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Farmers cut down thousands of hectares of dragon fruit

After difficulties in exporting to China for many months, prices dragon fruit In the country, there was a time when it reached the lowest bottom of many years. Only a few thousand/kg of dragon fruit, as an inevitable consequence, farmers had to cut their losses, they were forced to cut down thousands of hectares of dragon fruit because they lacked capital and did not want to continue losing. The story in Binh Thuan province, where there are currently 33,000 hectares of dragon fruit, is the locality with the largest dragon fruit growing area in the country.

The plows used to be used only to make land for planting trees, but now there is an additional task that few people want, which is to use to uproot the stakes planted with dragon fruit.

Farmers cut down thousands of hectares of dragon fruit - Photo 1.

Ripe red dragon fruit in the garden in Binh Thuan, but no traders buy and sell. (Photo: employees)

For the past 8 years, Mr. Dong’s family in Bac Binh district, Binh Thuan province, has been attached to about 3,000 dragon fruit pillars, but since a year now, due to volatile prices, he has owed the bank 500 million VND. There was no other way, starting in 2021, he had to cut down all these dragon fruit areas.

“In one case, all farmers are empty-handed, deep in debt, people with capital can still manage, without capital, they have to sell land to pay debts,” said Mr. Lai Dinh Dong, Binh An commune, Bac district. Binh, Binh Thuan province, said.

It is worth mentioning that this time, the cutting of dragon fruit is not uncommon in Binh Thuan. The main reason is that people lose money because the selling price of dragon fruit is too low and cannot cover production costs.

Binh Thuan has an output of over 700,000 tons of dragon fruit per year, 85% of which is exported to China and some other countries. Recently, due to China’s implementation of the Zero COVID-19 policy, exports to this country have been interrupted and this is the main cause of this situation.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development had to issue recommendations to farmers to consider carefully cutting dragon fruit at this time.

“The dragon fruit tree is bearing fruit, the conditions are good, so we are not in a hurry, be careful when destroying the dragon fruit tree. We should continue to take care, maintain, have many solutions to keep the garden, build a plan. The production plan is suitable for the market in the coming time”, said Mr. Phan Van Tan, Deputy Director of Binh Thuan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Initial information in the first 3 months of 2022, farmers in the province cut down 936 hectares of dragon fruit, increasing the area of ​​dragon fruit cut from 2021 to now to 2,000 hectares, about 6% of the total area of ​​dragon fruit in the province. whole province. The cut-down area is mainly the area of ​​old dragon fruit, low yield or in areas where the terrain is not too favorable for dragon fruit trees.

Unsustainable from production to consumption

According to the development plan of the dragon fruit industry to 2030, the planting area of ​​the country is about 49,000 hectares. However, only by 2020, the area of ​​dragon fruit has reached 65,000 hectares, exceeding about 30% of the plan.

According to the Department of Cultivation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the recent development of dragon fruit not only disrupted the general planning of the whole industry, but also lacked sustainability from production to consumption.

“The first is the lack of sustainability between the application of farming processes to ensure the requirements of exporting countries, especially markets with high requirements such as the US, Korea, Japan, and Europe. Secondly, we still basically only export dragon fruit to one market, China, and mainly export it through quotas, which leads to the opposite negative impact on dragon fruit production. The processing of dragon fruit products has not been focused on investment and development,” said Nguyen Nhu Cuong, Director of the Department of Crop Production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Reorganization of production and consumption of dragon fruit

It is necessary to reorganize production, reorganize the chain of linking dragon fruit consumption, building a dragon fruit economy which is considered an indispensable direction of this industry in the near future.

Temporarily not exploiting fruit, in order to maintain 1,000 dragon fruit piles, Mr. Tanh’s house (village 5, Ham Liem commune, Ham Thuan Bac, Binh Thuan) only fertilizes once. Do not use inorganic fertilizers because of the expensive price, now he uses organic fertilizers, so the cost is also reduced by a lot. In this way Mr. Tanh is trying to maintain his dragon fruit garden waiting for the price to rise.

Binh Thuan Department of Agriculture is also committed to supporting appropriate care solutions, saving input costs for farmers, in addition, will coordinate with the Department of Industry and Trade to monitor timely market forecasts, then have a suitable production plan.

Farmers cut down thousands of hectares of dragon fruit - Photo 2.

According to the Department of Cultivation, the recent development of dragon fruit trees has not only disrupted the overall planning of the industry, but is also unsustainable from production to consumption. (Illustrated photo – Photo: VNA)

“The industry also directs relevant units to support production according to safety standards to meet consumption markets. On the other hand, mobilize businesses to associate with cooperatives to consume products in time. coming,” said Mr. Phan Van Tan, Deputy Director of Binh Thuan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

According to the Department of Crop Production, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the coming time, the Department will coordinate with localities to review the area of ​​dragon fruit, focusing on investment and policy support in profitable specialized farming areas. growth of this crop.

“Support policies on linkages; support policies on investment in processing dragon fruit products; support reorganization of production and production linkages; support the application of new farming processes”, Mr. Nguyen Nhu Cuong, Director of the Department of Crop Production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said.

Meanwhile, experts said that in localities that do not have the advantage to reduce the area of ​​dragon fruit, the whole country should only maintain about 42,000 hectares with a yield of about 1 million tons/year, reducing the area but increasing the amount of dragon fruit. quality.

“I think that if we improve the quality of dragon fruit, ensure food hygiene and safety, increase the percentage of organic dragon fruit, and increase the processing technology, we will create high added value,” said Mr. Hoang Trong. Thuy, an agricultural expert, commented.

Reorganize production, change the consumption trend of each market, reduce the rate of fresh fruit exports instead of increasing processing, diversifying products from fresh dragon fruit, such as dried, powdered, and juiced forms. is a long-term direction to transform dragon fruit production into a real economic industry.

The solution is always available and is quite synchronous from the state agency or local government, but the decision to cut down or continue to maintain the area of ​​dragon fruit rests with the farmers themselves. According to experts, this decision should only be based on a thorough understanding of market supply and demand. In fact, there is a paradox, farmers in Vietnam cut dragon fruit because the price is too low, while in China the price of Vietnamese dragon fruit has increased, in some places selling up to 43,000 VND/kg.

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