From the first bulbs to the vast flower field

“The village has more than 80 hectares of cultivated land, a half of which is used for growing sword lily. This is the outcome of the 10-year journey to bring the first flower bulbs to grow in the field of An Phu people”, Nguyen Van Loi, the village leader said with pride.

The village leader Nguyen Van Loi (on the right) and head of the farmers’ association of An Phu village talk about sword lily planting and caring techniques.

As talking to Loi and head of the village farmer’s association Nguyen Van Manh, I knew that before people had to pass through Thai Dao commune to get to Bac Giang city from An Phu, when they saw a lot of sword lily. The curiosity held they back, then the first flower bulbs were brought to plant in some small plots of land.

It was surprising that the plants grew well in the fields of An Phu commune with strong stalks producing colourful flowers. This type of flower was found easy to plant and care yielding higher economic values than some other crops; thus, the movement of planting sword lily had been soon widely spread.

“Growers in An Phu share experience and techniques with each other, we even help each other with seeds and capital. As a result, more than 140 households in the village (about 56 percent of the total households) now grow flowers”, said Nguyen Van Loi.

Sword lily blooms in the fields of An Phu village.

Specially, after the first 1 or 2 years importing bulbs from other localities, farmers in An Phu can produce flower bulbs by themselves thanks to their hard work and learning, helping to reduce costs, expand the cultivation area and create beautiful green fields of sword lily.

Not allow the soil to rest

As sword lily has short life circle, it is often grown with 3 crops per year in summer, winter and early spring. Sword lily also has an advantage that it is possible to be rotated and intercropped with taro, a “trademark plant of Kham Lang commune”, even when the flowers are growing.

Taking this advantage, the hardworking farmers in An Phu do not allow the soil to rest. Most of the flower growers take the right time for intercropping taro to increase economic efficiency on the same cultivation area.

The straight beds of sword lily in the fields of An Phu village.

In recent years, An Phu has dramatically transformed to become a typical new-style rural village. The traffic roads have been improved and broadened. Irrigation systems and inter-field paths have been concreted to take the water to every field. The cultural, sport, spiritual and religious buildings have been constructed. Many high-buildings rise.

These achievements have been gained thanks to restructuring of agricultural economy with a change from rice and crop cultivation to growing sword lily.

From the first bulbs brought to An Phu 10 years ago, the fields in An Phu village are now filled with sword lily. Compared to some other traditional plants in the locality, sword lily brings a higher economic value from 16 to 24 million VND (631 to 947 USD) per each unit of land area.

The colourful flower not only paints the countryside picture but it also opens a new way for economic development, contributing to increasing income of local farmers.