What problem for passion fruit tree?

(Baonghean) - Starting to grow passion fruit in Tri Le commune since 2010, Que Phong district now has 150 hectares of passion fruit and has proven its economic efficiency when it generates 10 times more income than rice cultivation on the same area. However, recently, information about some passion fruit areas being affected by pests and dying has raised questions about the role of "houses" in the poverty alleviation problem of the people in the mountainous areas.

Finding a way out of poverty thanks to passion fruit

Visiting Mr. Vi Van Son's house (Yen Son, Tri Le) when his family is harvesting passion fruit (planted in April this year). In just the past 3 weeks, the family's 1.3 hectares of passion fruit have yielded more than 10 tons of fruit, bringing in an income of over 100 million VND. It is expected that the area will continue to yield another 20 tons of fruit until the end of the season.

Passion fruit garden of Mr. Vi Van Son's family in Yen Son village (Tri Le - Que Phong)

According to Mr. Son, the land here is "open land", it dries out after a little bit of sun, becomes soggy when it rains, and cannot retain water, so cultivating crops is really difficult. Previously, in addition to corn and upland rice, only acacia trees could be grown, but the economic efficiency was very low. By 2010, the way to escape poverty from passion fruit was revealed. After a period of consideration, this year he boldly borrowed capital to invest. Thanks to ensuring the technique, his passion fruit garden has grown healthily with high productivity, promising to be able to keep the roots for the next 2 years.

Tri Le is a settlement of Thai, Kinh, Kho Mu, Mong ethnic people. Life is still difficult due to soil conditions as well as the limited level of the people. In recent years, thanks to many projects to develop cultivation and livestock, the local economic situation has changed a lot. In particular, passion fruit is considered a key economic crop, contributing significantly to hunger eradication, poverty reduction, bringing full meals and warm clothes to the people.

Previously, the income of the people was only 6.5 million VND/person/year, but now it has increased to nearly 10 million VND. The number of poor households has also decreased from 80% to 53%. Therefore, from only 2 hectares of pilot planting in 2010, the whole commune now has a total area of ​​108 hectares, of which 34 hectares belong to the factory, the rest are grown by 120 households. It is calculated that each hectare of passion fruit with a total investment of 100 million VND will bring in about 350 million VND. The average yield is about 30 - 35 tons/ha.

According to Mr. Lo Van Diep - Secretary of the Tri Le Commune Party Committee, passion fruit is considered the main crop of the commune, helping people not only stabilize their lives but also become well-off and rich. It is estimated that by 2020, the entire commune will expand its area to about 350 hectares.

According to statistics from the Que Phong Department of Agriculture, the district currently has about 150 hectares of passion fruit, of which 85 hectares are grown by people in their own gardens, and the rest belongs to Napaga Passion Fruit Joint Stock Company (under Nafoods Joint Stock Company). Passion fruit trees bring quite high yields, up to mid-August this year, the district has harvested more than 400 tons of fruit; the output of people by the end of 2015 is estimated to reach about 2,500 tons, most concentrated in Tri Le commune.

With the current purchase price of 10,000 VND/kg, each family planting a few dozen trees can earn nearly 20 million VND/year. In the coming time, the district will continue to develop the movement of planting this tree to create income for farmers, contributing to solving employment for workers in the area.

It can be seen that in terms of economic efficiency, passion fruit trees bring in more income than many other crops of Que Phong on the same area. This is considered a sustainable way to get rich for the people. However, in practice, this is also a "difficult" plant, requiring strict technical requirements.

More coordination between businesses and farmers is needed

In the past 2 months, many areas of passion fruit newly planted in 2015 have been infected with disease and died en masse. The total damaged area is estimated at nearly 6 hectares.

We visited the family of Mr. Ha Van Trung (Yen Son village, Tri Le), who has suffered a large area of ​​damage. It is known that he planted 200 passion fruit trees since last September, after 3 weeks, the death rate of the trees was more than 50%. To prove it, Mr. Trung took us to the family garden. Indeed, the number of dead trees was over 100. When digging up the dead trees, it was easy to see that the roots were dry and burnt due to direct contact with fertilizer.

Mr. Ha Van Trung's family's passion fruit garden has only 200 trees planted but more than 50% have died.

On the other hand, the planting hole ratio is not in accordance with the correct technique. According to regulations, each planting hole must ensure the ratio of length, width 80 cm and depth 60 cm. However, through inspection, the hole that Mr. Son dug was less than 60 cm wide and approximately 30 cm deep. The above situation of planting with incorrect techniques is not only an isolated case but also occurs in many other passion fruit gardens of the people. In addition, currently, some people's gardens are also infected with viruses caused by spiders and thrips, which greatly affects the plants.

Regarding the above “errors”, we brought our questions to the Department of Agriculture of Que Phong district and were explained: To provide professional guidance to the people, many training courses are always organized quarterly, even monthly. Many technical staff of the district, commune as well as from businesses located in the area also regularly support the people.

However, most of the technical trainings still take place in the halls, lacking the visual aspect in the field. Many people are not enthusiastic in participating, so the number is not guaranteed. Meanwhile, the level of ethnic minorities is not uniform, many people cannot listen and speak the common language, so the quality of the training is still not completely convincing.

Napaga Joint Stock Company is a business that consumes passion fruit products from farmers and develops passion fruit material areas (located in Que Phong district). The leader of this business said: During the production process, for many reasons, almost 100% of farmers do not comply with the production process recommended by the company. Including steps such as watering, spraying or spraying not in time, leading to cross-infection from other diseased gardens to newly planted seedlings.

Improper planting of passion fruit is one of the reasons why passion fruit dies.

In addition, in the past, the passion fruit growing area in Que Phong was mainly from the district's policy programs, and the people have not invested in planting and developing it themselves, so they have not promoted their sense of responsibility in managing, caring for, and protecting their assets. Regarding the support policy for people whose lemon areas have died, the company will provide support for a part of the seedlings for people to plant instead. However, this is only a short-term measure, in the long term, the company will closely coordinate with the local government and the district's passion fruit development steering committee to organize training on planting techniques for people.

It is known that in the coming time, Napaga Company will add 600 hectares of land planned for developing raw passion fruit in Que Phong district. For people who directly sign production contracts with the company, they will receive investment support to develop production scale from 300 seedlings/household or more.

However, for this project in particular and other projects in the district to truly have depth and bring long-term economic efficiency, it is necessary for the people to have a sense of self-improvement. At the same time, businesses in the area need to build a strong connection with the people to ensure technical and consumption aspects. Overarching all is the role of orientation, direction, support and encouragement of the local government to continuously improve the efficiency of economic movements.

Thanh Quynh

[links()]