Coming to An Thanh islet (An Thanh hamlet, Hoa Binh commune, Cho Moi district) during the flood season, it is easy to see the image of farmers immersing themselves in the water to harvest water caltrops. Although the work is somewhat difficult and tiring, everyone is excited because this year water caltrops are more expensive than last year.
Mr. Tran Van Thoai’s family is one of the farmers who have been involved in the model of growing water chestnuts for many years. Mr. Thoai said that people here mainly cultivate Taiwanese water chestnuts. This type of water chestnut has a short growing period, high yield, and long harvest time.
In addition, Taiwanese larva has firm, sweet, and fatty flesh, so it is popular in the market. Another advantage of Taiwanese larva is that it is easy to grow and requires little care.
During cultivation, farmers mainly fertilize to provide nutrients for plant growth and prevent snail attacks when the plants are young.
People usually plant seeds in June (lunar calendar), and can harvest about 2 months later. This time coincides with the water from upstream bringing a lot of alluvium, providing enough nutrients for the plants, so growers do not have to take care of them.
To produce high yield of Taiwanese water chestnut, growers need to prepare good seed sources, free of pathogens or defects.
It is known that the model of growing caltrop in Hoa Binh commune, Cho Moi district (An Giang province) was formed and developed from 2005 to present.
During this time, the locality has a policy of promoting vegetable planting to replace ineffective rice, and at the same time dredging intra-field canals.
To implement the above policy, the locality has organized agricultural seminars and study tours in many places...
Since then, farmers have had access to many new and effective production models, including the model of growing water caltrops. At first, farmers only grew horned water caltrops, which had low productivity and quality. Currently, people mainly grow Taiwanese water caltrops, which have higher productivity and better quality.
Due to the unique natural conditions, farmers in An Thanh hamlet cultivate 3 types of crops in 3 seasons. In the winter-spring crop, they plant rice, in the summer-autumn crop, they plant vegetables (sesame, corn, etc.), and in the fall-winter crop, they plant larva.
For households with low-lying land, it is possible to cultivate two crops of young rice after the winter-spring crop. This method brings significant efficiency to farmers.
This season, Mr. Vo Van Ghe's family continues to grow water chestnuts on an area of over 10,000m2 . Mr. Ghe said that this year's water chestnuts have a good price, so his family is very excited. "The average water chestnut yield is about 2 tons/cong ( 1,000m2 ).
Currently, traders buy larva at 7,000 VND/kg, 2,000 VND/kg higher than last year. With this price, after deducting expenses, farmers earn a profit of 10 - 11 million VND/cong. Thanks to larva cultivation, my family has had an additional source of income during the flood season for many years," Mr. Ghe shared.
According to Mr. Ghe, growing water chestnuts requires more care and harvesting than other crops. However, this crop brings high income, no need to worry about the weather, and prices fluctuate little.
On the other hand, after planting the larva, when producing the winter-spring rice crop, very little fertilizer is applied because there is a lot of alluvial sediment, the rice plants are less susceptible to disease because they are isolated for one crop season, and pathogens do not have conditions to develop.
In addition to the economic benefits from the water caltrop plant, farmers also use the stems and leaves of the water caltrop plant to make organic fertilizer for rice fields in the following crops. Thanks to this, the winter-spring rice yield is always high, and production costs are significantly reduced.
In addition to farming households, water chestnut trees also help many people earn extra income from "side hustle" jobs such as water chestnut picking for hire. Although the work is somewhat hard, it provides a stable income of 200,000 - 300,000 VND/person/day.
In addition, many households also buy water chestnuts from farmers and cook and resell them to earn extra income. In Hoa Binh commune, there are many households that specialize in buying fresh water chestnuts, distributing them to small traders in markets or households that sell water chestnuts on the roadside, contributing to increasing people's income.
Water spinach is one of the aquatic plants that many people choose to grow to increase income during the flood season.
Taiwan caltrop can live all year round, but grows well and gives high yield in the rainy season.
From the development of the Taiwanese larva growing model, a rice-vegetable-larva or rice-larva-larva farming system has been formed, bringing economic efficiency to farmers on the same area unit. This is a crop that "lives with floods", adapting to the current climate change conditions.
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