The person who brought pepper and orange varieties to Que land

(Baonghean) - From the concern of finding a way to develop the economy in his hometown, Mr. Hoang Trung Thong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Kim Son town, Que Phong district, invested in growing oranges and pepper on a farm scale. These are the first varieties of trees introduced to Que Phong land.

Taking us to visit his family's pepper and orange growing model, Mr. Thong could not hide his joy when these varieties of plants grew well, suitable for the local soil conditions. Busy with his job as a government official but loving agriculture, he came up with the idea of ​​growing pepper at the beginning of 2014. Before doing so, he visited many localities in the country famous for pepper growing such as Quang Binh and Quang Tri to learn about the economic value, techniques, and care experience. After careful calculation, he went directly to Quang Tri to buy seeds and planted 4,500 pepper plants on an area of ​​3 hectares of his family farm in June 2014. Feeling that he did not have a firm grasp of the technique, he invited the owner of the pepper garden from which he bought the seeds to provide technical guidance in the first few months with a salary of 10 million VND/month.

Mr. Ho Trung Thong (right) introduces his family's pepper garden.

At first, things were not simple. Because pepper plants are climbing plants, they require woody plants to grow with them. He invested a total of 800 million VND to buy núc nác trees to grow with them, but the survival rate was only 1/10. In total, the loss was up to 500 million VND. Not giving up, he researched and replaced them with other types of trees such as cypress and cotton trees. In addition, on the total area of ​​3 hectares of pepper, there were only 2 hectares of red sandy soil that helped pepper plants grow well; the remaining 1 hectare of red soil was not suitable for the soil, so the pepper plants grew slowly. In the process of thinking and researching alternative tree varieties, he was introduced to orange growing models in Quy Hop to learn from their experiences. After calculating, seeing that the economic value of orange trees was high and that they were suitable for red soil, he decided to transfer the entire 1 hectare of poorly growing pepper trees and buy another 4 hectares of land to grow oranges.

Five hectares of orange trees were successively formed on the land that had previously grown low-value crops. Mr. Thong also applied drip irrigation techniques to provide the most effective and economical irrigation water for the plants. However, like pepper trees, the story of growing orange trees also went through many difficulties. There are still memories of waking up and sleeping with… orange trees. Every time the orange trees showed signs of disease, he had to run around looking for information and learning from the experiences of his predecessors to take care of the orange garden. Listening to him tell the story of bringing pepper and orange varieties to Que land with many hardships, even great economic losses, I asked him why he did not choose other locally proven varieties such as passion fruit to invest in but instead chose these varieties. He said: “Based on the local climate and soil conditions, I find that pepper and orange trees are completely suitable and well-adapted; their economic value is also higher than cinnamon and passion fruit. Personally, I really want to introduce new varieties of plants to Que Phong. The journey may have some stumbling blocks and failures, but that is valuable experience in the implementation process. When I successfully implement it, I will try to replicate it for many farmers to follow. Certainly, their investment costs will be reduced because they do not have to work and learn at the same time like me.”

Looking at the pepper and orange gardens of Mr. Hoang Trung Thong's family growing green, we also felt happy with the Vice Chairman of Kim Son Town who loves farming. He affirmed: "Next year, the pepper garden will start to bear fruit. If the pepper price on the market is calculated as it is now, after only 2 years of harvesting, the family will recover the initial investment capital". Mr. Thong's new crop models are promising to bring economic efficiency to the family, but for now, his farm provides regular jobs for 10 workers, with an income of 100,000 VND/day/person. What is admirable is that the workers are all poor households or post-rehabilitation subjects. With determination and methodical investment, hopefully Mr. Thong's pepper and orange growing model will be successful in Que land.

Phuong Anh