In the context of agriculture facing many challenges, including increasing input costs and declining soil quality, the use of organic fertilizers has become a sustainable solution. Utilizing agricultural waste to produce organic fertilizers not only helps many Thai Nguyen farmers reduce costs but also improves the quality of agricultural products, protects consumer health and the living environment.
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| Farmers in On Luong commune (Phu Luong) make their own organic fertilizer for tea plants. |
In recent years, many farmers have proactively switched from using chemical fertilizers to producing organic fertilizers from agricultural waste, a typical example is Ms. Vi Thi Phuong, a farmer in La Giang hamlet, Quang Son commune (Dong Hy). With an area of over 4,000m2 of tea, she has stopped buying chemical fertilizers and instead produces organic fertilizers from rice bran, molasses, probiotics and yogurt.
Ms. Phuong shared: Through training courses on organic agricultural production, we learned how to process organic fertilizer from simple but very effective ingredients.
According to calculations, each year, self-producing organic fertilizers has helped her family save nearly 35 million VND on fertilizer and pesticides. The quality of tea has also improved significantly. Tea leaves have become thicker, the tea has a fragrant, rich flavor and productivity has increased from 2-5kg/sao depending on the crop.
Not only farmers, many cooperatives are also developing large-scale organic fertilizer production models. Mr. Tong Van Vien, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Director of On Luong Safe Agricultural Products Cooperative (Phu Luong), said: The cooperative currently has 7 members and more than 50 workers participating in tea production and processing on an area of 60 hectares of tea and 50 hectares of rice. Identifying organic fertilizer as the "golden key" to sustainable agricultural development, we have built a fertilizer production workshop from agricultural by-products such as chicken manure and straw, creating quality microbial fertilizers.
Each year, the cooperative produces about 100 tons of organic microbial fertilizer, not only for its own tea gardens but also for associated households. According to Mr. Vien, the use of organic fertilizer not only helps plants grow well, but also helps improve soil quality, making the soil loose and increasing moisture retention, thereby reducing watering and saving costs for plant care.
In addition to crop cultivation, closed-loop livestock farming models are also being applied to produce organic fertilizers. Nga My Cattle Breeding and Agricultural Production Services Cooperative (Phu Binh) is a typical example. After receiving support from the Provincial Agricultural Extension Center to apply scientific and technical advances through the model of fattening beef cattle, growing biomass corn and treating the environment with biological products, this unit has thoroughly applied them.
In which, cow feed is mainly corn, grass and agricultural by-products, cow manure is used to raise earthworms. Earthworm manure is then used to fertilize crops such as corn, grass and other plants.
Mr. Duong Van Hong, Director of the Cooperative, said: In addition to using organic fertilizers for its own crops, the unit also sells more than 100 tons of vermicompost to cooperatives and cooperatives producing safe vegetables, tea, and fruit trees. The model not only helps save on animal feed costs but also generates income from selling organic fertilizers. From selling fertilizers alone, Mr. Hong earns nearly 200 million VND each year.
In order to raise farmers' awareness of the production of microbial organic fertilizers for agricultural production, in recent times, the Provincial Farmers' Association has implemented many solutions such as: Propagating so that people can gradually form a safe production method associated with environmental protection; providing technical guidance on the use of preparations and the process of producing microbial organic fertilizers from agricultural waste and by-products; providing organic fertilizers to farmers in the form of deferred payment as well as consulting to help people access quality organic fertilizer sources.
In fact, switching from chemical fertilizers to organic fertilizers has many benefits but still faces many difficulties. Many farmers say that chemical fertilizers are fast-acting and easy to use, while organic fertilizers take longer to be effective. This makes them hesitant to change, especially when they place too much importance on productivity and continuous production requirements.
In addition, the number of farmer members who have participated in training courses on organic fertilizer production techniques using the hands-on method is still small; those who have been instructed have not been persistent and have not applied the model widely, causing the number of members accessing the model to be limited.
To promote the use of organic fertilizers, specialized units need to promote more extensive propaganda about the long-term harmful effects of overusing chemical fertilizers; provide training and guidance on techniques for creating organic fertilizers on-site; encourage farmers to utilize agricultural waste to produce organic fertilizers themselves... The transition to organic farming is an inevitable trend, contributing to building a green, clean and safe agriculture.
Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/kinh-te/202503/khi-nong-dan-tu-san-xuat-phan-bon-huu-co-0e1140f/
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