Passion fruit was once a livelihood plant that was expected to change the lives of people in the mountainous areas of Nghe An. In 2016-2017, when I went to the mountainous district of Que Phong, I only heard the Mong people talking about developing passion fruit. People called it the golden age of this poverty-reducing plant. According to people's calculations, the "golden age" of passion fruit, the investment cost for 1 hectare including seeds, trellis poles, fertilizers... was about 120 million VND; the growth cycle was about 4-5 years. Except for the first year, the yield in the following years could reach 40-50 tons/ha, bringing in an income of 200-400 million VND/ha/year.
Passion fruit, therefore, has become one of the typical products of Que Phong; the economic efficiency is many times higher than that of upland rice, cassava, and acacia.
However, this plant is currently "dying young". In the border commune of Tri Le, which is considered the "capital" of passion fruit, the area of passion fruit cultivation has gone from hundreds of hectares to only about 5 hectares. The leader of Tri Le commune said: In recent years, people have been competing to destroy passion fruit trees, or let them wither without care, because many pests and diseases appear on passion fruit trees, making them economically ineffective and the purchase price has also decreased.
According to Mr. Phan Trong Dung, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Que Phong district: To help people in the area of growing raw passion fruit, the Standing Committee of Que Phong District Party Committee issued Resolution No. 08-NQ/HU on developing passion fruit in the period 2013 - 2020. The peak area of passion fruit in the district was 400 hectares in 2017 - 2018. By 2020, fungal diseases occurred on the trunks of passion fruit trees on a large scale, leading to poor growth and low productivity... Therefore, people have destroyed many areas. Currently, the whole district has less than 100 hectares left, scattered in the villages of the Mong people.
Explaining the rapid decrease in area, Mr. Dung said: This is a "difficult" tree, growing on the same type of soil for many years will be infected with fungus. On the other hand, when the Covid-19 epidemic broke out, the export market encountered difficulties, so the price of passion fruit dropped sharply. Meanwhile, people did not receive support policies for developing passion fruit trees and the business, Nafoods Passion Fruit Joint Stock Company, no longer grows commercial passion fruit, but only produces seedlings, so people gradually gave up.
In Con Cuong and Quy Hop districts, orange trees used to be a source of wealth for the people. According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quy Hop district: During the golden period, the orange area of the district developed very quickly, from 400 hectares in 2011, to nearly 2,800 hectares in 2018 and 2019, accounting for 50% of the total orange area of the province and becoming the main crop of the district, with an average yield of 25 - 30 tons of fruit/ha, output reaching approximately 70,000 tons of fruit/year. Many households earn billions of dong thanks to oranges. However, many once famous orange gardens have now sadly withered away. Many families had 3 - 4 hectares of oranges, now only less than 1 hectare left due to pests and diseases, with no way to save them. Quy Hop district authorities said that the orange area is currently only about 1/3 of the area of previous years...
In Con Cuong district, in 2018 and 2019, the whole district had nearly 500 hectares of oranges, many households were well-off thanks to the income from this tree, but in recent years, the area of oranges grown in the district has also decreased to only 275 hectares. Mr. Tran Thanh Binh - Chairman of Yen Khe Commune People's Committee (Con Cuong District) said: In the past few years, orange trees have been infected with yellow leaves, root rot, fruit loss, and withered trees, unable to recover, so people have cut them down almost completely. Even orange gardens that were only planted for 2-3 years have been infected with the disease and had to be cut down to replant other trees such as tea and sugarcane. Currently, the area of oranges in Yen Khe commune has only reached 135.2 hectares/plan of 200-220 hectares.
At the Workshop on proposing solutions to improve, restore and develop orange trees in the province held in January 2023, the leader of the Center for Application of Science and Technology Advances said: As of October 2022, the area of orange trees in the whole province (10 districts and towns growing oranges) is about 2,700 hectares. The total area of degraded oranges is 1,624.7 hectares, of which 345.3 hectares are severely degraded. The current degradation of oranges in the province is mainly caused by diseases. In addition, a small part is due to the fact that the original planted varieties do not ensure quality, a part of the varieties are degraded; orange growers do not have much knowledge about planting and care techniques; the environment for growing oranges has changed...
Most recently, in Tuong Duong district, although the red-fleshed dragon fruit has been directed by the district to apply the production process according to VietGAP standards and build it as a 3-star OCOP product at the provincial level, according to Ms. Kha Thi Hien - Chairman of Tam Quang Commune People's Committee, it still lacks sustainability. Previously, the commune had about 7.1 hectares of dragon fruit with high income, but now 4.5 hectares have had to be destroyed due to incurable pests. Currently, the district has provided funding and the commune is implementing support for people to replant the damaged areas.
In addition to factors such as diseases, climate, weather, seed selection and application of science and technology, the lack of product linkage chain, lack of output, and unstable prices are also reasons why livelihood models lack sustainability. Recently, the incident of 13 households of Thai Hoa Agricultural Cooperative having to dump hundreds of tons of ripe papaya because the enterprise that buys the product stopped purchasing has attracted public attention.
