Fluctuating rubber plantation in Phu Quy

Sharp decrease in area

Although her family's 0.6 hectare rubber plantation has just entered its third year of harvest, and the exploitation cycle is still very long, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang in Nghia Hong commune (Nghia Dan) still decided to cut down and sell the small timber.Rubber gardenThis time, I planted a poor variety, and scraping the whole garden each day only yielded 30-40kg of latex. A few years ago, at the beginning of the season, I could sell it for 7,000-8,000 VND/kg, but then it gradually dropped, sometimes to 4,000-5,000 VND/kg, and each day I could only sell more than 200,000 VND. The income is not enough to compensate for labor and health, not to mention investment and care costs," Ms. Hang shared.

Ms. Hang's family's 0.6-hectare rubber garden was cut down and converted to grow guava trees even though it had just entered the third year of latex harvesting. Photo: Phu Huong

Currently, Ms. Hang has reported and requested the commune to convert to guava cultivation; the remaining 1 hectare of rubber is under the management of Co Do Farm. Although the exploitation cycle will end by the end of this year, she is almost leaving it unharvested. "At most, I can only collect 30-40 kg of latex per day. After cutting it down, I will ask the farm to switch to guava cultivation. Only when I am forced to follow the farm's plan and have to plant rubber will I continue to grow. It is very discouraging, if I plant a more resistant variety, the yield will be low.tree species"High yielding trees are prone to collapse," Ms. Hang shared.

Many rubber plantations in the exploitation cycle were cut down in Nghia Dan. Photo: Phu Huong

As the "key" rubber growing area of ​​Nghia Dan district, in the years 2007 - 2009, the price of rubber latex was high at 14 - 15 thousand VND/kg, people in Nghia Hong commune massively developed rubber acreage; however, currently, the acreage has been reduced to only 337 hectares.

Mr. Ho Sy Minh - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: For decades nowlatex priceunstable, declining, at times only 4,000 - 5,000 VND/kg, greatly affecting the psychology of producers. In the past two years, the price has been more stable, fluctuating from 7,000 - 8,000 VND/kg, but due to the heavy and difficult harvesting work, while the productivity is low, many households are discouraged, cutting down orchards that are in the harvesting period, switching to growing fruit trees in the hope of increasing income.

According to Mr. Minh, if you want rubber trees to produce a lot of latex with good quality, you need to follow good technical procedures from planting to care. However, currently, the farms have not really accompanied and attached to the producers, but mainly let the growers figure it out themselves.

Mr. Ho Sy Minh - Vice Chairman of Nghia Hong Commune People's Committee said: Many households are frustrated, cutting down orchards that are in the harvest period, switching to growing fruit trees in the hope of increasing income. Photo: Phu Huong

After nearly 10 years of converting her orange garden to grow rubber, Ms. Dinh Thi Lan’s family in Hong Truong hamlet, Nghia Hong commune has just begun to harvest the first batch of products. However, the joy had not yet begun when disappointment extinguished.

“I can only tap for 6 months, the season will end in December 2022, and the productivity is too low. Every day, I go tapping from 3-4am, but the entire 0.5 hectare of rubber only yields 7-8kg of latex. In addition, the latex is very thin and has low content, so the selling price is always lower than other households, usually only 5,000-6,000 VND/kg, sometimes even 3,000-4,000 VND/kg, it is really not worth the effort,” Ms. Lan said in frustration. After cutting down the garden, her family did not replant rubber trees but invested more than 40 million VND to grow guava.

After cutting down rubber trees, Ms. Dinh Thi Lan's family in Nghia Hong commune switched to growing guava. Photo: Phu Huong

The situation of people cutting down rubber trees and replacing them with fruit trees such as guava and tangerine; some orchards, although still in the exploitation cycle, people do not tap latex regularly, or even leave them alone, has been happening in the "rubber capital" of Phu Quy for many years now. According to information from the Department of Agriculture of Nghia Dan district, from 2020 to now, the area of ​​rubber trees in the area has decreased from 1,500 hectares to about 900 hectares.

Not only in Nghia Dan district, but also in Thai Hoa town, this situation is quite common.

Quickly solve the problem of planning, investment, and production linkage

For many years, Phu Quy land has been considered the capital of rubber trees in the province, with the economic value that this crop brings. However, up to now, many gardens have been cut down. Harsh weather conditions, rubber trees are often broken by storms; many areas of trees are not guaranteed, the care process is not invested, productivity and output are low, while the harvesting is a lot of work, leading to the situation that many households switch to other crops.

According to the representative of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, partly because the farms - the units assigned to manage and develop rubber trees on Phu Quy land - lacked close supervision in organizing production, training, transferring and guiding tree planting techniques for production households. Meanwhile, farmers still "do their own thing", leading to low output and latex quality. Since then, many areas after the latex exploitation cycle have been converted to growing raw sugarcane. Some other areas have been converted by people to grow fruit trees even though they are still in the exploitation period.

Many rubber growing areas in Tay Hieu commune, Thai Hoa town have been converted to sugarcane growing. Photo: Phu Huong

In addition, the financial and technical resources of the farms are both weak and lacking, so they have not been able to create sustainable raw material areas; latex output and quality have not really met the requirements; management and market research have not been focused on. Purchasing raw materials at low prices does not create attraction for producers...

“In fact, rubber raw material areas that are properly invested in by businesses and have stable product output will develop sustainably and effectively, and workers will feel secure in production even when rubber prices decrease,” said the leader of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The sustainable successes of Nghe An Rubber Investment and Development Joint Stock Company are an example. Since the investment policy was approved, for more than 10 years, the unit has developed more than 4,500 hectares of rubber, of which 2,500 hectares have been exploited, with an average yield of 1.9 tons/ha/1 exploitation cycle of 15 years; creating jobs and stable income, averaging 6.5 million VND/person/month for hundreds of workers.

Workers of Nghe An Rubber Investment and Development Joint Stock Company exploit trees in Thanh Duc and Thanh Chuong gardens. Photo: Phu Huong

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tuan - General Director of the company said: Determining the variety is the first step, number 1, so the quality of the tree variety is the top priority; along with that, the care process always strictly follows the technical process set out by the group. Thanks to that, productivity and product quality are always guaranteed, the unit's garden is assessed to have the best quality in the Central region. In the company's plan, when it is allocated enough land to close the area according to the approved plan, it will build a processing factory right in the raw material area, increasing the value and increasing the sustainability of rubber tree development on Nghe An land.

Currently, Vietnam has to import millions of tons of natural rubber every year for processing. This means that the rubber industry has a pretty good output. Nghe An aims to have 17,000 hectares of rubber by 2025. Given the current situation of increasingly shrinking rubber plantation area, the problem of planning, calling for investment, linking production and finding output for products needs to be resolved in a more timely and effective manner. Otherwise, that goal will be very difficult to achieve.