Improving product quality - output solution for peanuts

(Baonghean) - This spring, Nghi Loc farmers not only had a bad peanut crop, but also very slow consumption and difficult selling prices. This is not the first time farmers have encountered this situation. What is the solution to the current consumption problem in peanut growing areas?

Harvesting spring peanuts in Nghi Thach (Nghi Loc).

Mr. Nguyen Phuong Dong's family (Hamlet 12, Nghi Long, Nghi Loc) has 2 sao of peanuts. In previous years, peanuts often yielded quite high yields, some years up to nearly 2 quintals/sao. Not only that, during the harvest season, they only needed to be threshed, winnowed, and sold right in the field to Dien Chau traders. However, this year's peanut crop, not only did the yield decrease due to drought, but Ms. Nha also had to pull the peanuts home, dry them, and leave them for a whole month before selling them. If last year, the price of fresh peanuts sold in the field was up to 18,000 VND/kg, and dried peanuts were up to 25,000 VND/kg, this year, selecting the biggest and most beautiful peanuts, she could only sell them for 18,000 VND/kg. "Every year, we sell them in the field, no need to dry them, no need to transport them home, just pull the peanuts up and sell them for fresh money, a few days later wait for the peanut leaves to wither, then go back to work the land to plant sesame, and use the peanut leaves as fertilizer, not as hard as this year," said Mr. Dong.

Nghi Long is one of the communes with the largest peanut growing area in Nghi Loc district. The peanut yield here is always very high thanks to the good soil, suitable for peanuts. Mr. Le Van Nghia, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: The whole commune has 16 hamlets, of which 14 hamlets grow peanuts, with a spring peanut area of ​​230 hectares and 40 hectares of winter peanuts used as seeds, mainly using the L14 peanut variety. The peanut yield here in good years is always at 1.6-2 quintals/sao. However, this spring crop, due to severe drought, 50% of the peanut area has decreased in yield by about 20% compared to previous years, only 1-1.2 quintals/sao, pulling the average yield of the whole commune down to 1.35 quintals/sao. "Nghi Long's peanut consumption is currently completely dependent on traders from Dien Chau.

In previous years, people often bought peanuts right in the field, picked them up, sifted them, and took them right away, without having to dry them or preserve them. But this season, after harvesting, people dried them, leaving them for weeks or months before selling them. Even now, people still have a large amount of peanuts in stock, partly because traders are slow to buy, and partly because prices are too low, so some households do not want to sell. Normally, Nghi Long's total spring peanut output is about 700 tons, but this year due to crop failure, the area has also decreased, so it is only less than 500 tons and currently about 30% has not been consumed yet" - Mr. Nghia said.

As one of the two large "peanut granaries" of the province, Nghi Loc's annual peanut growing area is up to 4,000 hectares, of which spring peanuts are 3,600 hectares, with an average yield of 25 quintals/ha. However, this spring crop, the peanut yield only reached an average of over 20 quintals/ha. Not only that, consumption is facing many difficulties, and the amount of unsold peanuts among the people is quite large. Mr. Nguyen Duc Tho, Head of the District's Agriculture Department, said: Currently, no business has signed a contract to consume peanuts for the people. There is a market in the district to buy agricultural products, but it is almost ineffective because the purchase price is always lower than the market price. The consumption of peanuts in the area depends almost entirely on the Dien Chau private trader network.

In Nghi Loc, there are also a few businesses but they are not significant, the prices are set by traders, people are almost not allowed to bargain. In years when the market is stable, prices are high, consumption is easy, people can sell at higher prices, but this year, the price of peanuts has dropped sharply, good dry peanuts are only sold for 18 thousand VND/kg, worse peanuts are only purchased by traders for 16 thousand VND/kg. However, except for families who do not need money and cannot bear to sell at too low a price, the rest of the people still have to accept selling at low prices to get money to reinvest in summer-autumn crop production. The difficulty in selling peanuts also leads to another consequence: the quality of peanuts is easily reduced because people are still having to preserve them by traditional methods, if left until the rainy season, they can easily get moldy, greatly reducing the value of the product, and even making it unsellable.

Faced with that situation, in Nghi Loc communes, people are gradually shifting their peanut acreage to corn. Mr. Le Van Nghia - Chairman of Nghi Long Commune People's Committee said: Compared to last spring crop, this year the peanut acreage in Nghi Long has decreased by 30%, people have switched to growing other crops such as sticky corn, watermelon, and cantaloupe. In particular, currently, if the melon crop is favorable, it can bring in an income of 8 - 10 million VND/sao after 2 months.

According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Tho, the district's viewpoint is to focus on reviewing the effectiveness of peanuts compared to other crops such as corn and melons to have a conversion plan to bring higher economic efficiency. If favorable, in the coming time, Nghi Loc will focus on converting some peanut growing areas on high land or in dry and sunny areas to corn growing. Thus, Nghi Loc's peanut growing area is expected to decrease by 30 - 40% because in recent years, corn has been a suitable, effective crop, easy to consume, and its yield is often high and stable.

According to many experts, peanut consumption is difficult, in addition to the reason that the main consumer market is China, which is unstable, currently, among cooking oils, peanuts are not considered a strong oil, and the current general trend is to gradually switch to using palm oil and other oils such as sunflower. In recent years, Nghe An peanuts have been mainly exported to the Chinese market, countries requiring high quality such as Japan, the Philippines... no longer import. However, China is currently also reducing peanut consumption because palm oil from Malaysia and Singapore is flooding the Asian market and ASEAN countries with the advantage of cheap price and quality not inferior to peanut oil.

Along with the transformation of crop structure, in order to solve the output for peanuts, it is very important to create a direct consumption link between farmers and businesses, without going through private traders. To do this, the State needs to promote measures to support businesses to purchase agricultural products, and have open linkage policies to call on businesses to purchase peanuts. To have a more stable agricultural market in general and peanut consumption in particular, we must implement many synchronous measures, in which quality must be identified as the most important issue, only then can we escape the Chinese market. Along with that, the State needs to have clear mechanisms, effective measures and clearly demonstrate its role in helping farmers coordinate with businesses to build brands, improve quality, and at the same time promote the role of businesses in consuming peanut products for the people.

Phu Huong