Sustainable livelihood from tung tree

Income from home garden

In the villages nestled at the foot of the Truong Son mountain range in the communes of Huong Lap, Huong Phung, Dakrong, Ta Rut, etc., the tung tree has long been a "companion" closely associated with the lives of the Van Kieu and Pa Ko ethnic groups.

In particular, from a native plant growing scattered in the forest, for many years now, the tung tree has been brought back by the Van Kieu and Pa Ko people to plant in their home gardens and on the fields around their villages. Not only used as a fence to divide the boundaries of fields and gardens, or to provide shade, the tung tree has also become a tree with high economic value, with a quick harvest, helping people in the mountainous areas to improve their lives, eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, and contribute to greening bare land and hills.

Ms. Ho Thi Thang in Chenh Venh village, Huong Phung commune said that her family has nearly 100 tung trees planted more than 6 years ago. The tung trees usually bloom around March to May and produce fruit from September to November every year.

It is estimated that each tree yields 15-20kg of fruit. The collected fruit is separated from the seeds and sold immediately to traders for about 7,000 VND/kg. If dried in the sun for about 1-2 days, the selling price will be higher, about 12,000-13,000 VND/kg.

“In our home garden alone, on average, my family harvests about 40kg of cau fruit every day. For every 5kg of fresh fruit, we get 3.5kg of dried fruit; after deducting expenses, the income is about 300,000 VND,” said Ms. Thang.

Harvesting tung fruit in the forest - Photo: LA

There are also more than 50 tung trees planted in her garden. At this time, Ms. Ho Thi Xam, in Chenh Venh village, is busy harvesting, peeling, and drying them to sell to traders. Ms. Xam said that tung trees are very easy to grow. You just need to sow seeds or dig up young trees in the forest and plant them in the ground. You don't need to fertilize or water much. After about 3-4 years of planting, tung trees begin to bear fruit and bear fruit regularly from the 4th year onwards. During the harvest season, every day, you just need to pick up the naturally fallen fruit or shake the branches gently to let the ripe fruit fall. “All the harvests that people make are bought by traders. This year, the price of tung trees has decreased by about 3,000-5,000 VND/kg compared to last year, only about 7,000-8,000 VND/kg of fresh fruit and 12,000-13,000 VND/kg of dried fruit. With this price, it is estimated that my family will earn about 10-15 million VND from tung trees,” Ms. Xam said.

Vice Chairman of Huong Phung Commune People's Committee Phan Ngoc Long informed that in addition to harvesting in the forest, since 2019, the Medical Commission of the Netherlands-Vietnam (MCNV) has supported people in the commune to plant about 180 hectares of tung trees. According to Mr. Long, compared to other crops, tung trees are generally suitable for local conditions, even in places with steep mountainous terrain, dry climate, and barren land, tung trees still grow well. After about 4-5 years of planting, the fruit is harvested. The yield is about 15-20 kg of fresh fruit/tree. "According to the survey, there are currently many areas in Huong Phung commune that can be converted to growing tung trees, especially areas on high hills, which are not suitable for growing traditional crops such as coffee, cassava, etc. If these areas can be converted to growing tung trees, it will be very good. However, the important thing is to solve the product output when the area increases," said Mr. Long.

Concentrated planting areas will be planned.

According to statistics, the whole province currently has about 3,000 hectares of tung forest planted with the function of protective forest, mainly concentrated in communes located along the West and East branches of Ho Chi Minh road. Of which, the harvested area accounts for over 98%, many areas have high and stable productivity. Products from tung trees consumed in the market are mainly tung seeds with an output of about 1,000-1,200 tons/year. However, through surveys, harvesting and preliminary processing of tung fruit in the area is quite fragmented and manual. Mainly preliminary processing is by drying and importing to large agents and then exporting raw to China, so the efficiency is not high.

Model of planting tung trees and native trees supported by MCNV in Huong Phung commune - Photo: LA

Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment Phan Van Phuoc informed that currently, the potential of the tung seed market is very large. Besides the demand of the export market, domestically, every year, manufacturing enterprises related to tung oil raw materials also need to use thousands of tons. In order to build and develop tung trees into a forestry crop with high economic value, the People's Committee of Quang Tri province (old) has Plan No. 237/KH-UBND on developing production associated with consumption and processing of tung oil in the period of 2023-2026, oriented to 2030.

Accordingly, by 2026, protect, maintain stability, and improve the quality of about 3,000 hectares of existing tung forests, strive to achieve a fruit yield of 3 tons of fresh fruit/ha or more and the income value from tung forests will increase by 20% or more compared to the present. By 2030, a concentrated raw material area of about 8,320 hectares will be formed, annually supplying 4,000 tons of high-quality tung seeds, serving the primary processing, processing, and export. The area of tung forests for fruit with sustainable forest management certification will reach 5,000 hectares or more.

According to Mr. Phuoc, to achieve the above goals, the Agriculture sector is coordinating with localities to plan new concentrated planting areas with a total area of over 5,000 hectares; develop the production of high-yield, high-quality tung oil varieties. At the same time, increase support and call on communities and cooperatives to invest in building small-scale tung oil processing facilities (capacity of less than 100 tons of crude oil/year) and enterprises to invest in building medium-sized processing facilities (capacity of 500-1,000 tons of crude oil/year) associated with raw material areas in the direction of applying new technical advances and high technology in production.

“Most recently, Quang Tri Trading Corporation has signed an agreement with an Indian partner to develop a value chain for products from tung trees, including dried tung seeds and tung oil. This opens up opportunities to expand export markets, standardize the tung oil pressing process according to international standards, and contribute to increasing sustainable income for people,” Mr. Phuoc added.

Le An

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/kinh-te/202510/sinh-ke-ben-vung-tu-cay-trau-d304a38/