Mr. Phan Van Bit built a 7-hectare custard apple garden, each fruit weighs an average of 500-700 grams, yielding over 300 tons, earning more than 10 billion VND per year.
In early February, Mr. Bit, 62 years old, in Long Hung ward, O Mon district, Can Tho city, was busy with nearly 10 workers taking care of, pollinating, fertilizing, spraying, watering, and harvesting a 7-hectare garden of Thai custard apples (queen custard apples) that were at the age of bearing fruit.
"This Tet holiday, about five tons of fruit will be supplied to the market to serve people on the five-fruit tray, priced at VND50,000 per kilogram. Then there will be more than 50 tons for the full moon of January at VND60,000 per kilogram," Mr. Bit said, explaining that the high price until mid-April of the lunar calendar is because the supply of custard apples at this time is mainly in the West, not in conflict with other regions. During the rainy months, the price is low (VND30,000-35,000 per kilogram) and starts to increase when the dry season begins.
Wiping the sweat from his face, the strong, quick-moving farmer said that this alluvial land along the Hau River is very good, suitable for many types of crops. However, like many other farmers, his family has spent decades growing watermelons, grapefruits, longans... earning just enough to eat and a little extra, while growing rice is also profitable but not enough for household expenses.
In 2014, introduced by an acquaintance, Mr. Bit went to the Western seedling capital in Cho Lach district, Ben Tre province to buy 250 custard apple seedlings to intercrop in his family's 7,000 m2 (7 hectares) grapefruit garden. He was also the first farmer in the locality to plant this new fruit variety, despite the skepticism and curiosity of many others.
After two years of care, the tree began to bear fruit, but because he did not know how to handle it to produce the desired fruit, he only harvested the first 5 tons of product and sold it for 55,000 VND per kg.
"Many other fruit trees only need to use chemicals to stimulate flowering and fruiting for high efficiency. But for custard apple, this method cannot be used. It requires pruning techniques, canopy shaping and manual pollination to determine yield and efficiency," he said. The garden owner himself researched and learned on the internet, combined with visiting and learning from the experiences of custard apple gardens in the North, and based on the actual local conditions, came up with his own treatment method.
"Harvest time and pollination support are key factors for the success or failure of the crop," Mr. Bit affirmed, adding that every year it is necessary to calculate for custard apples to ripen, harvesting from around the full moon of January to the middle of April of the lunar calendar will sell for a high price.
With the technique of pollinating custard apples, this farmer chooses the pollen flowers that are fully bloomed, yellowish-white, the male stamens have turned creamy white, and the anthers are about to crack. Then he uses a syringe to collect pollen grains, pollinates the newly bloomed flowers, the petals have just separated to get the fruit.
"You have to inject the syringe and rotate it evenly so that the pollen sticks to the pistil. After about a week, young fruit will form," he said, adding that because of concentrated pollination, the fruit is round, large, balanced, and very beautiful, weighing 400-700 grams each. It takes 95-110 days from pollination to harvest for custard apples. Common pests of custard apples are mealybugs and red spiders. He has to check regularly to handle them early to avoid fruit attacks that lead to deformities and reduced quality.
By doing this, in the second harvest year, the garden owner harvested 12 tons, selling for 60,000 VND per kg. The product is of good quality, delicious, and is purchased by traders at a high price, supplying the markets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
After that, his family decided to gradually expand the area of growing this highly effective plant to 5 and 7 hectares of land, previously used for growing watermelon and grapefruit.
In the following crops, the yield and output will gradually increase to 100, 200 tons. "In 2024, when all 4,500 custard apple trees bear fruit, my family will harvest 250 tons. With an average selling price of 40,000-45,000 VND per kg, the revenue will be about 10 billion VND," said Mr. Bit. After deducting investment costs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, labor, etc.) of about 400 million VND per hectare, he earned more than 6 billion VND.
Currently, this farmer has rented two more hectares of land from local people to continue growing custard apples, increasing the area to 9 hectares. At the same time, he also sells seedlings and provides technical guidance to local farmers. In the near future, he aims to apply clean agricultural production measures to have products that meet export standards...
Mr. Nguyen Van Thang, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Long Hung Ward, said that the locality has more than 1,100 hectares of agricultural land, mainly growing fruit trees. Of these, more than 30 hectares are planted with custard apples, which are very effective, surpassing mangoes, longans, oranges and 5-10 times more effective than rice. Each hectare of land planted with custard apples brings a profit of 30-40 million VND per year, while rice planting brings less than 5 million VND. Among these, Mr. Bit is the pioneer in planting the custard apple variety with the highest yield and efficiency.
According to Mr. Thang, this crop brings high profits to farmers and a stable consumption market. With favorable climate and soil conditions, the locality is encouraging the establishment of cooperatives, mobilizing people to invest in clean agricultural development, registering growing areas, building brands for export, expanding consumption markets, and increasing profits for farmers.
Source
Comment (0)