HAI PHONG Many households in An Hoa commune, An Duong district have converted ineffective rice growing areas to organic Taiwanese guava growing, which brings in 4-5 times more income than rice growing.
Taiwanese guava tree planted in An Hoa commune, An Duong district. Photo: Dinh Muoi.
Income is 4 - 5 times higher than rice cultivation
An Hoa commune is the locality with the largest area of vegetables and fruit trees in An Duong district (Hai Phong city). Of the 427 hectares of agricultural land, An Hoa commune has about 300 hectares of rice cultivation area, 97 hectares of vegetables and 30 hectares of Taiwanese guava.
Previously, the income of An Hoa commune residents mainly came from rice and jicama cultivation. Later, when rice cultivation became less and less effective, many households proactively changed their crop structure, converting ineffective rice fields to Taiwanese guava cultivation.
Initially, only a few households brought pear guava varieties to grow with the mindset of “trying and learning at the same time”. Thanks to technical guidance from the local agricultural sector and the suitability of the soil, guava trees grew well. Thanks to the economic efficiency being many times higher than rice cultivation, many households have boldly converted and up to now, the guava growing area in An Hoa commune has reached 30 hectares.
One of the first households to experiment with growing guava trees in An Hoa commune is Mr. Ngo Van Chien's family. Currently, with only over 4,000m2 of guava growing, the guava garden brings his family over 150 million VND each year, with an average income of over 15 million VND/sao.
Mr. Chien said that at first, when he was wondering what to plant, his relatives (guava traders) advised him to plant Taiwanese pear guava because the fruit quality was delicious, crunchy, sweet, the price was higher than the normal guava, and it was popular in the market.
Guava trees are covered with fruit, reducing the use of pesticides, resulting in safe products. Photo: Dinh Muoi.
Seeing that it was suitable, in 2018, Mr. Chien ordered 500 Taiwanese pear guava trees from the Vietnam Academy of Agriculture to plant on an area of 1.2 hectares. Nearly a year later, the guava began to bear fruit. For the first time, Mr. Chien saw a guava with a strange shape, yellow-green on the outside, shaped like a pear, large and delicious, crunchy, sweet.
When it comes time to harvest, it is not as hard as other crops, traders come to buy at the garden for 14,000 - 15,000 VND/kg. Right from the first harvest, after deducting expenses, Mr. Chien's family earned 150 million VND, an income many times higher than growing rice before.
“At first, I was skeptical. My family told me to take the risk. Luckily, the soil was suitable, so my family had a big win in the first crop. Taiwanese guava trees have been the main source of income for my family, so I am renting land to expand,” Mr. Chien shared.
From the success in converting the crop structure of Mr. Chien's family, many households with agricultural land in An Hoa commune also boldly converted ineffective rice growing areas to guava growing.
Mr. Ngo Van Lap (Ha Nhuan village, An Hoa commune) said: “My family rented 12 acres of land to grow Taiwanese guava. Guava is harvested year-round, during the main season, on average, we harvest 600-700 kg of guava per day, on peak days my family harvested 2 tons and sold them right in the garden. In the near future, we will rent more land to expand production.”
Mr. Le Van Hao, residing in Hamlet 4, An Hoa Commune, shared: In 2019, when he saw that some households in the commune were growing guava more effectively than rice, his family converted 4 sao of ineffective rice fields to experimental planting and also won the first crop. From the results of the model, his family has now expanded the guava growing area to nearly 3 hectares.
Currently, guava growers in An Hoa commune have focused on applying organic farming methods to protect the ecological environment of the fields. Photo: Dinh Muoi.
“While rice can be harvested twice a year, Taiwanese guava can be harvested all year round. On average, 1 sao (360m2) can grow about 40 guava trees, yielding about 2 tons of fruit a year, earning nearly 20 million VND, 4 to 5 times higher than rice cultivation before,” Mr. Le Van Hao compared.
Limit abandoned fields, switch to organic direction
According to Mr. Ngo Van Dao, Director of Ha Nhuan Agricultural Cooperative (An Hoa Commune), the conversion from ineffective rice cultivation to guava cultivation began to develop strongly in 2021 when the Taiwanese pear guava variety was seen to bring high economic efficiency. From a few initial households, up to now, the whole commune has more than 50 households growing guava. People always learn and share with each other about experiences and techniques in cultivation, especially gradually switching to organic guava cultivation.
"Guava growing techniques are not difficult, people mainly learn from each other and accumulate experience through harvests. In February and March, there is often a lot of rain, the quality of the fruit is bland, so we will stop the tree from bearing fruit, actively care for it, prune the branches, and mound the roots. In April, when the guava fruit is as big as the tip of a big toe, we start wrapping the fruit and from June onwards, the guava tree will be harvested until the end of the year.
Growing Taiwanese pear guava can yield year-round harvests, with prices depending on the time, sometimes up to 22,000 VND/kg, reaching 17 - 18 million/sao, many times higher than growing rice and other crops. All households are encouraged to cultivate organically, following VietGAP standards associated with building product brands," Mr. Dao shared.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hung - Vice Chairman of An Hoa Commune People's Committee said that in recent years, converting ineffective land areas to growing fruit trees and high-income crops is a positive direction that the commune has focused on.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, Vice Chairman of An Hoa Commune People's Committee (left) and Director of Ha Nhuan Agricultural Cooperative shared about the economic efficiency of guava trees. Photo: Dinh Muoi.
In recent times, the locality has had many solutions to encourage households to change crop structure, accumulate land, and form specialized guava growing areas. Although Taiwanese pear guava has only been planted on An Hoa land for 5 years, the economic efficiency is quite clear. This helps to overcome the situation of farmers leaving their fields fallow, limiting the area of irregular cultivation in the locality.
“The success of the Taiwanese pear guava growing model has promoted production and created more jobs for people. Households participating in guava growing have also formed a sense of collective production, supporting each other in production, building concentrated production areas, producing in an organic direction, ensuring product safety, contributing to protecting the ecological environment and building a model new rural area,” said Mr. Hung.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of An Duong district, not only the model of growing Taiwanese guava and Korean melon, from the conversion of crop structure, many production models have appeared in the district with high economic efficiency, contributing to gradually solving the problem of abandoned agricultural land. In 2023, the entire An Duong district helped reduce the area of abandoned fields in the area to just over 642 hectares, a decrease of nearly 76.7 hectares compared to 2022.
In addition, guava cultivation is also regularly promoted by the district's agricultural sector, guiding farmers to produce organically, applying fruit wrapping measures to minimize the use of pesticides, prioritizing the use of organic fertilizers, not using herbicides in production... to ensure product quality, safety, and protect the ecological environment.
In the coming time, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of An Duong district will continue to proactively coordinate with relevant departments to organize and implement mechanisms, policies, and models to support production development in Hai Phong city, especially in implementing production models in the direction of VietGAP, organic, and organic. On the other hand, it will facilitate, encourage, and attract organizations and individuals who have the need to rent land, transfer land, convert... from people to develop production, replicate models to overcome the situation of abandoned fields, and effectively convert crop structures.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of An Duong district is coordinating with a consulting unit to survey, evaluate, develop plans, and propose support for certification of production according to VietGAP standards for guava growing models (An Hoa commune, Le Thien commune), coriander growing (An Hong commune), Dong Du orange growing (Bac Son commune), and bean sprout growing (Dai Ban commune).
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