While pepper prices on the Dak Nong market continuously “plunge” and touched VND50,000-54,000/kg, organic pepper producers still sell mangroves for VND100-130,000/kg. This is a useful lesson for pepper growers in the province to change their way of thinking and doing for a long time.
In recent years, when the pepper price reached a high level, people massively expanded the area, despite the recommendations of the Agriculture sector and local authorities. The large area but the ability to invest in technology in farming is not equal among households, regions and ethnic groups, making it difficult for the process of improving the value of Dak Nong pepper industry.
Loss due to movement production
In this year’s pepper harvest, visiting areas with large pepper areas in the province, witnessing a sad harvest, can see the suffering of farmers. Especially the farmers who only grow pepper monoculture and those who borrow from banks to invest and expand the pepper area.
In 2012 and earlier, Mr. Tran Van Quoc in Nam N’Jang commune (Dak Song), had 4 hectares of pepper. Recalling those years, Mr. Quoc said: At the time when the pepper tree was in season and the price was good, his family earned over 1.5 billion VND each crop, minus all costs.
After several years of growing pepper, Mr. Quoc has deposited more than 12 billion VND in the bank. In the following years, pepper prices were continuously stable at a high level, seeing many people in the area massively expanding their area, Mr. Quoc was also eager to follow suit. With the money he saved in the bank, he did not hesitate to withdraw to buy land. At first, he bought land near his house, then he bought it to neighboring communes such as Truong Xuan, Dak Rung, Dak Mol … where he heard that there was a sale of land, he went to “pour money” to buy it.
Talking about the day when he was fascinated by pepper trees, Mr. Quoc bitterly explained: “I spent most of my savings to buy land, when I spent a “high price” per hectare of land, I couldn’t grow anything but people at that time. We sell for 200-300 million VND. No need to buy land. To fully invest in a pepper garden, each hectare has to spend roughly 400-500 million VND.
However, with more than 10 hectares of recent pepper growing land of Mr. Quoc, only 3-4 hectares are new for divination, the rest are newly planted. It is worth mentioning that after spending 12 billion dong on pepper cultivation, Quoc now owes the bank 4 billion dong. With a family like this, he doesn’t know how many years he will be able to repay the debt.
Like Mr. Quoc, Mrs. Truong Thi Nhan’s family in Dak N’drung commune also fell into debt due to chasing pepper trees.
Once known as “black gold”, pepper prices have suddenly dropped dramatically, making many people want to leave the garden. Because, with 54,000 VND/kg, good pepper gardens can break even, while pepper gardens with poor crops and difficult to harvest, the harvest is not enough to pay for workers. Those are the households who only need to pay the rent for the pickers, but compared to the bank loan for investment, they are considered unable to afford it.
Stable income from organic pepper production
Organic pepper production is gradually researched and applied by Mr. Dao Duy Hai, Director of Dong Thuan Organic Pepper Cooperative.
While the vast majority of pepper growers in the province are struggling because of the steep decline in pepper prices, there are some members of Dong Thuan Organic Pepper Cooperative (Cooperative) standing in village 6, Nhan Co commune (Dak R). ‘fill’) thanks to organic pepper production, pepper can still be sold at double the price at this time. Because, instead of using chemical fertilizers and drugs, people only use manure and organic fertilizers, so not only significantly reduce production costs but also higher selling prices.
According to Mr. Dao Duy Hai, Director of Dong Thuan Organic Pepper Cooperative, the production of pepper in the organic direction cannot achieve absolute yield as before (from 8 to 12 tons/ha). But in return, the garden is less susceptible to diseases, the yield is always stable, averaging 3-4 tons, with good care reaching 5 tons or more. Currently, after completing the post-harvest stages such as drying, drying, packaging to ensure food safety and hygiene, the cooperative’s pepper products are purchased by the affiliated company for 130,000 VND/day. kg, 76,000 VND/kg higher than the general price of pepper.
Mr. Hai said: “Dong Thuan Cooperative has experienced 8 years of organic pepper production. For many years now, we do not abuse chemical fertilizers and pesticides to care for pepper gardens anymore, but mainly use products of organic origin such as cow manure, composted fish manure, and fungicides. learn…”. Therefore, currently, more than 20 hectares of pepper of the cooperative’s people are following the correct production process and are strictly monitored.
Linking organic pepper production has brought high efficiency to Dong Thuan Organic Pepper Cooperative…
With the direction of not following the quantity in terms of area and productivity, but focusing on quality, good agricultural practices, and environmental friendliness, the pepper products of Dong Thuan Cooperative are highly appreciated in the EU market. Japan…
Solutions for sustainable development of pepper plants
Pepper is an economically viable crop, suitable for local natural conditions, but requires experienced and technical producers. According to the orientation to 2020, Dak Nong province stabilizes the pepper area about nearly 10,000 hectares, the output is nearly 19,000 tons/year, but in fact in 2017, the pepper growing area in the province has reached over 31,000 hectares, production volume of 37,000 tons broke the general orientation of the province.
Facing that fact, Dak Nong is implementing many solutions to develop a sustainable pepper industry. In which, special attention is paid to reviewing and managing the planning of pepper production areas associated with high-tech agricultural areas; implement biological and organic pepper production in association with deep processing to improve quality and increase product value…
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