Returning to the "capital of Vinh oranges" in Quy Hop district in the first days of the year, the image of vast oranges laden with fruit as before is no longer there. The bustling and bustling trading activities or the scene of people and vehicles coming to visit and experience the orange gardens are now absent; instead, there are hills of sugarcane and corn, occasionally encountering a few PQ tangerine trees starting to bear fruit. It is hard to imagine that this used to be the largest Vinh orange growing area in the province. If before, the "capital of Vinh oranges" in Quy Hop district had nearly 3,000 hectares of oranges, now there are only more than 200 hectares, concentrated in Minh Hop and Nghia Xuan communes, the area has decreased by 90%. People have switched to growing sugarcane, corn, other crops, beans, cassava, etc.
Visiting a few remaining orange gardens in Quy Hop district, the orange trees are barren, not cared for, green and yellow fruits intertwined, covered with insect bites, and taste sour. Oranges have fallen all over the ground, but the garden owner does not bother to clean them up, not far away, some orange trees have dried up due to being cut down for a long time...
Mr. Nguyen Dinh Phong - one of the few households still keeping the orange garden in Minh Hop commune, Quy Hop district said: "My family has been growing oranges for decades, at the peak there were nearly 500 trees. Now we have to cut them down, only about 100 trees remain. The oranges are no longer productive or of good quality, the more we invest, the more we lose. By the end of this year, I may have to switch to growing other trees. It was a very difficult decision because oranges are a crop that I have grown for a long time and made me rich, but I still have to accept and adapt."
Minh Ho Hamlet grows the most oranges in Minh Hop Commune. Previously, there were hundreds of households growing oranges in the area; many had 2-3 hectares, the smallest had a few hundred square meters. However, currently, up to 90% of the orange acreage has been converted to other crops. Recalling the golden age, Hamlet Chief Ngo Van Hien could not help but feel nostalgic: “Before 2018, every year the oranges were bountiful, each hectare yielded 20-30 tons of fruit, and all was consumed as soon as they were harvested, and it can be said that no crop had ever brought such high economic efficiency. At that time, it was not uncommon for people to earn billions from growing oranges in this area.”
At its peak, Minh Hop commune had up to 1,700 hectares of Xa Doai oranges, accounting for over 50% of the orange area of Quy Hop district. However, up to now, the whole commune only has about 160 hectares of citrus trees, of which 40 hectares are oranges. Ms. Dinh Thi Kim Chau - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: "The remaining area is mainly low-quality oranges, people leave them as they are without taking care of them anymore, and they will gradually be cut down. It may not be until 2030 that the orange area will be able to recover."
Not only in Quy Hop district but also in other orange areas in the province such as Con Cuong, Nghia Dan, Tan Ky, ... in recent years, the area of oranges affected by pests and degradation has increased, forcing them to be cut down. According to statistics of Nghia Dan district, about 5 years ago, the whole district had over 1,000 hectares of oranges; by the end of 2023, there were only 117 hectares left. Mr. Lam Van Thang - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghia Dan district said: "People have switched to growing other fruit trees, of which the most is guava (about 450 hectares), the rest grow sugarcane, PQ tangerines, corn... Although the income cannot be equal to that of orange trees, however, this is a necessary work to rotate crops to renew the soil as well as eliminate pathogens".
In Con Cuong district, the orange acreage has also decreased by 50%, from 447 hectares to only 227 hectares, scattered in Yen Khe, Bong Khe, Chi Khe communes and Thien Son orange farm in Mon Son commune. Con Cuong district is also recommending people to rotate to other crops, only replanting oranges after a 4-5 year cycle. For households and units that continue to grow oranges, the district only encourages households, businesses, cooperatives with conditions and techniques... but does not encourage mass adoption.
Many people are saddened by the decline of Vinh oranges. Local authorities and orange growers say there are many reasons why this orange growing area is gradually being wiped out.
Specifically, in the period of 2017 - 2019, some orange gardens in Quy Hop district began to experience rotten and falling oranges. At that time, there were many storms, so most people thought that the oranges fell due to flooding. However, later, not only low-lying areas, but orange trees planted in higher areas also "fell ill". In the area, gradually, the cutting down of oranges spread, as an inevitable consequence after a period of time when oranges no longer brought economic efficiency as before. The few remaining orange gardens were also abandoned by people, no longer interested in taking care of them.
