Planting 200 new guava trees, farmers in a mountainous district in Binh Dinh sell out as soon as they pick them.

Pioneer in growing organic guava

Although Mr. Nguyen Bao Toan's family's guava garden has only been harvested for nearly a month, he receives dozens of orders every day. Because the guava garden has just harvested its first batch, it can only meet 1/3 of the demand of customers, mainly customers in the district.

Starting his business from growing green vegetables, in early 2023, Mr. Toan boldly converted more than 1 sao of vegetable land to grow guava. Learning from previous crops, Mr. Toan believes that there must be a separate direction, the variety must be strange, different from the guava varieties currently on the market to be able to develop.

Mr. Nguyen Bao Toan, Xuan Phong Bac village, An Hoa commune, An Lao district (Binh Dinh) is the first person to bring Taiwanese guava varieties to grow locally using organic methods. Photo: Diep Dieu

After researching, Mr. Toan found that the Taiwanese guava variety has a green, shiny, fragrant skin, very few seeds or even no seeds, meeting the product requirements he was looking for. After 2 months of ordering, he and his wife imported nearly 200 Taiwanese guava trees to test growing using organic methods on an area of ​​1,500 square meters. According to Mr. Toan, guava is a fairly easy-to-grow tree, does not require much technique, and the investment level is also lower than other fruit trees, so it will reduce a lot of costs.

With the dream of creating the best products for consumers, he focuses on building an organic guava growing model, from carefully treating the soil to researching organic agricultural development trends.

Talking about the secret to growing clean guava, Mr. Toan firmly says no to using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. He only uses organic fertilizers and biological products to fertilize the trees and regularly prunes the branches. "Although farming in my own way costs more than normal, the results are obvious, the quality of guava is guaranteed, good for the soil and the environment, and the products are completely different from other guava varieties on the market," Mr. Toan emphasized.

Guava trees start to bear fruit after 6 months of planting, and by the 10th month, they will bear fruit. To protect the fruit from external factors and pests, when the young fruit is as big as an adult's thumb, Mr. Toan uses PP plastic bags and foam bags to wrap the guava, helping the fruit look beautiful and avoid fruit fly attacks. After about 3 months of wrapping, the guava tree is ready for harvest. On average, each tree produces 60-70 fruits, but Mr. Toan only keeps about 30 fruits, weighing 3-4 fruits/kg, the fruits are large and even, have a fragrant, crunchy, and sweet smell, and have very few seeds, completely different from other guava varieties on the market.

Guava growing efficiency is 3-4 times higher than other fruit trees

On average, Mr. Toan harvests 10-15kg of guava per day, selling for 20,000 VND/kg, earning 200,000 - 300,000 VND. In particular, Taiwanese guava can be harvested all year round, so it is highly economically efficient.

"According to my estimate, with 200 guava trees, if properly cared for and using safe products, when the tree is 1 year old or older, it will yield 20-30kg/day, the tree can be harvested year-round, the selling price is relatively stable, so the efficiency is 3-4 times higher than other fruit trees" - Mr. Toan said.

Ms. Tran Thi Dong - President of the Farmers' Association of An Hoa commune said: The organic guava growing model of Mr. Nguyen Bao Toan's family is the first model in the locality. Mr. Toan himself is a person who is eager to learn, research many new and strange plants to bring back to plant on a pilot basis, and evaluate the productivity. Currently, the organic guava growing model of Taiwan has initially shown effectiveness.

In the coming time, the commune will learn more about replicating the model, and at the same time mobilize households in need in the area to visit and learn from Mr. Toan's model in order to shift to growing fruit trees in the direction of safe and sustainable organic agriculture.

Source: https://danviet.vn/trong-200-cay-oi-giong-moi-la-nong-dan-mot-huyen-mien-nui-o-binh-dinh-he-hai-la-ban-het-veo-20240531112201528.htm