In many localities in the province such as Dien Chau, Nam Dan, Nghi Loc... fallen pine needles create a thick layer of ground cover, posing a high risk of forest fires if not regularly cleared. For this problem, we can refer to the method in Nghi Lam, Nghi Van, Nghi Kieu communes of Nghi Loc district: collect pine needles to cover shallots.
In the early days of summer, people in Nghi Lam, Nghi Van, Nghi Kieu communes... are busy going into the forest to collect pine needles. Having the opportunity to meet and exchange, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thoa, in hamlet 8 of Nghi Lam commune, said: “Our people have been going into the forest to collect fallen pine needles for more than 10 years now. Especially in the years when people expanded the area for growing chives. Pine needles have many uses for chives. When planting, we cover the rows of chives with pine needles because pine needles are clean and do not rot easily like straw, so they can keep the moisture for the chives to grow well in hot weather. When it rains, the chives are also protected by a layer of pine needles so they are not crushed. In addition, pine needles also help improve and provide nutrients to the soil. In fact, the soil in this area has always been fertile since covering with pine needles. Since then, the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has been significantly reduced. In the locality, 1 hectare of chives is generating an income of up to 200 million VND.”
Currently, many households that do not grow chives also go to the forest to collect pine needles to sell, earning millions of dong each day. It is known that the price of dried pine needles is calculated per truck, averaging from 1.5 to 2 million VND/truck. In addition to serving the cultivation of chives and generating income for people, the annual collection of fallen pine needles also plays an important role in reducing the risk of special-use forest fires. In recent years, localities such as Dien Chau, Nam Dan... have had pine forest fires due to the thick layer of ground cover that easily spreads; meanwhile, in the western communes of Nghi Loc district such as Nghi Lam, Nghi Van, Nghi Kieu... there have been almost no pine forest fires. According to statistics, the entire Nghi Loc district has to spend from 150 to 200 million VND each year to handle ground cover, so propaganda and encouragement for people to proactively collect pine needles are increasingly focused on.
Mr. Tran Nguyen Hoa - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghi Loc district, said: the collection of pine needles by local people has brought many positive effects. Every year, when people go into the forest to collect pine needles for growing chives and selling them, thousands of tons of pine needles have been collected, helping to reduce forest fires. Nghi Loc district has included this method in agricultural extension programs to widely deploy in localities with pine forest areas.
Agricultural by-products are secondary products generated during the production and processing of industrial crops, food, fruits, foodstuffs, etc. by farmers. Common agricultural by-products in life include: straw, rice husks, sawdust, bagasse, corn cobs, etc.
The movement of utilizing agricultural by-products to process into organic fertilizers has been applied by households in Dien Thanh commune - Dien Chau, Nghi An, Hung Dong (Vinh city), Quynh Luong (Quynh Luu) ... in recent years and has brought about practical results. As a large vegetable granary of Dien Chau district with over 100 hectares, previously, farmers in Dien Thanh commune had to spend a lot of money on chemical fertilizers, but since applying the processing of agricultural by-products into organic fertilizers, farmers have saved a lot of money, and at the same time, vegetables grow better and have fewer pests and diseases.
Leading us to the green cabbage and kohlrabi fields that had just been planted for 2 months, Mr. Dau Cong Hung, in Dien Thanh commune, said: “Since the time of planting, more than 2 sao of vegetables of the family have been taken care of completely with organic fertilizer from agricultural by-products that have decomposed humus after 2 months of composting straw, stubble, peanut stalks, etc. This method is thanks to the training from the district, understanding the effectiveness of not depending much on chemical fertilizers in cultivation but switching to collecting agricultural by-products to make organic fertilizer. My family contacted communes specializing in rice cultivation such as Dien Nguyen, Dien Thai, Dien Lien, etc. to collect straw, stubble, and in the season, added peanut vines, sesame stalks, watermelons that we have available, etc.; mixed with biological products, composted for 2-3 months to have fertilizer for vegetables, both cheap and safe, so everyone actively applies it…”.
Now in Dien Thanh commune, the movement of using organic fertilizer from agricultural by-products is being promoted by the people. Ms. Thai Thi Lam - President of the Farmers' Association of Dien Thanh commune, said: the main components of agricultural by-products in the locality are straw, stubble along with some other colored plant stems. When people in other communes harvest the spring or summer-autumn rice crop, people are excited to collect straw to compost it.
