Late Winter Peanut Crop in Nam Dan: Crop Failure, Bad Tubers
If every year, the late winter and early spring peanut crop of farmers in the Lam River delta area, Nam Dan district, is highly productive, this year, the peanut crop is severely damaged, the selling price is also low and consumption is lower.
These days, on the Lam River bank of Thuong Tan Loc commune, people are focusing on harvesting peanuts in time to plant watermelons for the Spring - Summer crop.
At the end of the 10th lunar month, after harvesting the red peanuts, Mrs. Tran Thi Xuan's family in Hop Tan hamlet planted nearly 2 sao of peanuts and is currently harvesting them in time to plant watermelons. However, if every year, she harvested about 300 kg of fresh peanuts in a peanut season, this year the crop was almost completely lost, only about 50-60 kg. The peanut bushes pulled up were almost all peanut tubers, scattered among the roots, not densely packed with tubers like every year.
Bringing peanuts to sell to passersby along the road, Ms. Tran Thi Xuan said that not only is the selling price lower than every year, only 20,000 VND/kg, but there are also very few buyers.
This year, more than 3 sao of peanuts of Mr. Tran Ba Dong's family, also in Hop Tan hamlet, were planted in the 10th lunar month after harvesting the glutinous corn crop. Having pulled up half a sao of peanuts, Mr. Dong said: Last year, these peanut beds also yielded several hundred kilograms of dried peanuts, but this year they only yielded less than 1 hundred kilograms of fresh peanuts.
If the peanuts flower and it is warm and rainy, they will produce a lot of peanuts. But this year, when the peanuts flowered, there was no rain or thunderstorms, but a long, dry cold, so the flowers drooped and the peanuts could not be produced, especially the firm ones. Not only that, the peanuts were also bad and not firm. If in previous years, more than half a sao of peanuts would yield a few hundred dried peanuts, but this year, there was only less than one hundred fresh peanuts, not enough to cover the cost of the seeds.
Mr. Tran Ba Dong - Hop Tan hamlet, Thuong Tan Loc commune, Nam Dan district
Thuong Tan Loc commune has 110 hectares of late winter and early spring peanuts in Dai Loc, Dai Dong, Hop Tan hamlets... According to Mr. Tran Xuan Hung - the officer in charge of cultivation and plant protection of the commune: This year, the peanut crop was severely damaged, on average, 1 sao only yielded about 1.5 quintals of fresh peanuts, equivalent to about 90 kg of dried peanuts, while normally the peanut yield of the commune usually reaches 2.2-2.4 quintals/sao. "Some areas were moldy; many areas were planted 7-10 days earlier than usual, when flowering, it was cold, so the tubers were poor, leading to low productivity and quality", said Mr. Tran Xuan Hung.
Starting to harvest sporadically for a week now, it is expected that by mid-April, farmers in Nam Dan district will finish harvesting the late winter and early spring peanuts in the coastal areas, mainly selling fresh peanuts to serve customers and especially beer shops in the sunny season, however, currently there are very few customers.
