Organic pepper cultivation, agroforestry

DONG NAI Lam San Agricultural Cooperative pursues organic farming and agroforestry to adapt to climate change, reduce emissions, and aim to sell carbon credits.

Green organic pepper in the drought

Having met Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Luan, Director of Lam San Agricultural Cooperative many times at seminars on organic agricultural production, we have seen that he has very passionate speeches. That urged us to go to Lam San Agricultural Cooperative (Hamlet 2, Lam San Commune, Cam My District, Dong Nai Province) to understand more about the person who is always passionate about organic farming.

Pepper plants grown organically with agroforestry practices of Lam San Agricultural Cooperative can withstand the recent drought in the Southeast region. Photo: Nguyen Thuy.

At the beginning of the story, Mr. Luan shared: From understanding the European market's demand for safe pepper with traceability as well as increasing farmers' income by reducing intermediaries and improving pepper quality, in 2014, a model connecting farmers with the market through production groups was formed with the establishment of Lam San Agricultural Cooperative.

“Farmers often come to me to exchange experiences and techniques in organic farming and agroforestry models. Sometimes, I myself come to farmers to share farming techniques.

“Previously, when pepper prices were low, I told farmers to keep growing pepper, but many people said I was crazy. In fact, I looked at it from a market perspective, and many farmers only looked at the price, so the pepper growing area was getting smaller and smaller,” Mr. Luan said, adding that with 1,000 members, Lam San Agricultural Cooperative initially had a total area of ​​up to 1,000 hectares of pepper, but now there are only less than 400 hectares left, of which only 16 hectares are grown according to organic standards.

Understanding that the farming system has a close relationship between soil - water - crops will help farmers maintain stable and long-term productivity of their gardens without using a lot of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, Mr. Luan developed a water-saving irrigation system, drip irrigation and transferred the technology to the people. Thereby, Lam San Agricultural Cooperative has the highest rate of pepper gardens with water-saving irrigation and drip irrigation systems in Vietnam today. This is the most optimal method to reduce water loss, save energy and combat climate change.

Thanks to funding from the Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee to implement the large-scale field project, farmers participating in pepper production cooperation with Lam San Agricultural Cooperative are supported with 30% of the cost of installing an energy-saving irrigation system (including conventional farming as well as organic farming). To date, this project has supported over 6.6 billion VND for farmers.

According to Mr. Luan, farmers know how to organize production and cultivation according to organic standards, without confusing the “organic direction”, and if the products meet quality standards, they will not worry about lack of output. Organic pepper cooperatives account for 80% of the total organic pepper export output. And even at Lam San Agricultural Cooperative, they still ensure to purchase pepper products for farmers if the pepper meets quality standards.

“Organic farming means not using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, preservatives, synthetic chemical additives; antibiotics, genetically modified organisms, growth hormones.

The importance of organic agriculture is to create soil fertility, protect soil resources, create a biodiverse ecosystem, adapt to climate change and protect human health.

To do so, we must connect farmers together to share scientific knowledge and farming knowledge, not just buying and selling or the market. Lam San farmers come together to share experiences and failures to become better," said Mr. Luan.

According to Mr. Luan, since its establishment, the cooperative has supported farmers to export about 4,500 tons of pepper directly to the markets of Europe, Japan, China, and Korea, bringing high income to farmers.

The difference between organic pepper farming using agroforestry and conventional farming methods. Photo: Nguyen Thuy.

According to Mr. Truong Dinh Ba, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Lam San Commune, for many years now, Lam San Agricultural Cooperative has signed a cooperation contract with Lam San Pepper Cooperative Group, sharing knowledge, markets and purchasing all pepper products for farmers of the Cooperative Group at market prices.

“In addition to paying the market price, Lam San Agricultural Cooperative also gives farmers an additional bonus of VND4,000/kg of pepper (previously, when pepper prices were high, the bonus was VND10,000/kg). This is a cooperative that shares profits with farmers when they join the association,” said Mr. Ba.

