Nam Dan farmers grow squash with good income
(Baonghean.vn) - With its distinctive aroma and easy-to-eat summer flavor, winter melon is increasingly popular in the market. Grasping this trend, many farmers in Nam Anh (Nam Dan) have expanded their growing area.
These days, the family of Mr. Nguyen Kim Minh - Hamlet 1, Nam Anh Commune, Nam Dan is focusing on taking care of and harvesting 2 sao of squash of the family.
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| The well-developed sweet melon trellis of Mr. Nguyen Kim Minh's family - Hamlet 1, Nam Anh Commune (Nam Dan). Photo: Thuy Tinh |
According to him, the important thing in caring for squash is to create ventilation for the plant to grow well. With many years of experience in vegetable production, Mr. Minh affirms that growing squash always brings high economic efficiency.
“Nam Anh commune has a movement to grow luffa; in addition to harvesting the fruit, people also prune the leaves to feed the fish. Growing luffa only takes time to plant the poles, tie the trellis, and harvesting lasts 6-7 months. In the summer, we harvest every day, and my family earns more than 10 million VND per sao in a year.
For Mr. Bui Dinh Tuyen's family in hamlet 2, Nam Anh commune, this is the third month of harvesting squash. With the motto of crop rotation, increasing productivity per unit area, his family planted seeds from the end of the 10th lunar month and harvested from the beginning of the 1st lunar month.
With only 1 sao of squash, his family harvests every 2 days, with an average income of 200,000 VND/time.
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| Sweet gourd is a delicious dish, gourd plants are easy to care for so they are highly economically efficient. Photo: Thuy Tinh |
As a commune with a tradition of growing vegetables, in recent years, implementing the agricultural restructuring project, Nam Anh is a very active commune in converting crop structure, increasing productivity per unit area.
Mr. Nguyen Van Nam, Head of the Agriculture Department of Nam Anh Commune, Nam Dan said: Loofah is popular in the market, the commune has a tradition of growing it for many years, people have experience in choosing varieties and caring for it, so the economic efficiency is high.
With the characteristics of being suitable for many types of soil, strong growth, few pests and diseases, mainly taking time to make the trellis, using decomposed manure will give high productivity, so farmers in the commune always give priority to the area of commercial vegetables.
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| On average, each sao of sweet melon brings in over 15 million VND/crop. Photo: Thuy Tinh |
“This spring, Nam Anh planted over 160 hectares of diverse vegetables including bitter melon, sweet melon, squash, and jasmine. This year, the weather was favorable for vegetable growth, with good prices and products, resulting in high income. Especially sweet melon, this year the area expanded to over 20 hectares, with good prices, at peak times 18,000 VND/kg, now 7,000-8,000 VND, many households can earn 15 million VND per sao, if the weather is favorable like this, the harvest will last until September.”
Growing squash is quite simple, less susceptible to pests and diseases, the harvest time is longer and takes advantage of the idle farming time, besides the investment capital is not much, mainly people use manure in livestock farming so the cost is low. Each sao of squash gives an average yield of over 2 tons, on average each sao of squash gives a net profit of over 15 million VND.
With a large quantity, traders often come to households in Nam Anh commune to buy, so consumption is quite easy. Currently, sweet melon is grown mostly in hamlets in Nam Anh and Nam Dan communes, bringing in billions of dong in revenue for farmers./.