Nam Dan farmers struggle to find outlets for watermelons

Although many households harvest melons with the concept of “faster is better”, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Du’s family in Hamlet 5, Nam Tan Commune still waits for the melons to ripen before starting to harvest. Mr. Du said that this season his family grows more than 4 sao of main-season melons. There are many types of fruit on the market, so the output of melons is a bit difficult.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Du's family in Hamlet 5, Nam Tan Commune (Nam Dan) is harvesting the main crop of melons. Photo: Huy Thu

As for Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thu's family in hamlet 7 - one of the households that grows a lot of melons in the Lam River alluvial land, irrigation is relatively convenient, melon yield is quite good, about 1.8 tons/sao.

This year, the entire Nam Tan commune planted about 150 hectares of various types of melons, mainly watermelons, in addition to cantaloupes and honeydew melons. Compared to previous years, the commune's melon growing area has been increasingly expanded. In the commune, 7/7 hamlets grow melons, with some families having a few acres, others having more than 1 acre.

Melons grown in Nam Tan are mainly Phu Dong, Hoan Chau and Nong Viet varieties; these varieties are suitable for the local climate and soil. Photo: Huy Thu

To extend the harvest time, people have planted melons in many batches: early melons, main season melons, late melons. The melon season here lasts from early March to the end of July. Planting melons in batches is to create conditions for people to care for, harvest and consume products, avoiding the phenomenon of "collecting and selling in bulk".

However, according to the locals, this year's melons "both had a poor harvest and fell in price", and the consumption market was unstable. Ms. Tran Thi Loan (47 years old) in Hamlet 5 said: At the same time last year, there were many cars coming to buy melons in the fields to take them to distant markets, but this year, traders came to buy too few. Therefore, the locals had to find their own outlets, transporting melons to National Highway 46, Provincial Road 15 and to markets around the area for consumption.

These days, when going to Nam Tan, passing Nam Dan bridge, you can see long lines of melon carts on Provincial Road 15, waiting to sell to passersby. The price of good melons ranges from 5 - 6 thousand VND/kg (down 2 - 3 thousand VND compared to last year). Ms. Tran Thi Xuan (62 years old) - a resident selling melons on the roadside shared: This year, although the price of melons is not good, selling is a bit difficult, but if you try, you can still earn 5 - million VND/sao.

Long rows of melon carts of Nam Tan farmers on Provincial Road 15 waiting to sell to passersby. Photo: Huy Thu

Talking about growing melons, Mr. Dao Van Quang - Chairman of Nam Tan commune affirmed: "Compared to some crops in other localities, melons may not bring high income, but for Nam Tan, this is the main crop. In the process of converting crop structure, melons have been planted by people since 2005. Up to now, the commune has not had any connection in product consumption, people are mobilizing their own output."

Lack of linkage in production and product consumption, lax planning management, and weak market forecasting have led to an unstable melon season. This is an obvious lesson for many localities in changing crop structure.