Changing the mindset about fruit tree cultivation

Intercropping pumpkins in their pomelo orchard has helped Mr. Nguyen Van Ton's family (in La Dong hamlet, Trang Xa commune, Vo Nhai district) maintain their annual income.

Nearly 10 years ago, Mr. Nguyen Van Ton, residing in La Dong hamlet, Trang Xa commune, planted 150 Dien pomelo trees in his family's garden. After three years of diligent care, the pomelo trees yielded their first fruits of good quality. In 2019, Mr. Ton earned a profit of 2 million VND per tree, marking the highest income year for his pomelo trees.

In the following years, the movement to cultivate Dien pomelos in Trang Xa commune developed, leading to overproduction, low prices, and difficulties in sales. For two consecutive years, 2021, 2022, and 2023, Mr. Ton's family, as well as other villagers, could only sell their pomelos at an average price of 2,000 VND per fruit.

Faced with this situation, Mr. Ton's family decided not to cut down their pomelo orchard but instead interplanted it with pumpkins and 150 jackfruit trees to sell as landscaping trees. After three years of planting, Mr. Ton recently sold his first batch of jackfruit trees for 500,000 VND each. In addition, he earns about 20 million VND annually from selling pumpkins.

Mr. Ton said: "These grapefruit trees have been planted for many years, with large, strong trunks. Cutting them down would be a waste. That's why I decided to interplant other types of trees in the empty spaces in the grapefruit orchard. This method helps the family maintain their income..."

Mr. Luong Viet Duc from Cau Nho hamlet boldly applied the technique of grafting four-season lemons onto his family's Dien pomelo orchard. Thanks to his creativity and determination, his model has initially yielded positive results.

Currently, in addition to 1,000 grafted pomelo trees with four-season lemons, Mr. Luong Viet Duc (in Cau Nho hamlet, Trang Xa commune, Vo Nhai district) also grows another 1,000 four-season lemon trees to obtain grafting scions and fruit.

Anh Duc shared: "Recognizing that this model brings high economic efficiency to many households in Ham Yen district, Tuyen Quang province, in 2023, I hired people to graft 20,000 four-season lime buds onto 1,000 pomelo trees, at a price of 6,000 VND per bud. Of these, 300 trees belong to my family, and the rest I partnered with local people."

According to initial plans, Mr. Duc's family was expected to harvest their first crop of lemons by the end of 2024, but due to the impact of typhoon number 3, the trees will only begin to yield fruit in 2025.

Since the beginning of this year, each of Mr. Duc's trees has yielded 10-20kg of fruit, selling for over 20,000 VND/kg. According to Mr. Duc, if the weather conditions are favorable from now until the end of the year, each tree could yield about 300kg of fruit. If the price remains stable as it is now, after deducting all expenses, each tree will generate an income of approximately 6 million VND.

The practice of intercropping other fruit trees in Dien pomelo orchards or grafting citrus varieties onto Dien pomelo tree trunks is increasingly being adopted by people in Trang Xa commune.

Mr. Nong Van Toan, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Trang Xa commune, shared: "The Dien pomelo tree was once a great hope for the locality, but due to many reasons, pomelo growers have faced many difficulties. However, in adversity comes opportunity; people have proactively learned and applied new models to their own pomelo orchards. Thanks to this, they have contributed to preserving the greenery of the pomelo orchards. To date, the total area of pomelo trees in the commune is 285 hectares, a negligible decrease compared to the peak years of 2018-2019. In 2024, the average income per hectare of pomelo trees is expected to be between 100-150 million VND."

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