From 'dead land' to the largest dragon fruit orchard in Nghe An

About the place where "dogs eat stones, chickens eat gravel"

One day in early November, we went to Bai So village (Tam Quang commune, district).Xiangyang), when the locals here are busy harvesting the last batch of dragon fruit of the year. "This year there has been too much rain, leading to a lot of insects, we can't catch them all so the fruit doesn't look pretty on the outside. But anyway, it's not too bad, the quality is still the same", Mr. Tong Van Chien (57 years old), holding a red-fleshed dragon fruit weighing nearly 1 kg, said excitedly.

Mr. Chien's family has just harvested the last batch of dragon fruit of the year. Photo: Tien Hung

Mr. Chien was the first person to bring the dragon fruit growing model to Bai So in particular and Tam Quang commune in general. He is also the person with the greatest contribution in reviving this arid land, so that people can settle down and make a living.

Bai So is a flat land, located on the left bank of Lam River. The villagers are mainly from the lowlands, most of whom are from Nam Dan district. Some people brought their whole family up to do new economic activities about half a century ago. Some are cadres, who were promoted to work here and then chose this land to settle down.

At first glance, this riverside area looks fertile, but in reality, this is an extremely harsh area that people used to call “dead land”. “The soil here only has a thin layer on top, and the bottom is mostly rocky. If you plant corn, even a short drought will dry it out. Because there is no water,” said Mr. Tong Van Chien.

Mr. Chien was the first person to bring the red-fleshed dragon fruit model to Tam Quang commune. Photo: Tien Hung

More than 20 years ago, the entire Bai So village had only more than 10 households with wells. These were all households living near the forest, where the underground water source was shallower. Digging these wells was not easy, because the ground was covered with rocks tens of meters thick. After finding the water source, they had to hire people to dig for a whole month. According to the locals, at that time, the cost of digging a well was equal to building a house. That is why, in the past, from domestic water to drinking water, most of the Bai So villagers had to go to the Lam River to carry it. The locals said that luckily, the Lam River was still clean in the past. If it were polluted like it is now, the entire Bai So village would be sick because they used this water source all year round.

Lacking water for daily life, the land was barren and rocky, after more than 20 years of choosing Bai So as a new economic zone, people once again had to leave their homeland in droves. Mr. Chien said that in the 90s of the century, about half of the villagers here had to leave. Most of them went to the Central Highlands to make a living. Mr. Chien was no exception. “I also saved up money, bought land in Gia Lai, and planned to move there. But I kept putting it off, and ended up staying here,” he said.

Like other households here, Mr. Chien followed his family from the lowlands to Bai So when he was young. When he grew up, he joined the army and then was discharged, returning to his hometown to work as a mine worker in the commune. However, his meager salary was only enough to live on, so Mr. Chien decided to get rich from agriculture with the available land. During the 90s, he continuously "traveled from South to North" to search for suitable seedlings for his barren land. Once he found seedlings, he began to bring them back to experiment. But, for many years, he suffered one failure after another, at times, he thought he was bankrupt. During that time, he stopped working as a mine worker and worked many other jobs to make a living.

In 2000, Mr. Chien decided to choose lychee as an economic model. He went all the way to Hung Yen to buy more than 70 seedlings to plant. In the beginning, he spent almost all his time taking care of the trees. Learning from previous experiences, this time Mr. Chien solved the problem of water sources. Not only for his family's daily life but also for irrigating the garden. "It was in 2001, I decided to buy a pipeline to bring water from the stream down the mountain. I don't remember exactly how much money I had to spend, I just remember that it was a lot at that time, I had to borrow a lot," Mr. Chien said.

Red-fleshed dragon fruit is very popular now. Photo: Tien Hung

The water pipe, which is more than 1.5 km long, runs from Mr. Chien’s garden up the mountain and has to pass through many other houses. Because of the severe water shortage, people living along the pipe have cut the pipe many times to steal water for their own families. Mr. Chien then had to call on many other households to pool their money to invest in a larger pipe, enough for many households to use. All the money to buy the pipe was initially paid by Mr. Chien, and the people then gradually paid him back.

Having invested heavily in his lychee orchard and put a lot of heart and soul into it, Mr. Chien did not expect to fail again. “After a short time, the trees were well cared for and grew very lush and beautiful. But I don’t understand why the fruit is so little. I put so much sweat and blood into 70 lychee trees, but each year I only earn more than 1 million VND,” Mr. Chien shook his head in disappointment.

Get rich with dragon fruit

Despite repeated failures, Mr. Chien was not discouraged. More than 10 years ago, an acquaintance gave him 15 varieties ofdragon fruit treeWhite dragon fruit from Binh Thuan, he brought it to his garden to try planting. After only a few months, this type of tree began to bear fruit. Realizing that dragon fruit was suitable for this land, Mr. Chien began to research. During that time, he decided to swallow his tears to hire someone to dig up and remove 70 lychee trees that were 10 years old, which he had spent a lot of effort taking care of. To research dragon fruit, he went to Binh Thuan twice and then to the North to learn from experience.

Assuming thatred dragon fruitis the type with higher economic value, in 2013, Mr. Chien decided to buy 30 of these varieties to plant. In the first year alone, his family sold 3 million VND, double the income of the entire lychee garden of 70 trees. In the second year, Mr. Chien sold 30 million VND worth of dragon fruit. Continuing to expand the investment, in the third year, the family earned 90 million VND. Since then, every year Mr. Chien's family has had an income of more than 100 million VND from dragon fruit.

Tam Quang Commune is expanding the red-fleshed dragon fruit growing model, not only for fruit but also to develop eco-tourism. Photo: Tien Hung

With 10 sao, Mr. Chien is currently the household with the largest dragon fruit area in Tam Quang commune. Mr. Chien said that his 700 dragon fruit pillars harvest about 7 to 8 batches each year, from March to November. There are months when they harvest twice. On average, his family sells about 7 tons of red-fleshed dragon fruit each year. “Fortunately, the source of this fruit is also good. Every time we harvest, we just need to post it on social media and someone will ask, then the truck will come to the place to buy it. Each kilo of the best type sells for 25,000 VND, the rest is from 15,000 - 20,000 VND,” Mr. Chien said, adding that growing dragon fruit is not too hard. Even though his family has up to 700 trees, he does not have to hire workers. Mr. Chien only needs to provide enough water to water the trees during the dry season, and regularly prune the branches.

“The most difficult thing is still insects, especially snails. There were times when I had to stay up all night in the garden with a flashlight to catch snails. But despite the difficulties, we still decided not to use pesticides,” Mr. Chien affirmed.

A corner of dragon fruit field in Bai So. Photo: Tien Hung

Seeing Mr. Chien's family "doing well" thanks to red-fleshed dragon fruit, many other households in the village also learned from it. According to Ms. Kha Thi Hien - Chairman of Tam Quang Commune People's Committee, up to now, the whole commune has about 50 households growing red-fleshed dragon fruit on a large scale, with a total area of ​​about 6 hectares. Tam Quang Commune also chose this fruit tree as a key economic model, to develop with the goal of not only agricultural production, but also towardsEcotourismfrom large dragon fruit gardens.

Currently, Tam Quang commune sells more than 120 tons of red-fleshed dragon fruit each year, mainly from Bai So. This place was once considered a "dead land". Tam Quang has also become the largest dragon fruit granary in Nghe An province today. The leaders of Tam Quang commune recently decided to support 200 million VND for people to develop red-fleshed dragon fruit gardens, many mountainous communes have also come to Tam Quang to learn, in order to replicate the model./.