Have a good spring

(Baonghean) - In the hot sun of May, on the peanut fields, the salty sweat of farmers falls, but the joy of a good harvest helps them ease their fatigue. This year the weather is favorable, the peanut crop is good, the tubers are bright and beautiful, and consumption is also more favorable.

Crossing Nam Dan bridge, stretching before our eyes is the vast alluvial land of Nam Tan and Nam Loc communes... People are concentrating on harvesting spring peanuts. Wiping away her sweat, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh, hamlet 3 of Nam Tan shared: "My family has 4 sao of land to grow peanuts, but this year there are many tubers, we will harvest about 1 ton of peanuts. If in previous years, we often encountered cold weather, then drought, causing low productivity, this year the peanuts germinated well, during the stage of peanut shoots and flowering, there was high humidity, so the peanut crop was good, there were many double and triple peanut tubers, the average yield was over 2 quintals/sao, an increase of 50 - 60 kg compared to previous years, the peanut tubers were also firm, with a beautiful bright color. Currently, many people come to buy at 13,000 VND/kg of fresh peanuts". This spring crop, the whole Nam Dan district has 1,700 hectares of peanuts, concentrated in the communes along the Lam River. Last spring crop, the average peanut yield was 19.5 tons/ha, this year it reached 23 tons/ha.

Farmers in Nghi Long commune (Nghi Loc) harvest spring peanuts.

In the peanut key area of ​​Nghi Loc district, farmers are also rushing to the fields to harvest peanuts. This year, the peanut area of ​​Nghi Long commune (Nghi Loc) has decreased by 60 hectares compared to last spring crop, due to difficulties in consumption in recent years, so people have switched to growing corn. However, the 180 hectares of peanuts in the whole commune have had a good harvest, especially in sandy soil areas. Peanuts grown on sandy soil have a yield of 1.8-2 quintals/sao, the average for the whole commune is 1.6 quintals/sao. In the peanut growing area of ​​Dien Chau district, Dien Thinh commune is always one of the leading communes in terms of area, yield and quality of peanuts. The whole commune has 410 hectares of spring peanuts, with an average yield of 1.58 quintals/sao, especially on sandy soil areas, some peanut fields have a yield of nearly 2 quintals/sao.

The family of Ms. Thai Thi Lan, Hamlet 2 (Dien Thinh Commune) has 6 sao of peanuts, the entire area uses the local traditional lotus peanut variety. Up to now, she has finished harvesting the peanuts to switch to growing sesame in the summer-autumn crop. Ms. Lan said: This year, the weather is favorable, so the peanuts her family planted have a yield of over 1.7 quintals/sao. Many families in the commune have pulled out peanuts early to sell fresh to beer shops at a price of 15 - 16 thousand VND/kg. Mr. Cao Hieu, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: Of the 410 hectares of peanuts in the commune, nearly half are located on sandy land, this year there is a big harvest. In the commune, there are 7 establishments specializing in collecting peanuts to sell to China through unofficial channels, creating favorable conditions for peanut consumption for farmers...

Since the beginning of the season, every day, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy's family in Hamlet 7 (Dien Thinh Commune) has purchased, processed and sold 1 - 1.5 tons of fresh peanuts to traders in the northern provinces. After being packaged, the peanuts are transported overnight to be available in the northern provinces and cities such as Hanoi, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, etc. "This year's peanut crop is good, the tubers are firm, the northern provinces are in need, so there are days when I buy up to 3 tons of fresh peanuts," Ms. Thuy said. Up to now, traders are purchasing dried peanuts at 33,000 VND/kg, while last year it was only about 25 - 26,000 VND/kg. The entire Dien Chau district has nearly 3,000 hectares of spring peanuts, mainly using traditional lotus-shaped peanut varieties, L23, L24 and L14, with an average yield of over 1.4 quintals/sao. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Vinh, Head of the District's Agriculture Department, said: Currently, the peanut harvest in the area is entering the "final" stage, so that we can immediately start planting sesame and summer-autumn watermelon.

Peanut harvest in Nam Tan (Nam Dan)

This spring crop, the whole province planted over 14 thousand hectares of peanuts. According to the representative of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the average yield of the whole province is expected to reach approximately 23 quintals/ha, 2 quintals/ha higher than last spring crop. Mr. Nguyen Van Lap, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: To achieve that result, first of all, in recent years, some localities such as Dien Chau, Nghi Loc, Do Luong have well implemented the policy of the province and the agricultural sector on improving peanut varieties, bringing original varieties to organize the production of good quality and grade seeds. Right from the sowing stage, the weather was very favorable for peanuts to germinate and grow well, especially during the flowering stage in the province, there were late northeast monsoons, causing rain but the temperature was not too low, thanks to that, peanuts did not have to suffer from the cold while the soil moisture was suitable for peanuts to sprout and flower, and set tubers. Thanks to that, this year, in sandy areas, dependent on rainwater and not covered with plastic, moisture was added, so the rate of solid seeds and the number of tubers increased, bringing productivity higher than every year...

Nghe An peanuts have affirmed their brand and restored peanut varieties in some localities, contributing to increasing productivity and quality. However, in order for peanuts to have higher value, specialized growing areas need to continue to increase the application of scientific and technological advances to improve productivity, quality and grade of peanuts, while reducing product costs. Because currently, Nghe An peanuts are priced higher than other localities, while finding a stable market for peanuts is still open.

Phu Huong