Luc Ngan enhances value of lychee grown in highland
Changing the position of hired worker to employer
Family of Vi Van Vu, Nung people in Khuon To hamlet, Tan Son commune grow about 500 lychee trees in over 1 ha in high hill but the orchard is laden with fruits. Sharing about the experience, Vu said: “7 years ago, he quit the school after finishing the nine grade then together with his parents worked as hired labour to earn a living for a big family”.
Many lychee orchards in Khuon To hamlet, Tan Son commune bring high income to the locals this year. |
He observed and learnt the way the orchard owners care for their lychee then applied to his family’s orchard. Accordingly, after harvesting, Vu prunes small branches to create the canopy, uses proper type of fertilizer and plant protection product at right time...
In 2015 season, his lychee orchard yielded over 5 tonnes of fruits, giving him 100 million VND (4,300 USD). He took the money to invest in better fertilizers and plant protection product to cultivate the trees, hence the productivity is higher and higher.
This year, he expects to harvest more than 10 tonnes of fruits. With current price of 25 – 30,000 VND (over 1 USD) per kg, the lychee orchard of Vu’s family would bring back about 300 million VND (12,900 USD). To timely harvest the fruits, apart from 3 members in the family, he hires 3 people to work with the salary of 300,000 VND (13 USD) per day.
Similarly, Luong Van Tai, a Nung ethnic man in Na Hem hamlet, Ho Dap commune is a typical case. Adding to learn the caring experiences when working as a hired labour, he visited Muoi hamlet, Giap Son commune to ask about the local lychee growing method. Now, his orchard laden with fruits prove for his success.
Not only the families of Vu and Tai, most of the local households in the hill side of Luc Ngan district have gained bumper lychee harvest for recent years. Apart from favourable weather condition, it was gained mostly thanks to the active skill in lychee cultivation technique of the local farmers gained during the period of working as hired labour in the lower land.
Additionally, some households in Khuon Nghieu hamlet, Ho Dap commune create trolley and cable to transport the fertilizer up hill and carry the fruit home so as to reduce the cost and man power.
Export orientation
According to the Division of Agriculture and Rural Development (Division), 12 highland communes in the district develop about 4,600 ha of lychee this year with estimated output of over 50,000 tonnes and value of 1.5 trillion VND (64.6 million USD).
Head of the Division Tang Van Huy said recently the lychee value of the hill localities has been much higher than previous figure because the local farmers apply the technology into cultivation.
Besides, the locals in the highland area such as Tan Son, Cam Son, Ho Dap, Son Hai and Phong Van have actively applied the VietGAP standard into lychee growing to have higher and higher quality fruits.
Due to the different weather condition and soil, the local lychees in these communes are ripen later than other areas from 10 – 15 days, thus they are becoming more famous with ease consumption. This year, Tan Son and Ho Dap are two of out 6 communes in the district granted with the lychee growing area code to export to Japan.
The Division consulted the district People’s Committee to instruct the competent agencies to guide the local farmers to care for the orchard in post harvest time while orienting them to cultivate lychee under VietGAP and GlobalGAP, continue care for the qualified production areas to export.
The Dai – Bui Huan
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