Lesson 1: Is dragon fruit out of date?
After the Covid-19 pandemic, the economy continued to be difficult, at times the price of dragon fruit "hit rock bottom", causing many gardeners in the "dragon fruit capital" Chau Thanh to lose everything. Some gardeners destroyed dragon fruit trees to switch to other crops.
Many dragon fruit gardens are abandoned.
Arriving in the largest dragon fruit growing area of the province, the atmosphere was quite quiet. From Tam Vu town, following 30/4 road to Phuoc Tan Hung commune (Chau Thanh district), we saw many dragon fruit gardens being abandoned or converted to other crops.
Farmers have abandoned dragon fruit due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Dragon fruit prices have been low for a long time while agricultural material and labor prices have increased, causing production costs to continuously increase. In this situation, some households have chosen other crops and quickly switched during the pandemic. Other households, due to financial difficulties, are still struggling to leave their gardens fallow, hesitating between continuing to grow dragon fruit or switching to other crops.
Many households growing dragon fruit in Phuoc Tan Hung commune, Chau Thanh district abandoned their gardens when the trees were bearing fruit.
Mr. Nguyen Van Chinh has been growing dragon fruit for many years in Hamlet 2, Phuoc Tan Hung Commune, Chau Thanh District. Mr. Chinh's dragon fruit garden covers an area of 4,000 square meters. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, he has abandoned the garden. The once lush green dragon fruit garden is now just dry tree pillars, grass covering the path, with no chance of recovery. Currently, his dragon fruit garden is only used to harvest grass to feed cows.
Mr. Chinh confided: “This dragon fruit garden was replanted about 8 months ago, but before it could be harvested, it encountered several years of disease. Now that the economy has begun to recover, I also plan to replant dragon fruit, but I am hesitant because the investment cost is quite large while the price of dragon fruit is unstable.”
On average, the selling price for dragon fruit that has been processed to flower out of season is from 10,000-12,000 VND/kg for farmers to recover their capital. However, in recent times, the price of dragon fruit has continuously decreased sharply, so investment costs such as electricity, fertilizer, labor, etc. have become a "burden" for farmers.
Determined to change
Unstable prices and unstable output have caused many farmers to switch from growing dragon fruit to other crops (In the photo: Mr. Le Bon (Vinh Xuan A hamlet, Duong Xuan Hoi commune, Chau Thanh district) switched from growing dragon fruit to growing tangerines)
The area of dragon fruit is increasingly shrinking, replaced by lush gardens of jackfruit, guava, tangerine, etc. Mr. Le Bon (Vinh Xuan A hamlet, Duong Xuan Hoi commune, Chau Thanh district) is one of the first households to grow dragon fruit in the commune. However, after a long period of unstable dragon fruit prices, he switched to growing tangerines. Currently, his 1,000 12-month-old tangerine trees are growing well.
Mr. Bon said: “After 10 years of growing dragon fruit, the tree got old so I had to destroy it and replant it, but the price of dragon fruit was not the same as before, so I switched to growing tangerines. Growing tangerines requires less investment than dragon fruit, and is mainly consumed domestically.”
In Hamlet 1, Tan Phuoc Tay Commune, Tan Tru District, dragon fruit gardens have now been replaced by lush rice and flower fields. Previously, seeing that many people growing dragon fruit brought high economic efficiency, Mr. Huynh Van Chinh (Hamlet 1, Tan Phuoc Tay Commune) also switched to growing this type of tree.
In the early years, his family's dragon fruit garden yielded quite well, with high selling prices, so the profit was high. Seeing that many people were growing dragon fruit, he invested in lowering the voltage of the electricity to rent out to handle off-season flowering. However, "the joy was short-lived", since the Covid-19 pandemic until now, the selling price of dragon fruit has dropped. After 2 years, not only did he not recover his capital, he also lost over 100 million VND. Therefore, he decided to switch to growing vegetables. According to Mr. Chinh, the people who suffered the most losses were those who had only planted for about 3 years. Currently, in the entire area where Mr. Chinh lives, there are only 2 households growing dragon fruit.
Recently, many households in Chau Thanh and Thu Thua districts have destroyed ineffective dragon fruit gardens. The price of dragon fruit has continuously dropped, making farmers "uninterested" in production. Many dragon fruit growers still do not know whether to "continue" or "stop"./.
| Currently, the dragon fruit area in the whole province is about 8,900 hectares (a decrease of about 1/4 of the area compared to April 2021), most concentrated in Chau Thanh district and some neighboring districts such as Tan Tru, Ben Luc, Thu Thua and Tan An city,... In Chau Thanh district alone, the dragon fruit area is currently about 6,800 hectares. The yield is 274 quintals/ha, the output is 262,826 tons. |
(To be continued)
PV Group
Lesson 2: Why?
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