Solving the "problem" of effective crops for highland areas
Although the potential and advantages of land in the western districts of Nghe An are very rich and diverse, there are still many ineffective crop models that waste land resources. What to plant and what to raise so that people in the highlands can quickly escape poverty is always a difficult "problem" for local authorities and professional agencies.
(Baonghean) -Although the potential and advantages of land in the western districts of Nghe An are very rich and diverse, there are still many ineffective crop models that waste land resources. What to plant and what to raise so that people in the highlands can quickly escape poverty is always a difficult "problem" for local authorities and professional agencies.
First of all, the lychee tree on Con Cuong land was supported by the Pu Mat National Park Project and the Social Policy Bank to grow about 30 hectares in Chau Khe and Yen Khe communes (buffer zone of Pu Mat National Park) from 2003 to 2007. We went to Chau Son village (Chau Khe) and saw many small stalls selling lychees along National Highway 7. Ms. Vi Thi Tinh in Chau Khe commune complained: "I've been sitting here since morning but no one has bought it." Ms. Tinh said that she bought lychees from households for 5,000 VND/kg and then sold them for 7,000 VND/kg, but few people bought them, the reason being that the lychees in Chau Khe are both sour and small. We stopped by to visit Mr. Vi Khai's house in Chau Son.
His family's lychee garden is planted on flat land, with straight rows, lush trees but few and small fruits. Mr. Vi Khai lamented: Growing 2 hectares of lychee since 2007, in addition to the project's support money, the family had to borrow over 100 million VND to invest. The first year, the lychee was only sold for 15,000 VND/kg, then it could not be sold, for some reason the lychee produced few fruits, and was often affected by pests and diseases. In the following years, the lychee was only sold for 5,000 VND-7,000 VND/kg and few people bought it. After 7 years of putting effort and money into the lychee garden, the result was... a loss. Not to mention that in those 7 years, the land resources were also wasted. Mr. Khai added: Calculating the total income in 2012 on my 2 hectares of lychee, I only got nearly 10 million VND, less than 1 orange tree in Quy Hop. In the near future, we will invest in switching to growing oranges. It is known that the whole Chau Khe commune currently has over 15 hectares of lychee that do not bring economic efficiency, the commune is looking for ways to convert to other more valuable crops.
Yen Khe commune used to grow over 15 hectares of lychee, but now there are only 5 hectares left, because people have destroyed the lychee to grow oranges. According to Mr. Lang Anh Hung - Head of the Con Cuong District Agriculture Department: The above lychee area has not been effective, it is necessary to convert to specialty lychee such as Luc Ngan lychee, or to grow oranges, because currently the orange tree has a lot of potential.
Mr. Vi Khai's 2-hectare lychee garden in Chau Khe (Con Cuong) in 2012 only earned nearly 10 million VND.
For the So tree in our province, there was a time when people called it the "miserable" tree. So trees were invested in since 2002, mainly in Nghia Dan, Tuong Duong, Ky Son districts over 1,000 hectares, with an investment value of over 10 billion VND. This type of tree quickly died in the forests. In 2002 alone, Nghia Dan was assigned by the project to plant 500 hectares of So trees, many people here said: Most of the So tree planting area died, the remaining area was stunted, they wanted to replace it with other trees that were more effective but did not dare because of the project's land.
In Ky Son district, the Tam Hoa plum tree was planted since 1996 by the UNICEF Project. The peak area reached over 200 hectares, each year yielding over 1,000 tons of fruit, however, it was not effective. Mr. Ly Cho in Trung Tam village - Muong Long - Ky Son confided: His family planted nearly 1 hectare of Tam Hoa plum, at first it was still sold for 10,000 VND/kg, but after that no one bought it, so there were years when the plums rotted all over the garden. Mr. Ly Pa Cho - Secretary of the Party Committee of Muong Long commune shared: Up to this point, the Tam Hoa plum area in Muong Long is still over 100 hectares. Currently, the traffic road has been paved to the commune center, the transportation problem is not a concern, but the price of plums is too cheap, so during the harvest season there is still a backlog. Muong Long is in dire need of replacing Tam Hoa plum trees with other types of trees but has not found a suitable type of tree.
In addition, in Ky Son district, there are still some trees that have not been effective, such as persimmon and red pine. Persimmon trees are mainly grown in Tay Son commune, 15 hectares, but due to the uneven quality of seedlings and limited cultivation techniques of the people, the productivity is low, not to mention the difficult product output, so people do not take care of them at present. Taro in Ky Son has long been a specialty tree, with hundreds of hectares in the whole district. Mr. Bui Tram - Chairman of the District People's Committee said: At first, there were about 250 hectares of taro in Ky Son in Tay Son, Muong Long, Huoi Tu communes... bringing high economic value, but for the past 2 years, taro has not been consumed. The reason is that taro is a naturally grown variety that is very delicious and fragrant, but recently, people have used fertilizer to grow taro, so the taro is hard and consumers do not like it.
Mr. Lo Kham Kha - Deputy Head of Agriculture Department of Tuong Duong district said: In Tuong Duong alone, in 2003, Program 135 supported seeds for people to grow about 7 hectares of eight-degree bamboo shoots in Thach Giam and Tam Thai communes... Hopefully, this will be an effective model to replicate. However, in the beginning, many households planted but did not protect them, so buffaloes and cows destroyed them, not to mention that this type of bamboo shoots is difficult to sell, so people are not interested in growing them. Up to this point, in the whole Tuong Duong district, there are only 2 households in Tam Thai commune growing about 60 eight-degree bamboo roots.
In order to grow crops that exploit the potential of land for economic development in the highlands, many people believe that the State needs to have a long-term and synchronous investment plan, changing the way people think and do things. In particular, it is necessary to pay special attention to choosing varieties of crops suitable for soil quality, market demand and have policies to support businesses to consume products when the market is difficult. Only then can we hope to solve the "problem" of effective crops for people in the highlands.
Article and photos: Van Truong