Applying ecological science to agriculture

If we just said it, we might not believe it, but indeed, when we saw with our own eyes the lush green organic pepper pillars growing in the drought of the Southeast region, we clearly realized the difference of this organic farming method, agroforestry. This is one of the first two pepper gardens to receive organic certification of Lam San Agricultural Cooperative by the International Certification Organization CERES-Cert (Germany).

In the harsh May sun, Mr. Luan's 3.5-hectare organic pepper garden intercropped with grapefruit, cashew, cocoa, and banana is still green and lush, quite different from the two pepper gardens next door (one garden is exhausted due to over-intensive farming; the other garden is lush, but the leaves are yellow due to the heat and too much watering).

Organic pepper garden is produced in the form of agroforestry combined with diverse crops, multi-layer, multi-canopy, creating biodiversity. Photo: Nguyen Thuy.

According to Mr. Luan, being fully aware of the issue of climate change, from the beginning, he decided to do organic farming, a combined agroforestry model. This model is suitable for cultivation in the Southeast and Central Highlands regions, especially for small households.

When the temperature is high and the sunlight is too intense, the roots are not strong enough. Even if there is enough water for irrigation, if cultivated normally, the plants will still be exhausted and cannot grow well.

By cultivating according to organic standards, agroforestry will create different layers of leaves, then the upper layer of leaves (forest trees) will block the light for the lower layer of plants (pepper). At Lam San Agricultural Cooperative, households are guided to practice redesigning the farming system, keeping the soil and plant density in an ecological balance, creating suitable light, ensuring nutrition and helping the soil microorganism system develop.

The basic principle to restore soil fertility is to apply organic fertilizers, creating a drainage environment around the root zone for the soil microorganisms to develop well. A healthy soil environment will limit diseases caused by Phytophthora fungi. The cooperative grows pepper and raises goats, utilizes by-products and manure to compost as organic fertilizer for pepper plants. Increase the efficiency of land, water and nutrient use by diversifying crops and agro-forestry farming methods, installing water-saving irrigation systems combined with fertilization.

“Organic is the standard, ecology is the principles, we apply ecological science principles to agriculture. There is no common process for all farmers. Therefore, for each different household, we will have a way to guide them on how to cultivate according to organic standards, suitable for the ecology of their garden. It is impossible to apply Mr. A's process to Mr. B,” Mr. Luan analyzed.

Thanks to organic farming in the form of agroforestry, the soil microorganism system is very developed, the soil is always fertile and retains moisture well. Photo: Nguyen Thuy.

According to the Director of Lam San Agricultural Cooperative, more importantly, in the future, not only will gardens grown using this method have zero net emissions, but they will also increase the level of CO2 absorption from the atmosphere. From there, we can confidently certify and sell carbon credits to the market.

“Therefore, it is necessary to have the connection of farming households and especially the support and assistance from the Dong Nai provincial government in general and the local government in particular to implement the agroforestry model on a large area of ​​about 300 - 500 hectares in Lam San”, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Luan said and added that the cooperative is currently cooperating with the non-governmental organization Helvetas (Switzerland) to assess and compare the amount of CO2 emissions between agroforestry farming and conventional farming in the locality to standardize the farming process, aiming to reduce emissions. At the same time, Lam San Agricultural Cooperative is also looking for potential investors to make carbon certificates according to Vera and Gold Standards.

"The global pepper market size is valued at 5.43 billion USD, forecast to grow at an average of more than 20% during the period 2024 - 2032.

This is the time for farmers to grow pepper again, combining organic farming and agroforestry. Try to develop and maintain the country's pepper output by 2030 to reach about 300,000 tons to return to the golden age of pepper exports after a long period of sharp decline in output, area and price," said Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Luan.

Dong Nai province's agricultural sector has determined that by 2025, it will form areas producing organic agricultural products, creating a source of high-quality agricultural products, ensuring food safety and hygiene for consumers, certified to meet domestic, regional and international organic agricultural standards. Forming production chains associated with the consumption of organic agricultural products to meet domestic and export consumption needs.

Source: https://nongsanviet.nongnghiep.vn/trong-tieu-huu-co-voi-mo-hinh-nong--lam-ket-hop-d386746.html