Institute of
Nutrition - Ministry of Health.