In recent years, many households in Huong Hoa district have invested in building a clean agricultural model combined with tourism development with many typical crops. Among them, strawberry plants have been prioritized by gardeners for pilot planting and have initially brought positive results, attracting many tourists to visit, experience, explore and capture beautiful images.
Mr. Khoa's strawberry garden model (Tan Lien commune) contributes to enriching experiential agricultural tourism models in Huong Hoa district - Photo: ML
After a long time of research and learning from many places, Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa in Tan Hoa village, Tan Lien commune decided to convert the entire area of over 2,500 m2 of old, low-yield coffee trees to strawberry cultivation. He invested over 150 million VND to prepare the land, buy seedlings, build an irrigation system and other related items. All stages from preparing the land to seedling incubation, planting and care were done by himself.
After nearly a year, his strawberry garden has grown well and officially opened on the occasion of the New Year, attracting many tourists to visit, experience and buy products right in the garden. In addition, he has also invested in flowers, ornamental plants and auxiliary models to serve customers to take souvenir photos.
Mr. Khoa said: “In order to build this strawberry garden, I was very worried at first because I had no practical experience and only learned through documents and models on the internet. Fortunately, thanks to my diligence in researching, studying while working, and suitable weather and soil, the strawberries grew well. The strawberries are big, evenly ripe and red, very eye-catching, and sweet, so customers love them. From this result, I will research to expand the area to serve tourists and develop the family economy.”
In Huong Hoa, strawberries are a very new crop, difficult to grow and care for, and have a high risk because they depend heavily on weather, climate, and the garden owner’s experience. Furthermore, growing strawberries 100% organically requires high investment in terms of money and care, so no local garden owner has grown them in large quantities before.
Identifying the new and strange elements of this crop that will attract tourists, especially at this time when agricultural tourism services are flourishing locally, garden owners have researched and learned scientific and technical knowledge via the internet and strawberry growing models in Da Lat city, at the same time connecting and exchanging scientific and technical knowledge, experience as well as seedlings.
To have a standard quality strawberry garden, gardeners must be very meticulous from the stage of preparing the soil to planting and caring. The soil must be plowed thoroughly to make it loose, treated with lime and dried in the sun according to the correct process. Gardeners buy tissue culture from Da Lat city to plant and propagate very carefully.
Fertilizers, nutrients, and plant protection chemicals are processed very systematically and carefully from locally available agricultural products, such as: using lime water or crushing chili, ginger, garlic, fermenting and pressing to get water to treat diseases on the tree trunk; stimulating roots with aloe vera juice, fermented soybean pulp; sweetening fruit with fermented banana juice to water the tree... In addition, the drip irrigation system is spread evenly throughout the garden, covered with standard tarpaulin... The care process must be monitored and checked regularly to ensure humidity, light...
Thanks to the suitable weather and climate and the meticulous care of gardeners, all strawberry gardens in the district initially developed very favorably, with a high survival rate, no pests, lots of fruit, large, uniform, juicy and sweet fruit. Strawberry care techniques are carried out entirely using organic methods, absolutely no chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used.
Therefore, it is very popular with visitors, who enjoy visiting, experiencing and picking clean products in the garden. The average price of strawberries in the garden is 250,000 VND/kg. In addition, the gardeners also serve visitors to take pictures with a ticket price of 30 - 35,000 VND/person.
From 1-2 pilot planting models with small areas, up to now, the whole Huong Hoa district has expanded 5 strawberry planting models with a total area of about more than 12,000 m2, concentrated in communes with quite low average temperatures such as Tan Lien, Tan Hop, Khe Sanh town.
Some models have attracted visitors to experience, harvest the fruit themselves and buy it to eat, or as gifts for relatives and friends. Ms. Dinh Thi Thu Thao, owner of Mien Vien Thao Farm in Hamlet 1, Khe Sanh town, is one of the pioneers in agricultural tourism in Huong Hoa. After many struggles to diversify agricultural products, gradually creating a unique attraction for her farm, she decided to pilot the cultivation of 3,000 strawberry plants. Growing and caring for it herself, her strawberry garden has grown very well, promising to attract the attention of visitors.
Ms. Thao excitedly said: “Up to now, my family has grown many types of agricultural products and flowers to serve tourists. This year, I decided to experiment with strawberries. Through the process of planting and caring for them, the initial results are very positive, the strawberries have blossomed and started to ripen. I believe and hope that this Lunar New Year, tourists will enjoy experiencing clean agricultural products at the farm.”
With the combination of some other typical local crops, strawberries are becoming a new crop and especially contributing to diversifying typical agricultural products, combined with experiences, sightseeing and tourism associated with product consumption. The model also contributes to increasing economic value and income for people, opening a new promising direction for agricultural tourism in Huong Hoa district.
Minh Long
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