In Quynh Luu district, Quynh Luong commune is the largest vegetable granary. In addition to using standard fertilizers purchased from companies, people have proactively purchased straw from neighboring communes to make organic fertilizer for crops. Mr. Nguyen Van Tue - Chairman of Quynh Luong Commune People's Committee, said: the whole commune has 150 hectares of vegetables, so the demand for fertilizer for vegetable growing is very large. If using chemical fertilizers completely, the people's costs will increase many times, and it will harm the soil quality and affect health. Therefore, farmers have been using agricultural by-products as organic fertilizer for many years. Evaluation of recent crops shows that vegetables fertilized with organic fertilizers still grow very well, have few pests and diseases, and are safe for consumers when sold on the market.
Ms. Vu Thi Bich Hang - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quynh Luu district, said: the locality has an area of vegetable cultivation of more than 1,600 hectares, of which about 640 hectares are specialized, with a large demand for fertilizer. In recent years, the use of straw by local people to make organic fertilizer for crops has become increasingly popular. With 7,400 hectares of spring rice and 4,000 hectares of summer-autumn rice, the amount of straw basically supplied for growing vegetables and mushrooms in the area is sufficient. People do not need to import straw from other districts.
According to calculations, every 1 hectare of rice will produce about 10 tons of straw, if burned it will waste organic matter for fertilizer. However, if treated with biological products, about 400 kg of organic fertilizer will be obtained. If used to fertilize crops, it will help farmers save money on buying large amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium each year when the prices of these products are always high.
Data from the Department of Science and Technology shows that: up to now, units and departments have provided people with more than 132,650 kg of Compost Maker, 46,266 kg of Bigreen and 10,256 kg of Balasa N01. With these products, people can produce 66,325 tons of organic fertilizer from straw and other agricultural waste. At the same time, it helps to treat 5,783.25 hectares of land with pesticide residues and treat more than 198,177 m2 of pig and chicken barn floors.
In fact, straw is increasingly popular in the market and has become a commodity to serve many fields such as organic fertilizer, mushroom growing, animal husbandry, etc. In the province, there are many active people investing in buying straw rolling machines to sell to companies, units, and farms, bringing in billions of dong in revenue.
Nghe An is a large sugarcane growing area in the country with a total area of raw sugarcane of more than 20 thousand hectares; the amount of molasses from factories and molasses processing facilities annually reaches millions of tons. From this source of molasses, fertilizer, animal feed and export are created. The family of Ms. Doan Thi Hien, in Giai Xuan commune (Tan Ky) has nearly 30 beef cows. She has learned and knows how to mix feed for the herd from corn, bagasse, rice bran, fish residue... dried, crushed, mixed with biological products and molasses in a certain ratio. When using this source of food, the herd of livestock grows quickly, is fat and healthy, and has much better resistance.
Ms. Hien said that in recent years, thanks to mixing agricultural by-products as reserve feed for buffaloes and cows, costs have been reduced, each kilogram of homemade feed costs from 5,000 to 7,000 VND, much lower than using company feed. The good news is that the by-products after being composted have created flavor and aroma for the feed, stimulating the cows to eat more and faster.
Having been in the molasses production business for more than ten years, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Duc, in Chau Nam hamlet, Tan Huong commune (Tan Ky), is often visited by farms, companies, and households to buy molasses to make animal feed. He said that with a selling price of only 5,000 VND/liter, molasses, although a by-product, has become a cheap material favored by people in fermenting animal feed. “Molasses is a by-product that arises during the molasses making process. If not used and dumped into the environment, it will cause pollution.
Meanwhile, for livestock farming, molasses is a very useful substance and has been used by people for a long time. This substance has many advantages such as low price from only 5,000 - 7,000 VND/liter, helps livestock eat well, reduces the amount of leftover food in livestock farming, prevents some respiratory diseases in livestock; energy density and feed conversion in livestock farming. Personally, my family often uses molasses to take care of livestock.
Currently, molasses is used in two main ways: fermenting dry food for livestock and spreading a small portion of it into the daily diet of livestock. Of which, the method of fermenting food is widely used in Nghe An.
With a total herd of about 800,000 buffaloes and cows in the province, the second largest in the country, the cost of animal feed is very high. Therefore, if we know how to utilize agricultural by-products to make animal feed, it will help farmers save costs, and at the same time, livestock and poultry will increase their resistance and grow faster. Along with that, the living environment is protected when by-products are collected and processed, not wasted on the land or during the production process.
