Green asparagus prospects
(Baonghean) Green asparagus was officially put into trial cultivation in Ha Du village, Cam Son commune, Anh Son district since February 2012. After 6 months of care, 7 farming households have started harvesting asparagus, an area of 1.5 hectares.
Farmer Nguyen Van Bay - experimentally planted 5 sao of green asparagus on alluvial land. Although the initial investment capital was up to 30 million VND, when talking to us, he was very excited and expressed confidence in the economic efficiency of this plant. “In August 2012, the family started harvesting. The selling price of 1 kg of grade 1 was about 70 thousand VND, grade 2 was 50 thousand VND and grade 3 was 30 thousand VND. Whatever was harvested, a company would come and buy all the products. Therefore, the family was very excited”, Mr. Bay shared. On the area of green asparagus, Mr. Bay's family previously grew watermelon, so he had the opportunity to compare the economic efficiency between these two varieties of plants.
According to him, the initial investment cost of growing green asparagus is higher (about 12-14 million VND/sao), requiring farmers to stick to the fields and stick to the fields regularly to help the plants grow well and on schedule. However, green asparagus can be harvested within 10 years, so farmers still have a steady monthly income while the investment is gradually reduced. This has created a superior advantage for green asparagus, so farmers in the region are interested in developing it.
Green asparagus growing model for high income. Photo: SM
According to the calculation of Cam Son Commune People's Committee, 1 hectare of green asparagus in favorable weather conditions with the current selling price can bring in an income of over 500 million VND (each sao can harvest 9 crops per year, each crop of 1 sao is about 3 million VND). After guiding farmers to conduct a trial planting on an area of 1.5 hectares, Cam Son Commune is planning to expand the area by 3.5 to 4 hectares in 2013. Mr. Nguyen Van Thang - Vice Chairman of Cam Son Commune People's Committee, said: In the past, the commune determined to work and gain experience, so it supported each household to build a model with 500 thousand VND/sao. In the near future, to expand the area, the commune will continue to support 10 million VND/ha of new planting to encourage and motivate people. Besides, we will also coordinate with the seed supplier to provide technical support and extend the time to collect money for seed purchases from farmers".
Mr. Nguyen Cong The - Head of the District's Agriculture Department said: "For green asparagus, although it is still in the trial planting stage, it initially shows high economic efficiency and great development potential". However, according to Mr. The, the current difficulty of the district is that the proactive work of preventing and controlling pests and diseases for green asparagus is still limited because this is a new crop. In addition, there is a huge difference between the selling price of farmers in the field and the actual selling price on the market...
The long-term effectiveness of green asparagus on Anh Son land is still uncertain. However, if we look at the initial results, this is a very promising crop in increasing income for local farmers, contributing to the successful implementation of the new rural development program in Anh Son.
PV