According to the contract for supplying papaya seedlings and guaranteeing the consumption of papaya products between Nafoods Passion Fruit Joint Stock Company and Tay Hieu Agricultural Cooperative signed on November 21, 2022, it was clearly stated that the Company would supply papaya seedlings and guarantee the consumption of all papaya products. However, in July 2023, when 14 hectares of papaya entered the first harvest, representatives of Tay Hieu Agricultural Cooperative contacted the company many times to purchase, but on July 19, 2023, the company announced the termination of the economic contract (regarding the supply of papaya seedlings and guaranteeing the consumption of papaya products), citing the negative impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the export market. Although later, with the intervention of the media and authorities at all levels, the incident was resolved (Tay Hieu Agricultural Cooperative received 3 billion VND in support from Nafoods Passion Fruit Joint Stock Company), this is still a big lesson in agricultural product consumption contracts.
Such “incidents” between farmers and businesses in the cooperation of planting and consuming agricultural products as above are not rare. Similar situations have occurred in the purchase of pineapples in Quy Chau and Quynh Luu districts, or in the Tri Le passion fruit purchase in Que Phong district, when businesses did not purchase at the price initially stated in the contract but arbitrarily reduced the price, causing losses to farmers.
Mr. Duong Hoang Vu - Chairman of Que Phong District People's Committee said that it is difficult to replicate previous livelihood models that have brought high incomes such as passion fruit due to many factors. Among them are technical factors and the disruption of the production and purchasing chain. Therefore, although in 2021, the district agreed to let Nafoods Passion Fruit Joint Stock Company pilot a new crop, the papaya raw material area, to serve export processing and production, and the company coordinated with the People's Committees of Nam Nhoong, Tri Le, Muong Noc communes and people to plant 8.7 hectares. However, in 2022, when Nafoods Company raised the issue of expanding the experimental area to serve the development of the papaya raw material area in Que Phong district to 22 hectares and committed to "accompanying and supporting people in selecting varieties, planting techniques, care, harvesting and output consumption", the authorities refused because they had not yet seen the certainty of this plant.
In Ky Son district, ginger and buffaloes and cows are also considered as a source of livelihood for people in many areas. However, due to fluctuating prices, no stable source of output, difficult transportation, and many workers working far away, development is also difficult; for example, in Na Ngoi commune, Mr. Xong Ba Denh - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: Previously, the total herd of buffaloes and cows in the commune was up to 4,000, now there are only about 2,000; the ginger area is currently only 250 hectares/target of 300 hectares.
According to Mr. Nguyen Ho Lam - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Rural Development: The reason why many models die young or are difficult to replicate is because the annual investment source of the State is still low. The investment scale for the models is still scattered (the capital source for 1 model is still small, maximum 500 million VND/model, each household is only supported with a maximum of 15 million VND/household); therefore, linking with businesses to create sustainable products is still facing many difficulties. In addition, the level of science and technology acquisition, organization of commodity production associated with product consumption of poor households, near-poor households and not good. People's awareness of poverty reduction is still limited, a large number still have the mindset of waiting and relying on the State's support, lacking knowledge and experience in doing business to escape poverty.
In some localities, the establishment of household groups, cooperatives, etc. to support production development still faces many difficulties due to the lack of attention and guidance from local authorities and competent agencies. On the other hand, the beneficiaries are poor, near-poor, and newly escaped-poverty households, so they cannot ensure counterpart capital when participating in the model implementation. Some localities have not implemented the model in the right focus, but are still fragmented and spread out, not focusing on key crops and animals according to the development planning orientation, because they cannot be replicated.
According to localities, despite efforts, the progress of disbursement of capital to implement National Target Programs, including the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the period 2021 - 2025, is generally low; most projects and sub-projects are in the process of implementation, and the specific volume for implementation has not been determined. Ms. Vy Thi Quyen - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son district said: The allocation of capital for the district to implement poverty reduction programs and national target programs is slow, the funding is divided into many stages, in many sectors and fields, so it is difficult to manage and the efficiency of use is not high.
Some projects and sub-projects have not been implemented due to the lack of specific documents guiding expenditure norms and price appraisal. The implementation of activities of projects and sub-projects on livelihood diversification, poverty reduction model development, and production development support in the agricultural sector requires planning from the bottom up, based on the needs of the people and the grassroots; the procedural regulations still have many stages and steps. Meanwhile, there are no documents guiding the prices of seeds, animals, and agricultural materials for these projects, thus causing difficulties in the implementation process.
Currently, some localities such as Tuong Duong, Ky Son, Que Phong... are actively connecting with businesses to grow valuable medicinal plants under the forest canopy, but according to Mr. Nguyen Van Hai - Secretary of Tuong Duong District Party Committee, in order to expand, it is necessary to have an assessment of the effectiveness and suitability to the climate, land and soil conditions of each region in a specific manner.
In addition, the representative of the leader of Ky Son district also said that the district has identified medicinal plants as a strength for economic development and sustainable poverty reduction. However, through surveying and evaluating the precious medicinal plant area and comparing with the regulations on building precious medicinal plant areas stipulated in Circular 10/TT-BYT dated September 22, 2022 of the Ministry of Health, to implement the 210-hectare medicinal plant area, the district needs a large amount of capital, but the investment capital allocated for the 2021-2025 period of more than 6 billion VND is not enough for implementation.
To overcome difficulties, localities propose to have fundamental, synchronous and unified solutions, especially in administrative reform to speed up the disbursement of capital for National Target Programs...