The continuous falling prices and strong outbreak of diseases have made pepper production farmers continue to face difficulties. In this context, the functional industry is urgently deploying solutions to support and help people to escape crisis soon …
From 2018 to the present, the whole Dak Nong province has nearly 7,000 hectares of pepper died
Continued crisis
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development's statistics, by the end of August 2019, the province had 6,651 hectares of pepper died, accounting for 19.2% of the provincial pepper area (34,552 ha). Pepper died causing many farmers lost a large amount of money, unsteady and not easy to switch production.
Currently, pepper prices have reached a record low over the past 10 years, with about 37,000 VND / kg. At the current price, households who practice monoculture of pepper plants or produce pepper in the traditional way face many difficulties, even if they cannot afford to spend.
Mr. Nguyen Van Thang, from Nam N’Jang commune (Dak Song), analyzed: “At present, on an average of 1 ha of pepper, people collect about 3 tons of seeds. With the current price, 3 tons of pepper bring people about VND 110 million. The cost to produce 1 kg of pepper costs about 32,000 VND. Thus, 3 tons of pepper people spend nearly 100 million VND on investment and labor costs. With 1ha of land after subtracting investment costs, renting only earned more than 10 million dong of profit, there is nothing to waste, not even enough to eat ”.
For bank borrowers to plant pepper, the consequences are even heavier. Mr. Nguyen Van Thien, from Nhan Co Commune, Dak R’lap District shared: “My family borrowed VND 200 million to develop pepper at an interest rate of 10% per year. As this year, my family is estimated to earn more than 3 tons of pepper, with the current price, it is only over 110 million VND. The cost of investment, the care fertilizers, and the bank's interest, made the family unable to pay. In order to maintain the pepper garden, my wife and I try to use our earnings as a profit to have money to repay the bank ”.
Some “rescue” options
Pepper prices are now very low, almost equal to the cost of production investment. The reason is that Vietnam's pepper is facing many difficulties which is basically due to the supply exceeding the demand. The area of growing pepper now exceeds the plan. Many pepper areas have been planted in inappropriate areas, and epidemics on pepper have not yet been effective.
While the organization of production, preliminary processing and deep processing of pepper is still limited, it has not brought into full play its potential and advantages. Therefore, the functional departments recommend that people should reduce the area in inappropriate places. In addition, for those households cultivating pepper, it is also necessary to calculate intercropping or reduce the area for multi-cultivation and multi-tree to stabilize production.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the natural conditions, climate and soil of Dak Nong province are suitable for pepper. Pepper is also a key crop in the province, with a long development cycle. Therefore, with its role, the Agriculture sector has studied and proposed plans for the pepper industry to escape the current crisis.
First of all, the Agriculture sector continues to instruct local farmers to remove and destroy areas of pepper which have been dead or unable to recover to convert to other crops more effectively.
In the immediate future, people should plant short-term crops such as beans, beans, corn, potatoes, vegetables … to increase revenue and solve difficulties in life. Department of Agriculture and Rural Development proposes the Provincial People's Committee to issue a written report proposing ministries and branches to consider and adopt specific policies with Dak Nong province to support damage to pepper farmers according to regulations.
In the long run, departments, agencies, People's Committees of districts and towns develop plans to convert dead pepper areas or plant in unsuitable places to grow other crops such as coffee, cashew. , medicinal plants, fruit trees, passion fruit …
Agriculture also encourages people to produce pepper in a sustainable and organic way, saving production costs. Functional agencies shall promote propaganda, training and technology transfer, build pepper production models according to the value chain, certified production.
Localities should organize surveys, assessments and build high-tech agricultural production areas. Local authorities also need to be persistent in advocating and guiding farmers to actively participate in pepper production cooperatives and cooperatives in association with enterprises to invest in input materials, purchase, process and consume pepper. Products with stable prices.
