In recent years, the expansion of medicinal plant growing areas in Moc Bac commune, Duy Tien town has received special attention from local authorities and people. The cultivation and extraction of medicinal essential oils is increasingly more effective than growing rice, corn, etc., opening up prospects for economic development and increasing income for local farmers.
Moc Bac Commune is located on the Red River embankment, the main industry of the locality is agricultural production. Therefore, to promote production development, in 2009, the Commune Farmers' Association organized for members to visit the medicinal plant growing model in Van Giang (Hung Yen). Realizing the potential and economic efficiency of the model, 4 households participated in the experimental planting of medicinal basil plants to extract essential oils on an area of over 5 hectares. After 5 years, it was shown that the efficiency of basil plants is higher than that of rice and other vegetables, the profit is estimated to be 2-4 times higher, 20 households participated in planting, increasing the area to 30 hectares. Currently, the whole commune has about 55.5 hectares of medicinal plants, with 31 households participating in planting and producing essential oils.
The family of Ms. Mai Thi Huyen, Yen Binh village, is one of the first households to participate in growing medicinal plants and producing essential oils with a revenue of hundreds of millions of VND/year. While leading us to visit the 5.5-hectare medicinal plant growing area, she shared: She is one of the people who participated in growing since 2009, realizing the potential of plants that are suitable for the soil and can be developed locally, she took advantage of the land area of farmers who were not producing, rented it, and planted medicinal basil plants... In the early days, when she first participated in the trial planting, she only planted about 1.5 hectares. At that time, she encountered many difficulties due to lack of experience in caring for and preventing diseases for plants. Not discouraged, she learned from books and newspapers, and consulted with previous growers. Gradually, Ms. Huyen mastered the process of planting and caring for plants. She began to rent more land and expand the planting area.
According to Ms. Huyen, the right time to plant medicinal herbs is around the middle of the second lunar month. Basil is a light-loving plant, grows strongly in the rainy, humid season, suitable for planting in loam and alluvial soil. After preparing the soil and planting, she only has to take care of it for about the first 2 weeks, the plant does not need much fertilizer or pesticides. To achieve high quality essential oils, it is necessary to choose the right time to harvest, when the basil flower stalks begin to reach their maximum length of 5 - 7 cm, the flowers are dark purple, have a characteristic aroma, that is when the basil plant produces the most quality essential oils. On average, Ms. Huyen harvests 8 - 10 kg of essential oils per sao of basil per year, the selling price is about 1,500 - 1,800 thousand VND/kg of essential oil, earning about 13 million VND.
Ms. Huyen said that the price of essential oils fluctuates every year. Some years, the price of essential oils is quite high, making trading easy and selling as soon as it is produced. But there are also years when the production of essential oils is slower, it all depends on the traders and the market situation that year. During the harvest season, Ms. Huyen has created jobs for 10 local workers to cut basil plants, with a salary of about 300,000 VND/day/person.
Leaving Ms. Huyen's house, we visited the medicinal herb garden of Ms. Nguyen Thi Vien's family in Yen Binh village. Having worked with medicinal herbs for 12 years, Ms. Vien shared: The investment cost for growing basil is quite cheap, only about 250 thousand VND/sao/crop. My family grows more than 2 hectares, each crop yields 3 harvests. The average yield is about 3-3.5 kg/sao. The essential oil distillation stage is carried out by Ms. Vien immediately after harvesting. The distillation time lasts about 4 hours using the manual method of burning wood. Preserving essential oils does not need to be too complicated, just need the temperature below 30 degrees Celsius, avoid direct sunlight. After being extracted, the essential oil will give off a characteristic aroma, a slightly bitter taste, numbing the tip of the tongue. Basil essential oil products are often used as medicine, mosquito repellent, and flavoring for dishes... After each harvest, Ms. Vien has a fairly high income of about 300 - 400 million VND/year.
Assessing the effectiveness of the model, Ms. Tran Thu Phuong, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Moc Bac commune, said: For Moc Bac, medicinal plants are considered one of the main crops, bringing higher economic efficiency than other crops. However, the model is currently developing in a small, fragmented manner, without any connection, leading to the fact that the selling price of essential oils on the market still depends a lot on traders, the situation of price pressure, as well as the quality of essential oils not meeting requirements still occurs.
Therefore, in May 2024, the Moc Bac Commune Farmers' Association established a group of medicinal plant growing and essential oil extraction professionals, aiming to improve production efficiency, create a favorable environment for members to have the opportunity to learn, share experiences in production, and get rich together. In addition, the Association also organized cooperation agreements between households participating in the model with organizations and individuals in linking product introduction and consumption.
In the coming time, the Farmers' Association of Moc Bac commune will encourage people to expand production scale, create conditions and support farmers in terms of techniques, from which the model of growing medicinal plants to extract essential oils in Moc Bac commune will increasingly develop.
Bui Linh
Source: https://baohanam.com.vn/kinh-te/nong-nghiep/hieu-qua-mo-hinh-trong-cay-duoc-lieu-chiet-xuat-tinh-dau-o-moc-bac-127857.html
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