More than 10,200 hectares of pepper in the Central Highlands died, the State Bank and banks sat down to discuss solutions for people to overcome difficulties …
Dried pepper garden of Mr. Nguyen Van Khoi in Chu Puh.
The mission of the State Bank of Vietnam led by Deputy Governor Dao Manh Tu has just had a meeting with Gia Lai province and representatives of banks in this province to discuss the solution for difficulties for people to borrow loans. Growing pepper in Gia Lai on 10/5.
Pepper farmers swept into debt spiral
According to statistics of the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection – Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development – by the end of 2018, the area of pepper of the whole region will be more than 89,000 ha, lower than in 2017 by 3,000 ha (nearly 92,000 ha). ). In particular pepper focus in Gia Lai province is nearly 16,300ha, Dak Nong more than 34,000ha and Dak Lak more than 36,600ha.
By the end of December 2018, the whole Central Highlands region had nearly 10,200 hectares of pepper died. Gia Lai is the province with the largest dead pepper area in the Central Highlands region with a total area of over 5,500 hectares.
Master Nguyen Tran Quyen – Deputy Director of the Center for pepper research and development, Central Highlands Agro-forestry Science and Technology Institute said: From 2010 to 2015, with the price of pepper rising, people massively cultivating this variety resulted in a rapid increase in the area, breaking the planning.
After the price of pepper reached the peak level, it gradually dropped to the bottom. In fact, in some localities, the area of dead pepper has increased in recent years. The cause of death is the combined impact of many factors such as: rainy weather; some dead pepper gardens have not been collected and destroyed according to the instructions that spread the fungi; many pepper gardens are grown on unsuitable soil conditions and drainage systems are not guaranteed; pepper gardens have no shade system or wind shield to protect pepper gardens.
Mr. Nguyen Van Cu, Director of Gia Lai State Bank, said: People in the province borrow about 4,000 billion VND to grow pepper. In particular, Chu Puh district is the most failed place for planting pepper. The life of people growing pepper after the “price storm” became miserable. When pepper depreciated, many pepper growers who could not afford to pay back the debt left the locality to go to another place for business, resulting in a difficult situation to handle debts.
Mr. Nguyen Duc Hoang, Vice Chairman of Gia Lai People's Committee, said that the issue of crop restructuring proposed by banks is a difficult problem, because people in the Central Highlands in general and Gia Lai in particular are familiar. with growing pepper, coffee, and rubber. Conversion of fruit trees is bringing high economic efficiency, but because the area is small, if expanded, there is no processing plant or guaranteed output, farmers will easily fall into crisis.
“If we announce a natural disaster, we can only take one step further, debt freezing. Because if we can not freeze debts, we cannot call on people to return, but if relatives do not return, then the ability to recover this debt is not available. And then, a fertile basalt land in Gia Lai will be fallow for a while ”, Vice Chairman of Gia Lai People's Committee emphasized.
Farmers planting pepper in difficult circumstances are forced to hang garden stands
Calling people to associate production
Master Nguyen Tran Quyen – Deputy Director of the Center for Research and Development of Pepper, said there are two main groups of solutions: immediate and long-term solutions. Specifically: For immediate solutions: it is necessary to apply measures to clean the garden, treat diseased plants and diseased plants to reduce the spread; pay attention to drainage measures in the rainy season; disease prevention by biological products; fertilizing balanced and reasonable to increase plant health and increase soil fertility; Pepper growers should consult the planting, care and pest management documents prepared by the National Agricultural Extension Center to supplement their knowledge and technical experience on pepper plants.
For long-term solutions, the following issues should be noted: Reorganizing production in the direction of linking production between 4 houses (state, farmer, entrepreneur and scientist). The implementation of production linkages not only stabilizes the output of pepper products but also ensures the sustainable development goals. In particular, attention should be paid to the development of high value-added pepper products; For the technical solution group, it is necessary to pay attention to researching on pepper seed breeding to be resistant to fungal diseases and nematodes; further research on the nutritional and irrigation needs of pepper plants to give more specific recommendations for production.
How to remove bad debt?
Facing the difficult situation of households growing pepper in Gia Lai, the State Bank's branches and credit institutions in the area actively took initiative in grasping the actual situation of borrowers to restructure the time. pay debts, exempt and reduce interests and continue lending loans for converting plant varieties to households suffering from pepper losses. At the same time, credit institutions have checked and reviewed the actual borrowing situation of households to take measures to support. As a result, over 6,000 customers have been supported by credit institutions with measures such as debt restructuring of VND 337 billion, interest rate reduction of VND 706 billion, new loans to restore production and business. business of VND 816 billion, loan of plant conversion of VND 118 billion, debt freezing proposal of VND 107 million.
Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Dao Manh Tu proposed that credit institutions continue to deploy solutions to remove difficulties for people producing pepper in the direction of debt rescheduling, debt freezing and debt restructuring; at the same time continue to assess the situation of outstanding loans, bad debts, the ability to handle debts, and the ability to recover capital in localities. The Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam also asked the province to coordinate with credit institutions to remove difficulties for pepper farmers.
“We need to use all current mechanisms and policies, creating conditions for borrowers, supporting businesses, supporting farmers and farmers is an important political task; create consensus in lending policies, supporting policies of the bank with people. How to freeze debts, extend the repayment period, and restructure the debts how the State Bank mechanism is available, but need to be specific and consistent to solve the problem. Proposing to the provincial leadership to direct the provincial functional units in the banking industry to assess the situation of the damage, direct communication to people, and coordinate with the banking industry to overcome difficulties “, Deputy Governor The State Bank of Vietnam Dao Manh Tu emphasized.
Source Traffic Newspaper
