Mr. Bui Thai Son, Secretary of the District Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Committee of Tan Phu Dong District, Tien Giang Province, said that in order to cope with drought and salinity, local farmers converted 3,780 hectares of unstable single-crop rice land to lemongrass cultivation, forming the largest lemongrass specialized area in Tien Giang Province with a harvest output of over 60,000 tons of commercial lemongrass each year.
Mr. Bui Thai Son, Secretary of the District Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Committee of Tan Phu Dong District, Tien Giang Province, said that in order to cope with drought and salinity, local farmers converted 3,780 hectares of unstable single-crop rice land to lemongrass cultivation, forming the largest lemongrass specialized area in Tien Giang Province with a harvest output of over 60,000 tons of commercial lemongrass each year.
According to Mr. Bui Thai Son, lemongrass is both a spice and a medicinal plant, with the advantage of adapting to the soil of the saline island of Tan Phu Dong, drought-resistant, easy to grow, harvested almost all year round, high yield, low cost while high profit, favorable output.
Traders buy lemongrass at an average price of 4,500 - 5,000 VND/kg in the field depending on the time. At this price, each hectare of lemongrass is worth over 100 million VND. After deducting expenses, farmers still have a net profit of about 60 million VND/ha, 3 - 4 times higher than the previous unstable yield of single-crop rice cultivation, so farmers are very excited.
Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tan Phu Dong district, Nguyen Van Hai, said that in order to ensure irrigation water sources and serve production in specialized areas, Tan Phu Dong district has invested over 15 billion VND to upgrade nearly 15,000 m of dykes to complete the Phu Thanh - Phu Dong irrigation project; build 5 new culverts, dredge 62 canals and ditches in the fields to get irrigation water with a length of over 95,000 m and a cost of over 22.2 billion VND.
The above projects have effectively served production, responded to natural disasters such as drought and salinity, and reduced damage. Thanks to that, they have contributed to protecting specialized lemongrass growing areas, stabilizing people's lives during the dry season with very harsh weather on saline islands.
Harvesting lemongrass during the drought and salinity season in Phu Dong commune, Tan Phu Dong district, Tien Giang province. Photo: Minh Tri - VNA.
Tan Phu Dong district has been granted a certificate of registration of the collective trademark "Tan Phu Dong Lemongrass" by the Department of Intellectual Property (Ministry of Science and Technology).
At the same time, the locality is interested in developing cooperative economy in the field of lemongrass cultivation linked with consumption, solving product output according to the value chain model, farmers are assured to promote production and intensive farming.
Tan Phu Dong has now established 6 specialized lemongrass cooperatives, 3 lemongrass growing cooperatives in key communes along with hundreds of large and small lemongrass purchasing facilities. In recent times, the above network has performed well in the role of consuming and purchasing commercial lemongrass for consumption throughout the province.
Phu Thanh Lemongrass Specialized Cooperative and Phu Dong Agricultural Service Cooperative also transfer VietGAP cultivation process on lemongrass to farmers.
Director of Phu Dong Agricultural Service Cooperative Duong Minh Son said that the cooperative has 53 members with a cultivation area of 53 hectares. Not only gathering farmers and transferring lemongrass growing techniques according to VietGAP process, the cooperative also purchases and consumes commercial lemongrass for people in Phu Dong commune's growing area.
Currently, the cooperative supplies the market with an average of 200 - 300 tons of commercial lemongrass per day. Thanks to this, farmers are confident in investing in intensive farming to achieve high productivity, output and good quality agricultural products to participate in the market.
Farmer Vo Huynh Ha, residing in Ba Tien 1 Hamlet, Phu Dong Commune, is a member of Phu Dong Agricultural Service Cooperative, cultivating 2 hectares of lemongrass. According to Mr. Ha, lemongrass is easy to grow and suitable for the saline soil here.
Lemongrass can be harvested after 5 months of planting; each year, there are 2 to 3 harvests; the average yield is 15 - 20 tons/ha. With lemongrass price of about 4,500 VND/kg, each year, after deducting expenses, Mr. Ha still has a net profit of hundreds of millions of VND. For many years, thanks to lemongrass, Mr. Vo Huynh Ha's family has had a stable and good income, built a spacious house, and established a sustainable business.
Mr. Cao Minh Duc, residing in Ly Quan 1 hamlet, Phu Dong commune (Tan Phu Dong district) is a typical example of getting rich on the saline land of Tan Phu Dong thanks to switching to lemongrass cultivation on single-crop rice land. On an area of over 1 hectare of rice fields, he switched to lemongrass cultivation for two harvests per year, yielding 22 tons; with an average selling price of 5,000 VND/kg, earning about 100 million VND/crop from specialized lemongrass resources.
According to Mr. Duc, bringing lemongrass to the rice fields on the island to respond to the movement of converting the structure of suitable crops and livestock, and coping with climate change is a suitable direction to help Tan Phu Dong farmers build their careers, renew the countryside, and make it increasingly prosperous and beautiful.
Source: https://danviet.vn/trong-cay-sa-tot-um-ngoai-dong-menh-mong-dan-mot-huyen-cua-tien-giang-he-nho-len-la-ban-het-veo-20250210213748229.htm
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