Nghe An farmers grow watermelon and pumpkin for seeds

In 2022, Quynh Tam Agricultural Cooperative has cooperated with companies and businesses to build a model of growing squash, melon, and squash of all kinds for seeds and product consumption.

Having participated in the model for 3 years now, Mr. Nguyen Van Thang's family in village 6, Quynh Tam commune often maintains growing 1.4 sao of pumpkin on high land that was previously used for ineffective rice cultivation.

Mr. Thang excitedly said: This year, pumpkins have a good harvest, 1 sao yields 1 ton of fruit, after separating and drying the seeds, there are about 12 kg of seeds left. With the selling price of 850 thousand VND/kg of seeds, his family earns more than 10 million VND/sao.

According to Mr. Thang, pumpkins are very easy to grow, almost free of pests and diseases and do not require pesticides. In order for the plants to produce a lot of fruit, farmers must strictly follow the technical process instructed by the staff of the model-building company, especially during the flowering and pollination stages. Currently, he is rushing to harvest pumpkins and urgently prepare the land to be on time for sowing watermelon seeds for this summer-autumn crop.

With 3 sao of pumpkin, on average each crop, Ms. Pham Thi Thuy's family in Quynh Tam commune has an income of 24 million VND. Ms. Thuy shared that growing pumpkin requires little cost and labor. During the cultivation process, to ensure the correct density, she usually leaves 280 - 300 pumpkin plants per sao. On average, 1 plant will produce 3 - 5 fruits, each fruit weighs 1.5 - 2 kg.

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After harvesting, the seeds are dried and crispy, absolutely not dried on concrete floors to avoid the seeds ripening and not germinating. When participating in the model, I and other households were very excited when the enterprise purchased all of them, including seeds and shells.

Ms. Pham Thi Thuy - Quynh Tam commune, Quynh Luu district

In the winter-spring crop of 2024, the entire Quynh Tam commune will plant 3.5 hectares of high-quality seed fruits, concentrated in villages 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10.Growing seed crops has brought people in Quynh Tam commune a revenue of 200 million VND/ha.

At first, people mainly grew pumpkins, then the company provided seeds to develop more varieties of squash, watermelon, winter melon, bitter melon. These plants were mainly selected for cultivation by covering with plastic on high fields, with proactive irrigation or in home gardens for easy management. The time from planting to harvesting of watermelons is only 75 days, while the remaining crops are from 3.5 to 4 months.

Mr. Truong Van Phuc - Director of the Agricultural Cooperative of Quynh Tam Commune, Quynh Luu District said: Seed varieties are very suitable for local soil and climate conditions, the plants are strong, resistant to drought, and have high yields.

Thanks to that, this winter-spring crop, Quynh Tam farmers earned about 10 million VND/sao of pumpkin; 16 million VND/sao of green squash; 12 million VND/sao of watermelon and bitter melon. As for squash, people are expected to earn about 14 - 16 million VND/sao.

In addition to purchasing quality seeds, the joint venture also purchases by-products from pumpkin, watermelon, and squash from farmers to provide feed for livestock and black apple snails on farms.