Growing cucumbers on double-rice land, farmers in Dien Chau district earn 140 million VND/ha

Present in the fieldcucumberIn Van Tap village, Minh Chau commune, Dien Chau district on the morning of October 6, we witnessed the scene of farmers busily harvesting and transporting cucumbers to the purchasing point. Trucks of traders from everywhere came to the fields to purchase all the cucumbers for the farmers.

Ms. Vo Thi Le - a farmer said, her family grows 3 sao of cucumberswinter cropon land with 2 rice crops. After 45 days of care, harvest will be in early October. At the beginning of the season, traders bought at 6,500 VND/kg, but now it is 6,000 VND/kg.

"Implementing the local winter crop production policy, right after the summer-autumn rice harvest, families in the hamlet started growing cucumbers. When the harvest season comes, cucumbers are picked twice a day, with a yield of over 1.3 tons/sao, earning nearly 8 million VND" - Ms. Vo Thi Le said.

While transporting cucumbers to traders, Ms. Vo Thi Thuan confided: My family grows 2.5 sao of cucumbers. These harvest days, although hard, the selling price is not too high, but I am happy because I have work and earn 500,000 - 600,000 VND per day.

"For farmers, having traders buy their agricultural products right at the field eases the worry of selling them. Although the selling price is not high, at 6,000 VND/kg, the income is many times higher than growing rice," said Ms. Thuan.

Mr. Le Khac Khoa - onetradersA cucumber buyer in Hoang Mai town said that these days, he buys 2-3 tons of cucumbers here every day. All the cucumbers are transported to Hanoi for consumption on the same day.

"I didn't expect that people here could grow so many cucumbers. In general, the cucumbers here are beautiful and of guaranteed quality. However, farmers need to harvest regularly every day to avoid the cucumbers from getting old and the fruit becoming large, because the market is picky about large cucumbers," said Mr. Le Khac Khoa.

Mr. Nguyen Van Nhuan - a trader from Do Luong district who comes to buy cucumbers said that every day he buys about 1 ton and transports it to mountainous districts for consumption. At around 6am every day, he is present in the fields to buy cucumbers for the people.

According to Mr. Ho Trong Nga - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Minh Chau commune, this is the first year that Van Tap village has grown winter cucumbers on 2-rice land. To grow cucumbers, the initial investment, in addition to seeds, fertilizers..., is to buy nets and poles to make trellises. Therefore, the first crop requires an investment of about 3 million VND/sao, and the following crops will reduce costs, because the poles and nets can be used for 3 crops of cucumbers.

Cucumbers are harvested after 45-50 days of planting, with a minimum yield of 25 tons/ha. With the current field price of 6,000 VND/kg, farmers earn over 140 million VND. Thus, with 27 hectares of winter cucumbers in Van Tap village, farmers earn about 3.5 billion VND. Cucumber harvest time is 2-3 weeks, so by the end of October, farmers here will have finished the winter crop, with some families earning tens of millions of VND.

Mr. Tran Hoai An - Director of District Agricultural Service CenterDien Chausaid: This winter crop, the whole Dien Chau district planted about 50 hectares of cucumbers. However, with a scale of 27 hectares in Van Tap hamlet, Minh Chau commune, the most concentrated planting area is, the rest is planted in Dien Loc and Dien Hoang communes... Currently, farmers in Minh Chau commune are harvesting winter cucumbers, the earliest crop in the district./.