The young engineer's vineyard in Nghe An mining land

Staff of the District Social Policy Bank and Quy Hop District Youth Union visited the grape growing model of Mr. Hoang Van Dai. Photo: Thu Huong

The first person to grow grapes in Quy Hop

In 2015, after graduating from the Department of Agriculture, young engineer Hoang Van Dai (born in 1991) in Vinh city was assigned to work at the Quy Hop Agricultural Service Center. While working in a mountainous district with harsh climate conditions and difficult agricultural production, Dai cherished the idea of ​​building a greenhouse to grow high-value crops such as lilies, melons and grapes for testing.

In early 2020, Mr. Dai's project of growing plants in greenhouses was supported by the province with 150 million VND through the district's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Along with mobilizing capital from family and friends with a total amount of more than 1 billion VND, he invested in a greenhouse with an area of ​​more than 3,000m2.². The first year, Mr. Dai invested in growing melons and lilies, which are also difficult and seasonal crops. At the end of that year, after deducting expenses, Mr. Dai earned over 100 million VND.

With such a start, Mr. Dai thought he had to find a crop with a longer-term strategy and higher economic value, so he went online to research, survey the market and find suitable crops. After careful research, Mr. Dai boldly planted grapes. He bought 400 Black Summer grape trees and 80 Peony grape trees to plant. The initial results were positive.

Mr. Hoang Van Dai next to the vineyard, starting to harvest the first crop of fruit. Photo: Thu Huong

Mr. Hoang Van Dai shared: “I am an agricultural engineer, when I came to work in the mountainous district of Quy Hop, I realized that the crop structure was still localized, I also wanted to orient the crop to be more diverse and develop more. With the support of the District Youth Union and the Policy Bank, I invested more than 3,000m²greenhouse for growing lilies, melons, and grapes. I think this is also a suitable crop and the model has the potential to develop further. During the process of building the model, I had the idea of ​​preserving the seed source to expand in the future to provide seeds to farmers at the lowest price, especially fruit tree varieties.

As for grapes, they are a difficult plant, they like moisture but are afraid of waterlogging. Initially, planting them encountered some difficulties due to the weather, but once you understand the environment and characteristics, they grow very well and the results are very promising.

Ripe bunches of grapes in Mr. Dai's family garden. Photo: Thu Huong

Black Summer Grapes and Peony are new crops that have been granted plant variety protection certificates by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and have been grown in many provinces and cities in the North of our country. The Black Summer Grape variety was crossbred by Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry and originated from Taiwan. This grape variety will yield its first harvest after 10 to 12 months of planting. The growth cycle of the plant is up to 12-15 years, with two harvests per year. Grapes are a crop with high nutritional value. Ripe grapes contain a lot of glucose, fructose and other essential substances such as magnesium, calcium, iron, vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, A, C... Currently, Mr. Dai's family's vineyard has yielded its first harvest, with each grape tree yielding an average of 5 to 7kg, priced at 150,000 VND/kg in the garden. Many customers who came to buy grapes and visited Mr. Dai's family's vineyard were very surprised, because it was the first time they saw with their own eyes the clean, straight vineyard and bunches of red ripe grapes on the trees right in the center of Quy Hop town.

Open many economic development directions for youth

Ms. Bui Thi Hong - Secretary of Quy Hop District Youth Union said: "Recently, the Standing Committee of Quy Hop District Youth Union has paid great attention to the movement of youth starting and establishing businesses in the area. Currently, Quy Hop district has established a youth economic development club with more than 20 members who are economic development models in the whole district. There are many high-income youth models such as Mr. Ba's model of making fine art stones in Chau Quang commune, mushroom growing, cricket raising, cow raising models in Chau Cuong, Lien Hop, Chau Quang and some effective forest planting models of youth in communes in area 135. In particular, the model of comrade Hoang Van Dai is very new, promising to bring high economic efficiency. The initial investment capital of the model is also very large, including 100 million VND supported by the youth economic development support fund of Nghe An Provincial Youth Union".

In recent years, the mountainous district of Quy Hop has been promoting the transformation of ineffective crop structures to develop high-value agricultural models, opening up a way for people to get rich. Loan capital has gradually increased every year, and to date, the total outstanding debt from the Social Policy Bank of Quy Hop district has reached more than 590 billion VND for more than 12,000 customers to borrow capital and develop the economy.

Mr. Hoang Van Dai's vineyard is planted in a straight and clean manner. Photo: Thu Huong

“Recently, the capital for job creation of the Youth Union in Quy Hop district is 3 billion VND and the Youth Union has managed this capital very well. Priority is given to models and projects for young people to establish their careers and careers, these models are being very effective.”, bDang Thi Ha - Deputy Director of the Social Policy Bank of Quy Hop district said.

Hopefully, the grape growing model of young engineer Hoang Van Dai will not only bring high economic efficiency but also create a destination for people to visit and learn... From there, it will open up a direction for developing safe, organic agricultural production associated with eco-tourism, contributing to creating a green, clean, beautiful landscape and protecting the environment.