Warning about unlicensed forestry seed production

(Baonghean) - Nghe An currently has many private establishments and households producing unlicensed forestry seedlings. Every year, they "release" poor quality seedlings to the market, leading to the consequences of many forest growers losing money and suffering.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huyen in My Hoa hamlet, Hoa Son commune (Do Luong) said: My family has been growing seedlings for 2 years now, selling 300,000 seedlings of various types each year, mainly hybrid acacia cuttings. However, we do not have a license to produce seedlings. To produce seedlings, we take original "tissue" seedlings from Quang Ninh to make cuttings. The price of seedlings we sell is only 700 VND/tree. Ms. Huyen also said: Regarding cutting techniques, we mainly do it ourselves and are not trained anywhere. As long as we produce good seedlings, that's fine.

A household's nursery in My Hoa hamlet, Hoa Son commune (Do Luong) does not have a business registration license.

Next to it is the nursery of the Hien - Thanh nursery with a production scale of more than 600,000 trees/year. The nursery is about 1,000 m2 wide with concrete stakes and iron mesh as fences. There are many areas here that have been sold for autumn forest planting, and workers are currently mobilizing to prepare new land for planting. The owner of this facility also admitted that he does not have a production registration license, but when selling goods, we still have red invoices. It is known that Hoa Son commune has 5 large-scale nursery production facilities.

According to Mr. Pham Van Hung, technical officer of Do Luong Forestry Company Limited, every year, Do Luong supplies the market with over 2 million forestry seedlings of various types such as Acacia auriculiformis and Acacia mangium. To produce forestry seedlings, tissue culture seedlings for cuttings purchased in Binh Dinh must be of guaranteed quality and certified by the Forestry Department as primary nurseries. Tissue culture seedlings can only be used for 5 years to ensure the quality of the seedlings, while some households outside still use tissue culture seedlings for more than 10 years, leading to poor quality seedlings.

For forestry seeds, the unit must have a clear origin when purchasing, with an invoice, 1 kg of foreign seeds costs 8 million VND, while the floating price is 200,000 VND/kg of seeds. During the production of seedlings, the competent authority must inspect, have a report on acceptance, inspection and issuance of certificates for the batch of seedlings before planting in the forest.

Tan Huong commune (Tan Ky) is famous for producing forestry seedlings. Here, the price of seedlings is surprisingly cheap, only from 400 - 500 VND for acacia seedlings. Ms. Nguyen Thi Cuc in hamlet 6, Tan Huong commune explained: Every year, my facility produces from 100,000 to 150,000 seedlings of all kinds, mainly acacia cuttings. The reason the price is cheaper than other places is because we do not have a registration license, and do not have to bear other costs, so we sell cheaper. We asked: So when you buy tissue-grown plants for cuttings, do you have an origin and invoice? Ms. Cuc said: We buy tissue-grown plants in the northern market, but there is no certificate of origin or invoice. When we buy some seeds, we have a red invoice.

Mr. Chu Quang Hoi - Chairman of Tan Huong Commune People's Committee added: The commune has over 300 households engaged in forestry seed production, but most of them do not have a license to register for seed production and other procedures. Thanks to this profession, many households in Tan Huong commune have escaped poverty and become rich.

However, for sustainable development, we are planning to establish a craft village to produce seedlings and need the State to guide the procedures so that people can produce seedlings in accordance with the process. Mr. Nguyen Ba Thuc - Head of Tan Ky Agriculture Department said: Currently, the district is checking, reviewing and mobilizing people to complete the procedures to produce seedlings in accordance with the process, ensuring quality.

Failure to register a license will make it difficult for households with nurseries to sell seedlings in the long term.

According to the report of the Forestry Department, in 2016, the whole province planted over 16,030 hectares of forest, equivalent to about 38 million seedlings, of which about 17 million trees could not be controlled for quality, mainly because households did not have registration licenses.

Mr. Hoang Quoc Viet - Head of Nghe An Forestry Sub-Department said: To improve the quality of forestry seedlings, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Official Dispatch No. 1972/SNN.KL dated July 15 on "Strengthening control and improving the quality of forestry seedlings". Requesting the People's Committees of districts, towns and cities to direct the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to strengthen inspection and supervision of organizations, individuals and households trading and producing forest seedlings with clear origin.

Seed materials must be taken from recognized parent trees or parent tree gardens; nursery seeds must be taken from mother trees, selected forest stands, each transformed variety, planted seed forests or recognized seed gardens. Absolutely do not allow the use of seed lots of unknown origin, all seed lots when discovered to be of unknown origin must be destroyed; at the same time, be responsible for checking the production and trading of forestry plant varieties in the management area.

In case the unit does not produce seedlings itself but has to buy them from outside for forest planting, the unit is required to report specifically on the quantity, species of trees and location of purchasing seedlings in writing to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development; at the same time, the Forestry Sub-Department shall inspect the quality before planting.

Van Truong