Ms. Phan Thi Bich Lien (34 years old) is the third generation owner of a pink grapefruit garden of more than 3 hectares, the largest in Lai Vung district, Dong Thap province. As the owner, with 8 workers, Ms. Lien still regularly does the work such as planting trees, digging soil, fertilizing, weeding, etc.
Ms. Lien is taking care of the tangerine garden that has been passed down through 3 generations (Photo: Nguyen Cuong).
"Since I started working in the garden, I have become a real farmer. Working makes me understand plants and soil to take better care of the garden. I can't just focus on books," Lien shared.
Wearing a traditional Vietnamese dress, hands full of dirt, face covered in dirt, but the owner of the tangerine garden has a "huge" level of education, possessing 3 university degrees and fluent in many foreign languages. Before deciding to return to her hometown to work on the tangerine garden, Ms. Lien had a good job in Ho Chi Minh City with an income of 40 million VND per month.
Ms. Lien shared that pink grapefruit is a specialty of Lai Vung, and her family's grapefruit garden is the passion of her grandfather and father. With both a love for the "countryside soul" and not daring to waste her ancestors' efforts, in 2020, she determined to leave the city and return to her hometown to garden.
The garden is being renovated by Ms. Lien in an organic direction (Photo: Nguyen Cuong).
"I plan to organicize the garden, which is very hard and expensive. For example, if I use chemical fertilizers, it will take 1 ton and 2 days of work, but if I want to use organic fertilizers, I will have to compost them myself or buy them at a higher price, up to 7 tons, and it will be much more difficult to apply. Up to now, 1/3 of the garden has been completely organically cared for," said Ms. Lien.
Another agricultural orientation that Ms. Lien thought of even before she became a gardener was farm tourism. Therefore, since starting to take care of the tangerine garden, the young owner has devoted her heart and soul to renovating it to make the landscape lively and eye-catching.
After 1 year of taking over, in 2021, Ms. Lien began opening the garden to tourists. In the peak season, clusters of red and yellow, plump fruits are everywhere in the garden. From the end of the year to the beginning of the following year is the fruit ripening season, which is also the time when the garden is bustling with visitors from near and far.
During peak season, the garden is laden with clusters of plump, red and yellow fruits (Photo: Contributor).
"During the season, on a quiet day there are about 30 visitors, on the busiest day the garden welcomes about 500 visitors. The number of visitors from other provinces and abroad increases steadily every year. In addition to sightseeing, they also use the food and beverage services provided by the garden.
Each year the garden harvests over 15 tons of fruit, but the money from selling fruit only accounts for 1/3 of the revenue, the rest comes from tourism. However, each month the garden only makes a profit of about 8 million VND, very low," the garden owner shared.
Although the income is "miserably low" and the work is much harder than in the city, Ms. Lien affirms that she is always happy because life in the countryside is gentle, fresh and peaceful. Moreover, the garden is developing in the direction the young owner wants.
Ms. Lien is dedicating a corner of her garden to crossbreeding new varieties (Photo: Nguyen Cuong).
To increase income and contribute to the sustainable development of local red tangerine trees, Ms. Lien has set aside a separate plot of land in her garden to breed new varieties. She hopes that the tangerine trees will bear fruit all year round, so that the garden can welcome visitors all year round instead of just 3 months like now.
"I want to preserve traditional values, but I cannot stick to the old ways. Growing tangerines now costs three times more than my grandfather did, but the yield is not much different, and the risk of pests and diseases is high, so many gardens in the area have been cut down.
Without improvement, it will be difficult for tangerine growers to stick with their gardens. I will try, hoping that I can contribute in some way to restore the pink tangerine trees to their former glory days," said Ms. Lien.
Ms. Lien's garden attracts thousands of visitors from near and far every year, tourism is the main source of income (Photo: Contributor).
The leader of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Lai Vung district said that pink grapefruit with its characteristic red-yellow skin, juicy, sweet and slightly sour taste is a special agricultural product of the district, and has been granted an exclusive trademark certificate. Currently, Lai Vung has about 300 hectares of grapefruit gardens.
The leader said the locality needs and encourages young people with knowledge and capital like Ms. Lien to return to their hometown to work in the agricultural sector. Agricultural tourism is a direction that Lai Vung district as well as the whole Dong Thap province is focusing on promoting.
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