(Baonghean.vn) - 10 months have passed since the Provincial People's Committee approved Decision No. 4422/QD - Provincial People's Committee on amending and supplementing a number of policies to support investment in agricultural and rural development, including adding a number of policies to support passion fruit growing areas. As one of the localities eligible for the program, however, up to now, Que Phong people are still waiting but have not received the above support.
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| According to the Decision, 70% of the value of small-scale irrigation projects for passion fruit trees approved by the district People's Committee will be supported, each project not exceeding 70 million VND. For Que Phong district, the funding source will be approved for households with a growing area of over 1 hectare. For the three communes of Tri Le, Nam Nhoong and Nam Giai, Tri Le is currently the only locality in Que Phong that benefits from this policy. In the photo is the passion fruit area of Mr. Loc Van Chin and his wife, Xan village (Tri Le commune) - one of the households eligible for support under the above decision because the growing area is 1.2 hectares. Lack of irrigation water is one of the reasons why passion fruit trees are poorly developed and have low productivity. |
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| According to Mr. Lu Van Cuong, Vice Chairman in charge of Tri Le commune's economy, the locality currently has 108 hectares of passion fruit trees, of which 35 hectares belong to the Company, the remaining 73 hectares belong to the people. In Yen Son, Na Nieng, D1 or Xan and Bo villages, these are the areas with the most cultivation. Of these, more than 70% of households have a planting area of over 1 hectare. According to current calculations, there are more than 40 households in the small-scale irrigation water support program. However, no households have received support yet, although the commune has completed the list of support recipients and sent it to the district People's Committee. |
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| Mr. Ha Van Tien, head of Xan village (Tri Le), said that the village is home to 100% Thai ethnic people with 61 households participating in growing passion fruit trees. Life is still difficult, so when hearing information about support policies to build small-scale irrigation works, people were very happy. The good news is that up to now, people have had to use domestic water to water their lemon trees, so in the dry season, the trees gradually die or grow stunted. Since the day of conducting the survey and making the list of households receiving support, they have been waiting for support but have not seen any support, so they have had to "bite the bullet" and use domestic water to water their lemon trees. The water source is also very scarce, the whole village only has water from Huoi Luong stream. As for drilling wells, it takes about 70m to hope to have water. |
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| Many households in the village built their own irrigation systems by lining plastic tarps and pumping water inside to store water. But this method is ineffective because each tarp can only be used for 1 week, sometimes it breaks and the whole day of pumping water becomes useless. According to calculations, the "standard" yield of 1 hectare of passion fruit is around 45 tons. However, the yield of households here is only around 20 - 25 tons. One of the reasons why the yield in the growing areas here is so low is because the irrigation water supply is not guaranteed. |
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| In Yen Son village, these days, Ms. Vi Thi Mai's family is planting more than 300 new passion fruit trees, bringing the family's total passion fruit growing area to nearly 800 trees. As the number of lemons increases, the worry about watering the plants becomes even greater. |
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| According to Mr. Vi Thanh Xuan, head of Yen Son village, some households have boldly invested in small water pumps (pictured), but this number accounts for a very small percentage of the village's nearly 70 lemon-growing households. |
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In response to questions about the slow funding to support people in building small-scale irrigation systems in passion fruit growing areas, Mr. Nguyen Ba Hien, Head of the Mountainous Development Board of Que Phong district, said: Although the Decision was made at the end of January 2016, the district has only received 100 million VND in support until September 12 this year. The reason for the slow funding from the province is because the accounting of revenue and expenditure on the province's capital for 2016 will be carried out at the end of 2015. Therefore, when the Decision to support the passion fruit growing area is carried out in 2017, it will only receive 100 million VND in advance from additional converted capital. This amount is expected to be disbursed by the district in December to support 2 typical households. The remaining households will wait for funding support for next year. |
Thanh Quynh
