Nghe An coastal farmers harvest high-yield early-season carrots

The land of Dong Hoi, Quynh Lap commune, used to be a sandy coastal land with saline soil, so many types of vegetables were difficult to grow. Almost no households in the commune practiced agriculture, if any, they only had a few small vegetable gardens around their houses. Therefore, many areas of land were abandoned for a long time, overgrown with weeds.

Mr. Mai Thanh Chuong in Tan Minh village, Quynh Lap commune - one of the pioneer households in bringing vegetables to grow on saline sandy soil said: "Looking at the vast land without any valuable crops, I felt sorry for the land so I wondered what to do to suit the "dead land" for so long. So I and a few households decided to cover it with vegetables, mainly melons and watermelons in the summer and carrots in the winter-spring season."

Households have planted Japanese carrots, which have many advantages: the leaves are more evenly spread, the leaf layer is not thick, the root length is shorter but the root diameter is quite large, the flavor is sweet and fragrant, the color is bright red...

Carrots are grown 3 times a year and can be divided into 3 seasons as follows: Early sowing from: early July to October 15, harvest from November; Main sowing from: October 16 to December 15, harvest around Lunar New Year; Late sowing from December 16 to January 30 of the following year, harvest until May.

With this early carrot crop, farmers in Quynh Lap commune planted the seeds from the end of July of the solar calendar, and after about 3.5 months, they began to harvest. With 7 hectares of carrots, households arranged to plant them in different seasons so that they could harvest continuously for 3 months, with the peak being the last months of the year.

Sharing about the technique of planting and caring for carrots on saline sandy soil, Mr. Nguyen Van Ninh in Dong Minh village, Quynh Lap commune shared: The most important step is soil preparation and must be done carefully, using completely organic fertilizers and composted manure. The sandy soil here is very loose and well-drained, so the entire area of ​​early carrots was not affected during the recent flood. Regarding pest control: when planting carrots, the following pests often appear: cutworms, armyworms, aphids, ring spot disease, soft rot, leaf blight...

For carrots to grow well, Mr. Ninh must regularly check the fields to detect pests early and take preventive measures. Only when necessary, he must spray pesticides to limit the use of chemicals, and ensure the quarantine period until harvest.

Normally, the price of carrots at the beginning of the season is higher than the main season, so the entire area of ​​more than 7 hectares here has been planted by households in the early season. With the automatic irrigation system and land preparation machines, labor costs have been greatly reduced. Thanks to the application of science and technology in production, the yield of the early season reaches 1.5-2 tons/sao.

This year, carrot growing areas in the North have been severely affected by floods and crop failures, so carrot supplies are quite scarce. Therefore, the entire carrot area being harvested by farmers in Quynh Lap is being purchased and pre-ordered by traders. With the current selling price of 13,000 VND/kg, more than 7 hectares of carrots are expected to yield more than 200 tons, which will certainly bring in a large income for farmers.

This winter crop, Hoang Mai Town plans to plant more than 1,100 hectares of various crops, including more than 110 hectares of carrots, mainly concentrated in Quynh Lien and Quynh Lap communes. However, only early carrots in Quynh Lap have been harvested because the high, well-drained terrain was not affected by the recent floods. The remaining areas in Quynh Lien will be ready for harvest after another month.