Accompanying farmers: Effective cultivation of native prickly cucumbers

(Baonghean) - For nearly a month now, every early morning, households in Minh Thanh commune have gathered to harvest cucumbers. Mr. Nguyen Tho Thinh - Hamlet 8, Minh Thanh commune said: "My family has been growing cucumbers for many years, this year we have added 4 more sao. From the 10th day of the first lunar month, we have been harvesting, picking every day, we have over 2 tons of fruit, about 50% of the harvest. The price of cucumbers has decreased, like at the beginning of the season it was 10,000 VND/kg, then it decreased to 6,000 - 8,000 VND/kg, but growing cucumbers is still the most effective".

In the 2015 Spring crop, the mountainous commune of Minh Thanh boldly converted more than 20 hectares of ineffective rice on highland to grow native cucumbers. Thanks to the effective application of scientific and technical advances and the experience gained over many years of intensive farming, after more than 1 month of planting, cucumbers have now been harvested en masse, one sao of cucumbers during the harvesting process yields from 1.5 to 2 tons of fruit. If only calculating the stable price of 5,000 VND/kg, each sao will earn from 6 to 10 million VND/crop, 3 to 5 times higher than growing rice and other crops. The total estimated income from growing cucumbers this spring crop is over 3.6 billion VND. Mr. Phan Phuc Hao, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, added: In addition to traditional crops for many years such as oranges, apples... recently, there have been thorny cucumbers. The commune's policy is to focus on doing a good job of agricultural extension, training and transferring scientific and technological advances to people to improve productivity per unit area.

Mr. Tuan - Phan Hien