Recently, pepper trees died simultaneously, making farmers in Ea Lai commune (M’Drak district) miserable and empty-handed because there was no harvest.
Read more: Dak Lak: Ea Lai farmers “lose sleep and eat” because pepper died in mass
Many pepper gardens in hamlet 8 died in series due to the helplessness of farmers.
Ea Lai commune has more than 257 hectares of pepper, this is a key crop to help develop the economy for local people. However, in the past two years, pepper has appeared the phenomenon of yellowing and dying at the same time, although people have tried to cure it but still cannot “rescue”, many gardeners have fallen into debt.
Realizing the price of pepper, in 2005 Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thin’s family (village 10) decided to invest 300 million dong to plant more than 300 pepper posts on an area of 3 sao. In the hope of changing his life from the “black gold” tree, Mr. Thin went to learn how to take care of it. In the first 5 years, pepper is suitable for the soil, so it grows and develops well, about 100 divination pillars have yielded more than 5 dry weights. However, up to now in the period of covering the pillar, the tree has begun to turn yellow, lose its leaves, and stop growing. Although he has been a pepper grower for more than ten years, Mr. Thin also had to “give up” to watch the pepper garden die. Currently, more than half of the family’s pepper garden has fallen to its roots and leaves, causing damage of tens of millions of dong. This year’s crop is considered lost because pepper has no fruit to harvest, making Mr. Thin sad and worried because of how much capital has been poured into the pepper garden, not knowing what the family’s life will be like in the future.
According to Mr. Thin, in the past years, pepper has not been developed at the same time, so the harvest is only enough to pay for the capital to buy pillars and invest in care. Therefore, the gradual destruction of death cannot be cured, which means that his family’s years of care and investment in fertilizer are wasted, with care but without profit, he has a headache with renovating the land. belt, remove poles, plant other suitable trees. However, this place is white sandy soil plus erratic weather, so other fruit trees are also “picky”, difficult to “root”.
The dying pepper garden of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thin’s family (village 10, Ea Lai commune).
From the 2021 crop, the pepper garden of more than 5 sao of Mr. Nguyen Van Hai’s family (village 10) has begun to die slowly, the yield has decreased sharply compared to previous years. In 2007, Mr. Hai’s family borrowed to invest more than 100 million VND in planting 550 pepper posts. In the years 2015 – 2017, beautiful pepper was priced again, after each harvest, his family made tens of millions of dong. However, this year the pepper tree suddenly stopped growing, still bearing fruit, but got sick and fell, leaving his family in a difficult position. Mr. Hai shared sadly, in the last two years, the family’s pepper showed signs of slow death, curly, yellow leaves, then the leaves gradually fell, the tree was stunted and died. The disease spread gradually from one pillar to another, causing more than 80% of the family’s pepper pillars to die. The whole year just waited for the harvest day, but this year it was lost. His family took on a new debt of more than tens of millions of dongs for weeding, buying fertilizer, pesticides, etc., but didn’t know where to turn to pay.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hai (village 10, Ea Lai commune) is demolishing his family’s dead pepper garden.
Mr. Truong Cong Sanh, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ea Lai Commune, said that the cause of many pepper gardens’ mass deaths comes from many factors. Specifically, because the local topography is located near the central coast, so it is hot and rainy; In addition to the fact that the time to spend is affordable, farmers rush to plant in low-lying areas that are not suitable, so it rains, pepper plants are “sensitive” to water, leading to rotten roots. In addition, in the cultivation process, people often use chemical drugs to kill weeds in high doses, so poisoned pepper plants cannot grow.
Faced with this situation, local authorities have instructed people to treat the land to replant crops, avoiding wasteful poles. In addition, farmers are encouraged to plant in suitable areas such as hillsides and steep slopes to avoid being flooded when it rains. At the same time, guide people to dig trenches, scoop ditches in each bed to quickly drain water when it rains, to avoid root rot. Every year, local authorities organize training sessions on applying science and technology, guiding the use of organic fertilizers to replace chemical fertilizers, and using herbicides in the right dosage. The authorities recommend that people should not cut down or abandon the pillars massively, but should replant and intercrop other crops such as coffee, durian, etc. to limit the risk of dying, some types Substitute trees will limit losses.
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