One of the first reasons leading to the failure in the Phu Quy orange area is that people massively planted oranges beyond the planning. When oranges had a good harvest and good prices, people competed to cut down other crops to plant oranges. For example, Minh Hop commune (Quy Hop) had over 600 hectares of land suitable for growing oranges, but in peak years, the actual orange growing area was 3 times larger, up to nearly 1,700 hectares. Oranges were planted spontaneously based on experience, not following a unified process; many household orange gardens were not suitable for the soil requirements of orange trees; old areas, heavily infected with pests and diseases were interspersed with newly planted areas... causing pests and diseases to spread, making it difficult to control, leading to new orange areas being destroyed and having to be destroyed, and degraded areas increasing rapidly.
The widespread and spontaneous planting of oranges has led to many consequences in terms of growing areas, varieties, investment in care, etc. According to Mr. Nguyen Tien Duc - Head of the Provincial Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection, the first cause affecting the quality of orange gardens is that the quality of the initially planted orange varieties is not guaranteed, and a part of the varieties have degraded. A survey by the Department of Science and Technology shows that more than 60% of orange seedlings in the province are purchased from facilities under specialized agencies, however, when delivered, there is no certificate of disease-free trees or other legal documents; about 20% are purchased from floating varieties on the market and nearly 20% of the varieties are selected by people from gardens for grafting or cuttings. In the whole region, there are no parent seedlings or mother tree gardens, private seedling production facilities mainly use grafts from gardens that have shown signs of degradation and pest infestation; Therefore, the seedlings are poor, inconsistent in quality and purity, and cannot be traced to their origin and quality. After 3-5 years of planting, the orange trees begin to show signs of yellow leaves and root rot...
According to plant protection experts, the current decline of orange trees in the province is also largely caused by diseases. In particular, diseases related to genetics or spread through varieties such as greening, yellow leaves, root rot, and blight are considered the main causes of orange decline. These are dangerous diseases, very difficult to prevent and are the cause of poor development of orange trees, reduced productivity and quality. According to the investigation, there are 46 species of pests and spiders and 36 species of natural enemies on orange trees. Of which, fruit flies, fruit suckers, leaf miners, and red spiders are the main pests. In addition, there are 11 species of harmful diseases, of which yellow leaves, root rot, greening, and brown rot are the three most common harmful diseases.
Through actual surveys, orange growers do not have much knowledge about techniques for planting and caring for orange trees, mostly self-study, based on the experience of previously planted gardens; in particular, they almost do not have in-depth knowledge. Some large-scale orange gardens, garden owners have mastered the techniques or hire technical experts, but this rate is very low. “Most orange growers abuse chemicals with many sprays and waterings (about 15-20 times/year) without paying attention to using biological products and biological pesticides. Abuse and improper use have destroyed beneficial microorganisms in the soil and natural enemies, but there are no measures to regenerate beneficial ecosystems. In addition, the use of a lot of inorganic fertilizers, foliar fertilizers and herbicides in the early stages but little use of organic fertilizers has made the soil increasingly lacking in humus and inert,” said Mr. Nguyen Tien Duc.
Regarding this issue, according to Mr. Nguyen Vinh Quang - Vice Chairman of Minh Hop Commune People's Committee: Because oranges are the main source of income, when people see symptoms of diseased plants, they are confused, they just want to quickly eradicate them without paying attention to the type of medicine, origin, spraying medicine not according to recommendations but mainly based on personal judgment. That makes the diseased orange gardens not only unable to eradicate pests, but also makes the oranges lose resistance, grow poorly, wilt, fall more and more fruit, and the soil becomes worse and worse.
In recent years, the low price of oranges has led to no profit in investment in production, while orange trees require high nutrition, have many harmful diseases that need to be prevented, are "rich trees" that need large investments to bring high productivity and quality; so if there is no or little investment, orange trees will seriously degrade and decline. Therefore, when orange growers are unable to invest in intensive farming or invest in intensive farming less, it is also one of the main causes of orange decline. As of 2018, the total orange area of Nghe An reached over 5,046 hectares and has gradually decreased over the years, from 2019 to now, it is only 1,650 hectares. Some districts such as Quy Hop have decreased from 2,400 hectares to 105 hectares, Nghia Dan 1,200 hectares to 179 hectares...
Worryingly, in most localities, even in the basic construction stage, signs of degeneration appear, while for orange trees, they only enter the aging stage after 12 years old. To date, the area of degraded orange trees has reached more than 943 hectares, accounting for nearly 45% of the total of more than 1,650 hectares of existing orange trees.
