Close-up of some remaining gardens in the 'capital' of Vinh oranges
(Baonghean.vn) - Previously, at this time, Vinh oranges were sold by people on both sides of National Highway 48, passing through Minh Hop commune, Quy Hop district. But now, there is absolutely no such scene. Driving along the roads leading to the "capital" of Vinh oranges, it is rare to see the remaining orange gardens.
Following an officer of Xuan Thanh Agricultural One Member Co., Ltd., we visited some gardens.Vinh orangeremaining in Minh Hop land. It took us nearly half a day to find our way to Nguyen Dinh Phong's orange garden in Tho Thanh hamlet.
Mr. Phong said: In this land, there were no other orange trees that could compare, but because the orange trees were infected with disease and degenerated, they had to be cut down almost all. Before 2020, the whole orange garden had over 300 trees, earning hundreds of millions of VND/year, but the family had to cut them down regretfully because the trees were infected with disease, and every season, all the fruit fell off. Currently, my family only has nearly 100 Valencia orange trees (V2) planted with short-term crops, but the oranges are still of poor quality; when the season comes, traders only buy them for around 5,000 VND/kg.
“The orange acreage has been cut down, the family grows papaya, coconut eggplant, green squash… earning hundreds of millions of dong annually. Although it cannot compare to growing oranges before, now the orange trees have degenerated so we have to switch to other crops.
Similarly, Mr. Nguyen Chi Hoa’s family in Minh Hop commune is trying to take care of the remaining 65 V2 orange trees. Observations show that although the orange garden is taken care of quite carefully by the family with irrigation systems, fertilization, weeding, etc., the orange trees are still stunted, with few and small fruits.
Mr. Nguyen Chi Hoa said that although he knew the economic efficiency was low, his family still took care of it. When the harvest season came, traders came to the garden to buy it for 3,000 - 5,000 VND/kg, each crop only brought in about 15 million VND. "Growing is not profitable, maybe at the end of this year my family will also cut down the entire orange garden to plant sugarcane like everyone else" - Mr. Nguyen Chi Hoa shared.
On the roads within the orange region, the fields of biomass corn, raw sugarcane, cucumbers, squash, coconuts... are green and lush, many households have invested in sprinkler irrigation systems to take care of them. Mr. Nguyen Cong Bien - the owner of a corn garden said that after cutting down the infected orange garden, his family switched to growing biomass corn. Taking advantage of the pre-dug well and the pump before, the family installed a sprinkler irrigation system costing more than 10 million VND to water the corn. Because biomass corn has a short care time, each year they harvest 3 crops and sell them to businesses. With nearly 1 hectare of this land, each year they earn over 150 million VND.
According to data from Xuan Thanh Agricultural One Member Co., Ltd., at its peak, the unit had nearly 1,000 hectares of oranges, but now there are only 8 hectares of oranges and 40 hectares of tangerines left. However, this area of oranges is of poor quality, so it is no longer possible to find a real Vinh orange garden.
Mr. Quan Vi Giang - Vice Chairman of the District People's CommitteeQuy Hopaffirms: As the “capital” of Vinh oranges, from 3,000 hectares in 2020 to 1,500 hectares in 2021, up to now, the whole district has only a few dozen hectares left. The problem is that the remaining orange gardens are not of good quality, although people still take care of them. Therefore, the district does not encourage people to maintain areas of poor quality oranges, but should switch to growing other more effective crops.
