Farmers in the largest passion fruit growing area in Nghe An face difficulties

Passion fruit is massively infected

Once having a garden area of ​​more than 400 passion fruit trees, Mr. Vi Van Quang - Head of Yen Son village (Tri Le, Que Phong) considered this an effective poverty-escape tree because it brought much higher economic value than native plants. However, due to the epidemic, this year the family was forced to cut down the entire passion fruit garden.

Passion fruit trees contribute to changing the lives of people in Tri Le commune, Que Phong district. Photo by Dao Tuan

Sadly, this is the general situation of the whole village. Previously, 70 households in the village cultivated passion fruit, but now there are only about 20 households. The cultivated area of ​​these 20 households has also decreased by about half.

Even the villages that used to be the capital of passion fruit such as Na Nieng, D1, Xan village, and Bo village are all in the same situation. This has caused the passion fruit growing area of ​​Tri Le to decrease sharply from 212 hectares in 2017 to 153 hectares in August this year.

Mr. Vi Van Quang said that the price of pesticides and agricultural inputs is still high compared to the income of the villagers. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Previously, when passion fruit trees first took root in Que Phong, many people believed that the locality would form a large-scale, concentrated growing area. According to the planning, the growing area was determined to be up to 1,500 hectares.

However, 5 years after the planning approval, the current passion fruit area in the district has only reached 201 hectares (a decrease of 82 hectares compared to 2017).

Explaining this decline, Mr. Nguyen Ba Hien - Head of the Rural Development Board of Que Phong district said that among the many reasons leading to the above situation, there are 2 main reasons mentioned.

Firstly, passion fruit is a difficult plant, easily infected with disease-causing viruses, but the specific medicine has not been effective in eliminating the pathogens. Testing the effectiveness after spraying shows that the medicine only stops at the level of minimizing the disease for the plant. Therefore, many areas have been sprayed but the plants are still not cured, forcing the growers to cut them down.

Meanwhile, recently the climate has been unstable, with many long periods of heavy rain causing pesticides to be washed away after spraying, causing more disease outbreaks.

Passion fruit infected with disease forced growers to cut them down. Photo: Thanh Quynh

Second, the price of pesticides and agricultural materials for plants is still high compared to the living standards of people in mountainous areas. Specifically, to grow and harvest 1 hectare of passion fruit for a 2-year life cycle, people have to invest from 90 to 100 million VND in fertilizers and pesticides. Meanwhile, people are "afraid" to invest such a large amount of money, so they only invest "moderately" or "half-heartedly", causing the crop to decline more and more.

Currently, the service of plant protection drugs and materials for passion fruit is still limited when in the market, only Nafoods Passion Fruit Joint Stock Company is the main supplier. This makes farmers lack of choice when developing growing areas.

People are confused

In response to questions about the high prices of agricultural chemicals and supplies, a representative of Nafoods Passion Fruit Joint Stock Company said: “The current prices of fertilizers, supplies and pesticides for passion fruit are still high because these products must be imported or purchased from other countries and localities. Then they are transported to the growing area quite far away, so in addition to the actual cost of the product, there are additional transportation costs.

Regarding the issue of specific pesticides for plants not being fully effective in disease prevention and control, the main reason is the complicated weather. Along with that, farmers have not sprayed pesticides and used disease prevention and control products for passion fruit plants regularly, continuously and at the right time.

Although the local labor force is quite abundant and has many potentials and advantages in natural conditions, for many reasons, passion fruit cultivation in Que Phong district has not yet been as effective as expected. Photo: Thanh Quynh

To temporarily resolve the above situation, Que Phong district has mobilizedPeople completely cut down the infected trees to eliminate the disease and let the land rest for a while to do the renovation work. Then plant other trees to replace them within 2 to 3 years, then plant passion fruit again. However, during that time, the district still has no specific policy on what trees to plant to replace them, and people are still confused and passive.