New tree on old land
Living in isolation on a high hill in the San area, for many years, Mrs. Ha Thi Tien's family has been accustomed to clearing grass and clearing land to plant raw forest. More than one hectare of forest hill land has been divided into several acacia planting plots so that they can take turns exploiting and planting new trees every year. Forestry is inherently hard work, taking labor as profit, working hard all year round is just enough to live, savings and accumulation are not worth much. In the middle of last year, when her family had just finished harvesting the acacia hill, clearing the ground cover, preparing for the new forest planting season, an agricultural extension officer of the commune, who is also a relative in the family, came to talk and encourage her to switch to growing the pink banana variety, which brings in much higher income. She was half-believing, half-doubting, because she had moved here to live for thirty years, and she had never seen anyone bring bananas up the hill to plant into a mass forest. It is true that banana trees have higher economic value, most of their parts can be utilized, but usually each household here only grows a few clumps, and when harvested, they bring them to the village market. Now, if they grow a whole forest, who will they sell it to? Her family was also given a bunch of red bananas grown in the garden for more than a year by a relative, the bunch is big, the ripe fruit has a much more delicious flavor than the local banana variety, but she only thought of it as a snack and never considered it as a commodity to trade. A few days later, she and dozens of people in the commune were taken by a business in Lam Thao (old) and the commune's agricultural extension officers to visit the red banana growing models in Lao Cai, Lam Thao, visit the processing factory and disseminate the content of the contract signing to coordinate the planting and consumption of red banana products.
Hearing, seeing, and being guaranteed by the commune government, she discussed with her husband the decision to register for a banana planting project, receive seeds, fertilizers, and learn planting and care techniques. The entire hillside around her house is now lush with the green color of bananas. The rows are neat, the first batch of red bananas planted has produced bunches, and some plants have been harvested. She excitedly shared: "The bunch of bananas has dozens of bunches, the fruits are plump and even. I tried to weigh a bunch and it weighed up to 6kg. Based on the purchasing price of the enterprise, my family will have a large sum of money this Tet, much more than growing acacia or linden...".
Together with Mrs. Tien's family, 20 families who registered for the project of growing pink bananas in Lai Dong commune are now full of confidence and excitement about the results that are about to be harvested. On the hillsides on both sides of the road to San area, bananas are now everywhere. Many high hills have also been paved with strips and raised beds for growing pink bananas. The alleys are bustling with talk about this family or that family about to have a big income from bananas and plans to change crops and expand the area of banana trees on the hills...
Mrs. Ha Thi Tien in San area has more than 1 hectare of pink bananas ready to harvest.
Link to develop
The first banana crop is about to be harvested, which is also the time when Tan Son High-Tech Agricultural Service Cooperative (HTX) was established with members being households participating in the project of growing pink bananas in Lai Dong commune. Mr. Ha Minh Thang - Deputy Director of the Cooperative and also the Head of the Agricultural Extension Team of Lai Dong Commune, the owner of 3 hectares of red bananas shared: “Implementing the One Commune One Product Program, Tan Son District (old) has repeatedly come to work, discuss and assign Tan Son Commune (old) to research and select an agricultural product suitable for natural conditions, promoting the potential strengths of hilly and forest land to replicate, helping people increase income, develop sustainable family economy. We have surveyed and calculated many options, from cinnamon trees, medicinal plants to citrus fruit trees, but after testing, they were not very feasible. At this time, Manh Thinh Phat Green Agriculture Company Limited in Phung Nguyen Commune came to the commune to contact the authorities, consulting on a model of linking the planting of red bananas for export. Commune officials and households with sufficient conditions for concentrated cultivation land were invited to visit banana growing models in many localities, visit factories processing export products...”.
By participating in the banana planting project, people will receive investment from the enterprise in seedlings, fertilizers, transfer of care techniques and most importantly, purchase of all products at prices ranging from 3,000 VND to 7,000 VND/kg, depending on market fluctuations. Such purchase prices are much higher than the current market price. According to people's calculations, each hectare can grow 2,600 banana trees, each year, each tree will produce 1 bunch, estimated to bring in hundreds of millions of VND in revenue. Pink bananas planted once will be harvested for 5 years. Moreover, along with the fruit sold to enterprises, the by-products of banana trees can all be utilized, bringing economic efficiency: Banana leaves are sold to bakeries, hams or used as fish feed; banana stems are used as animal feed for livestock and poultry; banana flowers after blooming in full bunches are also a favorite food of consumers...
Mr. Ho Sy Manh - Chairman of Lai Dong Commune People's Committee affirmed: "Focusing on rapid and sustainable socio-economic development on the basis of promoting the potential and strengths of the locality is a key and continuous task, and also a consistent goal of the Party Committee and the government of Lai Dong Commune. Agriculture and forestry are still the main economic activities, so changing the mindset, farming methods, choosing suitable crop and livestock varieties with high economic value, ensuring the consumption market is the only way to help increase income and quality of life for the people. The model of linking banana cultivation between Manh Thinh Phat Green Agriculture Company Limited and households is promising positive results. The commune will continue to research, expand the scale and area of linkage, and find more suitable crop varieties to effectively promote the potential of Lai Dong's large hill and forest land area...".
Currently, in Lai Dong commune, there are 21 households associated with Manh Thinh Phat Green Agriculture Company Limited participating in the project of growing red bananas with a total area of 21 hectares. If the concentrated growing area develops to more than 30 hectares, ensuring input materials, the enterprise will consider investing in opening a factory to produce fiber from banana stems. And thus, Lai Dong banana growers will have more joy from banana trees on the hill...
Box: Pink banana is a specialty fruit tree of our country with outstanding characteristics of pink-red pseudo-stem with large black-brown patches, fruit with beautiful yellow skin when ripe, firm flesh, delicious and sweet, not sour like other banana varieties. This banana variety has high economic value, suitable for export and can be grown in many regions across the country. In particular, pink banana is propagated by tissue culture method for uniform fruit, few disease spots, concentrated harvest, 10-20% higher yield than growing by shoots.
Ha Phuong
Source: https://baophutho.vn/dua-chuoi-len-doi-240398.htm
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