Special "royal" products in season help farmers count money steadily

Longan fruit is also known as nam tran, phuong quan… According to legend, this fruit saved Lord Nguyen Anh’s army from starvation. After that, every year he requested offerings and assigned people to look after this precious forest.

Đặc sản tiến vua vào mùa giúp nông dân đếm tiền đều tay - 1 — Bon bon, also known as nam tran (southern precious fruit), was often used as a tribute to the king in the past. Bon bon harvest season is in September and October every year (Photo: Ngo Linh).

Longan was originally a tree that grew in the wild forest. Longan fruit has a sweet taste and is popular. People in some areas of Quang Nam bring the tree home to plant, and consider longan a valuable specialty tree, bringing in high income.

Longan is usually harvested in September and October every year. When ripe, the fruit is bright yellow and grows in clusters on the trunk and branches of the tree. Longan trees are grown in many mountainous and midland districts of Quang Nam, of which Tien Phuoc is considered the "capital" of this tree with nearly 120 hectares.

According to local people, after 3 consecutive years of crop failure due to unfavorable weather, this year the longan fruit has returned.

Specialty longan in peak season, helping growers count money steadily ( Video : Ngo Linh).

While busy weeding her family's longan garden, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Sanh (60 years old, in Thanh Boi village, Tien Chau commune, Tien Phuoc district) said that over the past 3 years, the erratic and harsh weather has greatly affected the longan trees. In the hot summer, there is a shortage of irrigation water, and in the rainy and stormy season, there are strong winds, causing the longan branches to break and the trees to weaken.

"For several years in a row, there have been bad harvests here. Some gardens produce fruit out of season, and it takes until December for the fruit to ripen. The fruit is sour and the trees are susceptible to damage. This year, the longan fruit is in season, but there are not many of them," Ms. Sanh added.

Đặc sản tiến vua vào mùa giúp nông dân đếm tiền đều tay - 2 — Longan tree brings high economic value to people (Photo: Ngo Linh).

According to Ms. Sanh, the price of longan at the beginning of the season was about 50,000 VND/kg, now it is only 20,000-30,000 VND/kg (depending on the quality of the fruit), because many gardens have started to ripen at the same time. Ms. Sanh's family garden has more than 30 longan trees but only 8 trees bear fruit, the most productive tree yields about 100kg. This year's crop, she can earn more than 12 million VND.

This year, the bonbon garden of Mr. Tran Dinh Chuong's family (59 years old, in Tien My commune, Tien Phuoc district) has produced about 12 out of 35 trees in the family. This season, Mr. Chuong estimates he can earn more than 15 million VND.

Mr. Chuong said that longan is an economic tree, bringing a good income to people, and is currently being widely propagated in many places. However, in recent years, the fruit season has been affected by weather such as prolonged heat, lack of irrigation water, or storms causing broken branches and tree decline...

"Many households have switched to growing mangosteen instead of longan. My family is also experimenting with a few trees. I only plan to intercrop and not cut down longan, because this is also a tree that brings in a good income," Mr. Chuong shared.

Đặc sản tiến vua vào mùa giúp nông dân đếm tiền đều tay - 3 — When ripe, longan fruit is yellow, sweet, slightly sour, and loved by many people (Photo: Ngo Linh).

Tien Chau Commune is a place where many longan trees are grown in Tien Phuoc District. Since April, Tien Chau Commune People's Committee has deployed a model of applying comprehensive technical measures to stabilize and improve productivity and quality of longan trees in 2 households. The model has brought many positive results.

Overall, the average yield of the gardens participating in the model reached more than 13 tons/ha, 2 times higher than that of mass gardens in the same area (6.06 tons/ha). Moreover, the longan fruit is brighter and of higher quality than that of mass gardens.

Thanks to that, the economic efficiency obtained from the garden participating in the model reached more than 288 million VND/ha, 130 million VND/ha higher than the mass garden.

With the achieved results, Tien Phuoc District People's Committee requested Tien Phuoc District Agricultural Technical Center and Tien Chau Commune to continue transferring science and technology to help farmers improve the productivity and quality of longan fruit, aiming at production according to safety standards, meeting market requirements.

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