Nghe An: Applying science and technology to save orange trees

Painful to have to cut down the orange tree

From 2018 to now, in Nghe An province, the area of ​​orange trees cut down due to poor growth and development has reached over 1,340 hectares. Through inspection and assessment by the agricultural sector, on theorange business zoneIn Nghia Dan, Quy Hop, Con Cuong..., over 80% of the commercial orange area and over 50% of the basic orange construction area show signs of degradation, the quality of oranges has decreased, of which over 6% of the construction period area is at risk of being demolished before going into business; 15.8% of the developing commercial orange area is at risk of being cut down in the next 1-2 years.

In Con Cuong district, many households are also facing great difficulties because the orange trees are not growing, some areas are still lush but do not produce fruit, or if they do, the fruit is very weak. Mr. Tran Van Kinh, Pha village, Yen Khe (Con Cuong), has planted 300 Xa Doai orange trees in the past 5 years. However, after 4 years of construction and harvesting 1 crop with 10 tons of fruit, the trees have gradually degenerated, and the yield is decreasing. Currently, Mr. Kinh is extremely anxious, worried that the orange area that his family has invested in is at risk of having to be cut down.

Improper planting and care techniques have left many orange gardens "indifferent", with tall trees that do not produce fruit, or produce low-yield fruit. Photo: Tien Dong

In Minh Hop commune, one of the major orange growing areas of Quy Hop district, it is currently facing the situation of orange garden degeneration, causing great economic losses. In the orange growing area of ​​​​Tea Team 2 of 3/2 Agriculture - Industry Joint Stock Company, we witnessed 10 hectares of orange seedlings.Xa Doai orangeThis unit's orange trees have been damaged, even though they were only planted three years ago. Although they have not yet been harvested, these 10 hectares of orange trees are at risk of having to be cut down.

Mr. Nguyen Nam Thuyen - Director of 3/2 Agriculture - Industry Joint Stock Company: The cost for 1 hectare of orange in the past 3 years is more than 150 million VND, although before planting, the unit also carefully selected seedlings, and strictly applied technical measures, but still do not understand why the orange trees do not grow but are stunted and have yellow leaves. With this situation, there is a risk of losing nearly 2 billion VND.

According to statistics, in Quy Hop district, the orange growing area is mainly concentrated in 5 communes, including: Minh Hop, Nghia Xuan, Chau Dinh, Van Loi, Ha Son. If before 2018, the orange growing area of ​​the whole district reached more than 2,500 hectares, now there are only about 1,600 hectares left, due to many orange areas being degraded, pests... so people have destroyed them to plant other trees.

Many orange gardens have only been harvested for one season, or even before harvest, they have already degenerated. If they are cut down, the risk of economic loss is very high. Photo: Tien Dong

Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quy Hop district said: There are many reasons leading to the orange trees degenerating, pests, low productivity. The main reasons are soil infection, weather effects, red spiders, fruit flies, and even people buying poor quality seeds.

Mr. Hung also added that, in the face of the fact that many orange areas in the area have degraded, the district has taken soil samples and orange tree samples for testing many times, even invited experts to check, but it is not possible to handle it all because of the large area. Some experts also recommend improving the soil by rotating crops. However, the most important thing is that people need to carefully choose varieties, in reputable places. At the same time, it is necessary to strictly apply science and technology in planting and caring for orange trees, avoiding the abuse of chemicals and fertilizers that have long-term effects on orange trees.

Pruning and shaping the orange tree. Photo: Tien Dong

Technical measures to improve degenerated oranges

We met Dr. Do Van Chung - an expert in the field of plant nutrition of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology when he was implementing measures to support people to renovate and restore orange gardens in Con Cuong district.

Mr. Chung said that through research on the climate and soil in Nghe An and the production practices of the people, it was found that currently many households are growing oranges based on experience rather than scientific standards. Therefore, the risk of orange gardens degenerating early or not developing will be very high, causing losses to growers.

Dr. Do Van Chung conducts pruning to renovate a degraded orange garden in Con Cuong district. Photo: Tien Dong

Mr. Chung said that orange trees are very difficult and sensitive crops, so each growing region will have different values. In reality, people are currently choosing to buy varieties based on their preferences, word of mouth, without basing their research on soil quality and climate of each region to choose the appropriate variety. Not to mention many varieties do not guarantee quality, floating varieties so they have low productivity. In addition, people abuse fertilizers and chemicals to promote orange tree growth, shortening the exploitation cycle, causing the trees to quickly become exhausted.

Dr. Do Van Chung - an expert in the field of plant nutrition of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology: Normally, an orange tree's exploitation cycle, if properly applied according to scientific and technical standards, can last from 25-30 years. With the current haphazard way of planting and caring for oranges, the orange tree's exploitation cycle only lasts from 10-15 years, and even by the 5th year, it has already degenerated.

After pruning, the cut will be disinfected to avoid infection and damage to the orange tree. Photo: Tien Dong

Currently, according to our research, some orange gardens in Yen Khe commune (Con Cuong), Dong Thanh (Yen Thanh), due to degeneration, have had to be intervened with scientific and technical measures. After studying the "disease" of the orange garden, scientists quickly proceeded to improve the root system, create branches, disperse, fertilize, and help the orange trees recover.

Mr. Truong Van Bien, Dong Trung hamlet, Dong Thanh (Yen Thanh) has a 5ha orange garden. His family started growing oranges 7 years ago, but shortly after planting, the orange trees had low productivity, so he decided to invite scientists to research, inspect and renovate. After 1 year of renovation, the trees recovered and gradually produced high productivity. In the 2021 orange crop alone, his family's orange garden reached 30 tons/ha.

Mr. Bien's family's orange garden after renovation has yielded higher yields than before. Photo: Xuan Hoang

According to Mr. Ngo Hoang Linh - Director of Nghe An Center for Application of Science and Technology Advances, currently the control of quality and origin of treesorange varietyare still facing many difficulties. In the area, there is no unit that can meet the demand for large-scale, quality varieties, so people are almost having to find and buy seedlings themselves. In addition, because people are growing oranges based on experience, intensive farming techniques are still limited, they do not know how to prune branches and use fertilizers appropriately. This leads to unsatisfactory productivity, uneven quality of orange gardens, and designs that do not meet market demand. Orange growing land is exploited continuously, without crop rotation, leading to rapid degradation, disease infection, affecting the growth and development of orange trees. Not to mention, the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers leads to drug resistance, making many diseases such as Greening, yellow leaves, root rot, ulcers, scars, etc. incurable.

Faced with the situation that many areas of orange trees are degraded and at risk of being cut down, to minimize damage to people and at the same time increase the value of orange trees in the area, the unit is building a pilot project to renovate and restore some orange gardens in the area. If successful, it will guide people to apply it on a large scale.

Mr. Ngo Hoang Linh - Director of Nghe An Center for Application of Science and Technology Advances