Nghe An: Where fallen pine leaves are as expensive as "gold"

The newly planted onion beds in Nghi Lam commune (Nghi Loc) are covered with dry pine needles. Photo: Xuan Hoang

At this time, farmers in the communes of Nghi Lam, Nghi My, Nghi Kieu (Nghi Loc) go to the fields to cultivate chives. There is a rather unique material used to cover the rows of chives in this locality: dried pine needles.

While holding dry pine needles to cover the newly sown shallots, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuong in Hamlet 11, Nghi Lam Commune said: After sowing shallots, people cover them with a layer of dry pine needles 10-15 cm thick. To have enough pine needles to cover 1 sao of shallots for her family, she and her husband had to go into the pine forest for 4 consecutive days to collect 7 ox carts, about 1 ton of needles.

"Before the onion planting season, hundreds of people in the commune went into the pine forest to collect dry leaves, so those who came later had to travel 2-3 km to get pine leaves. Many families who could not go into the forest had to spend money to buy pine leaves, about 4-5 m per car.³"It costs up to 1 million VND" - Ms. Thuong said.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuong (Hamlet 11, Nghi Lam Commune) said that after planting shallots, a thin layer of rice husk must be sprinkled on the bed and then covered with pine needles. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Old farmer Nguyen Huy Thang in hamlet 11, Nghi My commune also said: Although he is over 60, before entering the onion planting season, he and his wife still take the opportunity to go to the pine forest early to collect 15 loads of dry pine leaves to cover the onions (about 450 kg). If they go late, it will be very difficult because they have to go to further pine forests."

Having to cover with such a thick layer of pine needles, the people here have used a huge amount of pine needles. According to the people, 1 sao of shallots uses 400 - 500 kg of pine needles, which means 1 hectare uses up to 10 tons of dry pine needles.

Mr. Nguyen Huy Thang in Nghi My commune said: People have been using pine needles for more than 10 years, since they started planting chives. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Nghi Lam commune has 80 hectares of shallots. To plant 1 hectare, it takes 20 trucks of pine needles, which means it costs about 20 million VND (1 million VND per truck). In other words, if people buy pine needles for 800 hectares of shallots, it will cost from 800 million to 1 billion VND. This is an invaluable resource that many places still abandon.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Quang - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghi Loc district: The reason why people in the intensive cultivation of chives use dry pine needles to cover the beds is because pine needles are clean materials, have high porosity, provide a large amount of nutrients to the soil, very suitable for crops with many tubers, especially chives. Before planting chives, people go into the forest to collect pine needles for a while, transport them to the field to compost, and when they are almost rotten, they take them out to cover the chive beds.

Mr. Quang added: Using dry pine needles to grow chives also helps to limit pine forest fires. And in fact, pine forest areas in this area rarely have fires, and if there are fires, they are easy to put out because there is little ground cover. Collecting pine needles also means clearing ground cover for pine forests. With 120 hectares of chives grown in the communes of Nghi Lam, Nghi Kieu, Nghi My... each year, thousands of tons of pine needles have been collected. This is a unique way of Nghi Loc district, both protecting the forest and being useful for the fields.