Growing cassava in a "utilitarian" way earns hundreds of millions each year

Ngoc Phuong• DNUM_CJZAJZCABI 09:19

(Baonghean.vn) - Along with replanting forest areas after exploitation, Mr. Dang Van Quan in hamlet 6, My Son commune (Do Luong) takes advantage of empty spaces to grow high-yield cassava, earning hundreds of millions of dong.

Mr. Dang Van Quan in Hamlet 6, My Son Commune (Do Luong) harvests cassava intercropped on an area of acacia trees. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

8 years ago, in April 2010, Mr. Dang Van Quan in hamlet 6
My Son commune - Do Luong harvested 25.8 hectares of acacia trees. By August
That same year, Mr. Quan began replanting acacia trees on the land.
newly exploited forest. While planting the forest, Mr. Quan saw
The space between the trees in the forest is quite wasteful, he has
grow corn, grow peanuts, but not suitable for forest land.

Then he realized that high-yield cassava in some places had quite good yields, so he immediately planted a 0.5 hectare pilot intercropping on the acacia plantation area.
After 10 months, the cassava plants planted among the acacia trees gave
harvest, each bush like that averages 3kg of cassava tubers.
This first cassava planting, Mr. Quan earned 30 million VND after deducting
all costs. Then he increased the area of cassava intercropped to 9 hectares.

Currently, with the selling price of 1,800 VND/kg of cassava, Mr. Quan has earned a profit of more than 100 million VND. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

Thus, in addition to harvesting an area of 8 hectares of acacia trees each crop (7 years), after deducting expenses, he earned about 1 billion VND, from intercropping cassava, he brought in an additional income of about 100 million VND for his family. Intercropping cassava only applied to the first crop of reforestation, because in the following crops, the forest trees were good, and there was no low-level photosynthesis, so they did not continue to be planted.

According to Mr. Quan, growing cassava is quite easy, because cassava is suitable for the harsh climate of forest land. After harvesting cassava, the stems and leaves will be covered at the base of the acacia trees, thereby maintaining the humidity of the tree roots; the decomposed cassava stems and leaves create an additional source of loose fertilizer for the forest land.