The model of “Women’s group growing watercress” of the Women’s Union of Dong Nai Thuong Commune (Cat Tien District, Lam Dong Province) has truly opened up a direction for stable economic development. This special forest vegetable has helped increase income for many families in the commune.
Dong Nai Thuong Commune is an ethnic minority commune in Cat Tien district (Lam Dong province) with nearly 100% of the population being Ma and X'tieng ethnic people.
This is also a commune in the buffer zone of Cat Tien National Park, so creating stable livelihoods for people associated with forest protection work is always identified by the Party Committee, local authorities and agencies and organizations as a parallel task to help people increase their income and maintain good forest cover in the commune in particular and Cat Tien district in general.
Over the past 5 years, the model of "Women's vegetable growing group" of the Women's Union of Dong Nai Thuong commune has truly opened up a stable economic development direction for many families in the commune and this is also a model that contributes to minimizing the impact on the forest, while bringing many practical benefits to the lives and production of the people.
Rau nhip is a wild vegetable that grows in the forest and for generations, rau nhip has been a familiar dish that the Ma and X'tieng ethnic people have picked and eaten every day.
In the cashew gardens of Dong Nai Thuong commune, rau nhip still grows naturally in the garden. Normally, people will pick young shoots to eat and then clear the cashew garden. When they want to eat rau nhip, they go into the forest to find and pick it.
Ms. Dieu Thi Viem, a farmer growing wild vegetables - a specialty of Dong Nai Thuong commune, Cat Tien district (Lam Dong province) next to her family's vegetable garden grown under the canopy of cashew trees.
Faced with that reality, Ms. Ka Re - President of the Women's Union of Dong Nai Thuong Commune (Cat Tien District, Lam Dong Province) realized why not encourage female members to keep the pennywort plants growing in the cashew garden.
Women in Dong Nai Thuong commune no longer throw away this type of wild vegetable, but instead take care of it and fertilize it to create a clean vegetable garden to help each family have vegetables to eat when needed, without having to go far into the forest to find and pick them.
So, Ms. Ka Re - President of the Women's Union of Dong Nai Thuong commune, together with the women in the Executive Committee of the Women's Union of the commune, encouraged the members not to destroy the watercress roots in the cashew garden.
At the same time, the Association supports fertilizers and guides families on how to take care of vegetable gardens under cashew trees to help families both harvest cashew trees and have a source of clean vegetables to eat.
In addition, families also have additional income from picking watercress to sell to traders who bring it down to consume in communes and towns in the district because this is a type of vegetable that many people like to eat.
Ms. Dieu Thi Viem in Bi Nao village, Dong Nai Thuong commune, Cat Tien district (Lam Dong province) expressed: "Previously, people all cut down the water spinach growing in the garden and then went into the forest to pick water spinach to eat.
Thanks to the encouragement and guidance from the women's association on how to care for the watercress plants to grow well, most people keep the watercress plants in their gardens.
Women are expanding the area of specialty vegetable cultivation because with vegetables in the garden, they don't need to go far, which is very convenient and also brings in extra monthly income."
Thanks to this effective method, up to now, most of the women's union members in Dong Nai Thuong commune have kept the watercress plants in their gardens to care for and multiply.
Many members of the Women's Union have created vegetable gardens under the cashew trees on an area of several sao to nearly 2 hectares, helping each family have a stable monthly income of over or under one million VND.
Traders buy the specialty water spinach for 20,000 to 50,000 VND/kg, depending on the season. In the rainy season, the price of water spinach is cheaper than in the dry season, because the plants sprout a lot, giving a superior yield.
Women in Dong Nai Thuong commune, Cat Tien district (Lam Dong province) harvest rau nhip. From a wild vegetable growing in Cat Tien forest, rau nhip is now a specialty vegetable.
The advantage is that the watercress grows very well in red basalt soil like in Dong Nai Thuong commune. The wild watercress is not affected by pests, so people only need to add fertilizer and provide enough moisture for the plant to grow well.
Ms. Ka Re - President of the Women's Union of Dong Nai Thuong Commune (Cat Tien District, Lam Dong Province) shared: "Up to now, women have clearly seen the benefits of the vegetable garden: serving daily meals for the family, and being able to have additional income if the harvest is large.
Moreover, keeping the watercress also helps prevent soil erosion, so many families have proactively taken care of and expanded their watercress gardens. Thanks to that, growing this type of wild vegetable has also contributed to limiting people from going into the forest to pick watercress, which affects the natural forest."
Along with other income-generating farming models such as coffee, high-yield cashew, durian, avocado, rubber, etc., the model of growing watercress has shown that this is also an effective livelihood model for many households in Dong Nai Thuong commune.
The price of watercress is always much higher than many common vegetables and is favored by many people because of its sweetness and crunchiness.
Not only taking care of the watercress plants to spread and produce many new leaves, but currently, many households in Dong Nai Thuong commune have pruned branches to plant more to expand the watercress garden.
Source: https://danviet.vn/rau-nhip-la-rau-rung-dac-san-o-lam-dong-ngot-nhu-mi-chinh-dan-trong-thanh-cong-ban-nhu-tom-tuoi-20250221163403406.htm
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