Farmers stop dragon fruit production to deal with disease

The nearly one-hectare garden of Mr. Nguyen Van Chin's family in Ham Hiep commune, Ham Thuan Bac district, grows nearly 1,000 dragon fruit pillars. Half of the garden had been harvested in the previous crop. The garden should have been lit up at this time, but he decided to cut off the electricity and stop processing the remaining 500 pillars that produced off-season fruit. He put nearly 800 compact light bulbs and wires in storage and stopped pulling the wires and hanging the bulbs in the garden.

Dragon fruit is gathered and waiting to be sold when prices drop. Photo:Viet Quoc

Realizing that the Covid-19 epidemic is complicated, the consumption market is still unstable, the price of dragon fruit in the garden is only 3,000 - 5,000 VND/kg, Mr. Chin thinks that if he continues to keep the lights on, he will suffer losses. Each time he keeps the lights on, it costs tens of millions of VND for electricity, not to mention fertilizer and care costs for 3 months, a total of about 30 million VND. "If he works and loses money, it's better to let the garden rest," Mr. Chin said.

Next to that, Nguyen Xuan Dung's garden of 400 pillars also did not handle the lighting. Two days ago, Dung used a sickle to cut off the old and excess young branches, leaving only the healthy branches to wait for the seasonal crop (the main crop that naturally bears fruit during the rainy season) in three months. He stopped this crop to preserve the investment capital. "We have little capital, so we have to borrow money, my family does not dare to take risks," he said.

Mr. Nguyen Van Chin, Ham Hiep commune, Ham Thuan Bac district, put the light bulbs in storage and stopped letting dragon fruit produce off-season fruit. Photo:Viet Quoc

In Muong Man commune, Ham Thuan Nam district, many dragon fruit farmers also acted similarly. They did not dare to invest in the "gamble" that had many risks ahead. The recent crop lost more than 20 million without recovering the capital due to selling at too low a price, Mr. Nguyen Van Khue (in Dang Thanh village) did not dare to invest further. "Now I just nurture the branches, wait until April, when the rain comes, and eat the whole season to be sure," he said.

Currently, some gardens that were lit up before Tet have produced fruit. Garden owners who are about to harvest are worried because they have already invested capital. In some other areas, dragon fruit is producing large buds and will be ready for harvest by mid-March. Seeing the unstable prices, garden owners are forced to cut off some buds on the branches and only grow a few to reduce investment and care costs during the remaining time.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa, Muong Man commune, Ham Thuan Nam district, cut off some buds to reduce investment costs in the context of an unstable market due to the nCoV epidemic. Photo:Vietnam

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa, a garden owner in Muong Man commune, had electrified 500 pillars before Tet. After 21 days of lighting, he turned off the electricity on the third day of Tet. The weather was nice, so the dragon fruit produced many buds. Each pillar had 30-35 buds, even 40 buds. But these past few days, he had to cut off nearly half of them. Normally, each pillar has 30 buds, but now he only leaves 20 buds. "It will take another 40 days to harvest. We have to cut some off because the more we leave, the more investment costs we incur," said Mr. Hoa.

Last week, on February 4, the People's Committee of Binh Thuan province convened relevant departments to find solutions to help farmers overcome difficulties caused by the backlog of goods at border gates. According to reported data, the area of ​​​​lighting to produce fruit in the period after Tet is about 10,000 hectares (about 1/3 of the total area), with an output of nearly 100,000 tons, and will not be harvested until the end of February.

Along with calling on businesses to support consumption, the provincial People's Committee leaders requested the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to guide dragon fruit growers to have appropriate production plans in the face of the nCoV epidemic. Mr. Phan Van Tan, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that he had asked the districts and the Dragon Fruit Association to advise farmers and members on this issue.

Specifically, the gardens treated with light have produced buds and green fruit. Farmers need to prune and reduce the number of fruits on the tree by 1/2 to 2/3, so that the tree can concentrate its nutrients on growing the fruit, minimizing input costs and nourishing the tree.

For gardens that have been harvested in February, garden owners should temporarily stop using lights to stimulate off-season flowering, prune old and diseased branches, clean the garden, and take care of the existing buds, waiting for a favorable opportunity to resume production.

For gardens that have not signed a consumption contract and are currently using lights, and gardens that have been using lights for more than 10 nights, it is possible to consider maintaining or stopping the electricity supply to avoid losses due to market instability during the Corona epidemic.

Binh Thuan grows more than 30,000 hectares of dragon fruit. In addition to the natural fruiting season in the rainy season (April to August of the lunar calendar), gardeners also process dragon fruit to produce fruit in the off-season by using night lighting techniques - three batches a year (one batch every three months). This is the last lighting crop in the 2019 - 2020 crop year. The investment cost is high, dragon fruit under lighting must cost 13,000 - 14,000 VND per kilo or more for farmers to make a profit.