Farmers in Nghe An province earn 90 million VND/hectare from red sweet potatoes.
(Baonghean.vn) - With its soft, sweet, and delicious texture and high nutritional content, Tan Ky sweet potatoes (Nghe An) fetch good prices, becoming a major source of income for many farming households.
These days, the fields in the Trọt ngang area of Phượng Kỳ hamlet, Kỳ Sơn commune, are bustling with people harvesting sweet potatoes on their rice paddies and terraced land.
This year, Ms. Le Thi Tam's family planted sweet potatoes on 2 sao (approximately 0.2 hectares) of their rice paddy land. Ms. Tam said: Growing sweet potatoes for their tubers requires less labor and material costs compared to growing corn or rice. They mainly use well-rotted manure and don't need pesticides. After nearly 4 months, the yield reaches almost 3 quintals per sao, and with the current price of 13,000 - 15,000 VND/kg, her family earns nearly 5 million VND per sao. Notably, the sweet potato stalks can also be sold as animal feed at a relatively high price.
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| As soon as the farmers harvest their crops, traders and locals buy everything up. Photo: Bong Mai |
Harvesting sweet potatoes in the adjacent field, Ms. Tran Thi Huong shared: "Although this year's sweet potato yield is not as high as last year, the selling price is stable. From planting to harvesting, the weather has been favorable, so the sweet potatoes have grown and developed well. Sweet potato plants are drought-resistant and provide high economic efficiency. Moreover, sweet potatoes are suitable for the soil and climate here, so they produce abundant and large tubers."
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| Sweet potatoes from the Trọt ngang region have red skin, white flesh, and are very soft and sweet. Photo: Bông Mai |
Mr. Nguyen Cong Hung, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son commune, said: Ky Son commune currently has 5 hectares of land planted with sweet potatoes, each hectare yielding 50 tons of tubers. With the current selling price, each hectare generates nearly 90 million VND in income. This is a short-term crop but brings quite high profits.
"In particular, the sweet potatoes grown here have a distinctive red skin, white flesh, and are very soft and sweet. Therefore, in the coming time, the local authorities will encourage people to continue expanding the area planted with sweet potatoes to bring economic benefits to the people."
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| The entire Tan Ky district currently has approximately 71 hectares of sweet potatoes. Photo: Bong Mai |
Currently, not only in Ky Son commune but also in Nghia Phuc, Giai Xuan, Tan Huong communes, etc., farmers are focusing on expanding the area planted with sweet potatoes.
To date, the entire district has converted 71 hectares of high-lying, water-scarce land to sweet potato cultivation, gradually replacing less efficient crops and bringing higher economic returns, contributing to sustainable poverty reduction in the locality.