The continuous decrease of pepper price, fluctuating in the range of 30,000 – 40,000 VND / kg makes pepper growers in Binh Phuoc province are in misery.
More than 8,000 pepper posts are ripe for Mr. Huynh Van Them's household (Loc Quang commune, Loc Ninh district) with only 2 pickers.
The price of pepper dropped sharply, and the farmers had no profit so the households were not interested in investing in looking after the next crop, leading to the situation that the trees were exhausted. Along with that, the erratic weather in Binh Phuoc also severely affected the growth and productivity of pepper … A series of pepper gardens died due to pathogens such as anthracnose, disease died slowly, died quickly … in rainy seasons.
Sadness of losing crop prices has not subsided, pepper growers in Binh Phuoc “sat on the fire” because they could not find the harvesters despite doing everything they could to attract workers, such as: increasing the rent or renting food. output or split output.
Mrs. Le Thi Nghia, Tan Hoa hamlet, Tan Tien commune, Bu Dop district has 2,000 pepper posts, but she cannot find the picking workers. “This year, the workers did not have, both the garden and only 2 wives. My husband and 2 workers. Each year, when pepper is harvested, the average harvest is about 15kg of dry pepper, but now the harvest is only about 10kg and the wage is up to 150,000 – 160,000 / day / person ”.
Pepper season 2019 – 2020 is in the main crop, most pepper gardens of the people are ripe. According to households planting pepper, on average 100kg of fresh string pepper after grinding, drying is about 10kg of dried pepper. At the current price of VND 37,000 – 40,000 / kg, 10 kilograms of dried pepper are collected from farmers, except for the collection cost of only VND 100,000, which is not enough to cover the cost of grinding, drying, and irrigation. pepper, care, fertilizer … Unable to find work, many households have spent tens of millions of dong to buy nets spread to catch the chain of ripe pepper.
Mr. Tran Van Tuan, from Tan Tien commune, Bu Dop district shared, “If the workers are equally divided into picking and taking two parts, the landlord can only get one part. Calculating the cost of investment and care for a year, the farmers do not have any at all, so nothing. Spread the net to avoid loss, because pepper is not cooked at once, but cooked slowly. It is required to spread the net to reduce the loss of drainage to the ground, not the cost of hiring workers to collect even more. ”
Do not accept low pepper prices, many gardeners “hoarding goods” waiting for prices to sell. But they did not expect the price of pepper to go down instead of seeing up, especially some households were hugging up to 20 tons of pepper after many years … Because of these difficulties, the area of pepper cultivation in Binh Phuoc has decreased 132ha compared to the same period last year 2018.
Facing this situation, local authorities and farmers' associations have also mobilized to propagandize people not to expand the area, and at the same time can intercrop other crops on pepper. Besides, it is recommended to freeze and extend debt for pepper growing households who are in difficult circumstances.
Mr. Nguyen Anh Trung – Vice Chairman of Farmers Association of Loc Quang commune, Loc Ninh district, Binh Phuoc province said: “Local authorities are also trying to propagate and encourage people to plant intercropping trees to solve the problem. In the immediate future, hold the pepper. Hope prices next time up again. At the same time, it is also proposing to banks wishing to resolve the extension of difficult households, while the people are facing difficulties so that people have more living conditions and stable economic recovery.
Binh Phuoc is one of the localities with a large pepper growing area of the whole country with about 16,855 ha, concentrated in border districts such as Loc Ninh, Bu Dop, Bu Gia Map … In the context of continued falling price of pepper. , while the price of materials, fertilizers, and labor is increasing, the risk of many families defaulting, leaving the garden is showing immediately without the intervention of timely support from all levels, branches …
Source Cong Thuong.vn Newspaper
