Farmers in the coastal area of Nghe An province are harvesting high-yield early-season carrots.
While many carrot-growing areas across the country suffered crop failures due to floods, farmers in the coastal area of Dong Hoi, Quynh Lap commune, Hoang Mai town, are entering an early carrot harvest with high yields and prices, bringing in significant income.
The land in Dong Hoi, Quynh Lap commune, used to be sandy coastal soil affected by salinity, making it difficult for many types of vegetables to grow. Almost no households in the commune engaged in agriculture; at most, there were only a few small vegetable gardens around their houses. As a result, many areas were left fallow for long periods, overgrown with weeds and wild plants.
Mr. Mai Thanh Chuong, from Tan Minh village, Quynh Lap commune - one of the pioneering households in bringing vegetable crops to be grown on saline sandy soil - said: "Looking at the vast area of land without any valuable crops, I felt sorry for the land and wondered what to do with this 'dead land' that had been there for so long. Therefore, I and a few other households decided to green it with vegetable crops, mainly cantaloupe and watermelon in the summer and carrots in the winter-spring season."
The households have planted Japanese carrots, a variety with many advantages: the foliage is more evenly distributed, the leaf layer is not too thick, the root length is shorter but the diameter is quite large, the flavor is sweet and fragrant, and the color is bright red...
Carrots are grown in three seasons per year, which can be divided into three periods as follows: Early sowing from early July to October 15th, harvesting from November; Main season sowing from October 16th to December 15th, harvesting around the Lunar New Year; Late sowing from December 16th to January 30th of the following year, harvesting until May.
For this early carrot crop, farmers in Quynh Lap commune planted the seeds at the end of July, and after about 3.5 months, they began harvesting. With 7 hectares of carrots, households arranged the planting in staggered cycles to ensure continuous harvesting for 3 months, with the peak season in the last months of the year.
Sharing his techniques for growing and caring for carrots on saline sandy soil, Mr. Nguyen Van Ninh from Dong Minh village, Quynh Lap commune, said: "Soil preparation is the most important step and needs to be done carefully, using only organic fertilizers and well-rotted manure. The sandy soil here is very loose and well-drained, so the entire area of early carrots was unaffected during the recent floods. Regarding pest and disease control: when growing carrots, some common pests and diseases include: cutworms, armyworms, aphids, ring spot disease, soft rot, leaf blight..."
To ensure his carrots grow well, Mr. Ninh has to regularly inspect his fields to detect pests and diseases early and implement control measures. He only sprays pesticides when absolutely necessary, thus limiting the use of chemical pesticides and ensuring the required waiting period before harvest.
Typically, carrot prices are higher at the beginning of the season than during the main season, so the entire area of over 7 hectares here has been planted with early-season carrots by local households. With an automatic irrigation system and machinery for land preparation, labor costs have been significantly reduced. Thanks to the application of science and technology in production, the yield of the early-season crop reaches 1.5-2 tons per sao (approximately 1000 square meters).
This year, carrot-growing areas in the North were severely affected by floods, resulting in crop failures and a significant shortage of carrots. Therefore, traders are coming directly to the farms in Quynh Lap to purchase and pre-order the entire carrot crop currently being harvested. At the current price of 13,000 VND/kg, the more than 7 hectares of carrots, expected to yield over 200 tons, will undoubtedly bring substantial income to the farmers.
This winter, Hoang Mai town plans to plant over 1,100 hectares of various crops, including more than 110 hectares of carrots, mainly concentrated in Quynh Lien and Quynh Lap communes. However, only the early carrots in Quynh Lap are ready for harvest due to the high elevation and good drainage, unaffected by the recent floods. The remaining areas in Quynh Lien will not be ready for harvest for another month.
