These days, farmers in Gia Lai are entering the pepper harvest. Although pepper prices are at a higher level than the same period last year, many households continue to face accumulating difficulties due to a sharp decline in productivity.
Productivity fell sharply
As noted by PV in the “pepper capital” of Chu Se-Chu Pư, the atmosphere of the harvest took place quite quietly, no longer bustling scene like the years with good seasons and good prices. Even in order to save costs, many households dare not hire workers and collect them themselves.
The main reason for this situation is that pepper prices have been continuously decreasing in recent years, so people limit investment or neglect orchards, leading to a sharp drop in productivity. In particular, many pepper gardens in these two districts have been “wiped out” due to disease and drought. Specifically, Chu Pu district currently has just over 1,500 hectares of pepper, a decrease of nearly half compared to the period 2015-2016; Chu Se district has 2,248 ha, a decrease of about 1,000 ha compared to before.
With 4,000 pepper columns, before, every time he entered the harvest, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa (Hoa Tin village, Nhon Hoa town, Chu Pu district) had to run around to find and hire workers. However, in recent years, the pepper garden has slowly died down due to disease and drought, now there are only over 300 pillars. This area of pepper, because there is no money to re-invest, is also aging, with low productivity. To save costs, Mr. Hoa does not hire workers, but harvests pepper himself.
4,000 pepper pillars of Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa’s family (Nhon Hoa town, Chu Pu district) died slowly due to disease and drought. Photo: Quang Tan
“With the current productivity and pepper price of about 52,000 VND / kg, if hiring workers to harvest, it may not be enough to pay wages. These 300 pillars may have earned more than 5 quintals, they could not sell enough to pay bank interest, but did not dare to think about the loan’s bloating. Currently, I owe more than 600 million VND to the bank. With this situation, sometimes I have to sell my house to pay debt ”-ong Hoa said sadly.
Similarly, the household of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hau (Hung Ring village, Chu Se town) used to have more than 1,000 pepper pillars but gradually aged and died due to disease and drought, now only about 500 pillars remain. “Because there is no money to reinvest, the pepper garden is stunted, giving very little fruit. Expected this crop, I only get about 1 ton, down more than 50% compared to the previous season. With the current price, there is not enough money to spend as well as to pay bank interest ”- Ms. Hau said.
Sadness due to the sharp decline in pepper yield is also the mood of Mr. Le Hung (An Dien village, Ia Blang commune, Chu Se district). His family has 3 hectares of pepper (equivalent to 6,000 pillars). In the previous season, he harvested more than 15 tons. However, this year, Mr. Hung expects to collect less than 10 tons.
Mr. Hung said: “Pepper prices in recent years have been low, especially at the beginning of 2020, the prices have dropped deeply, at one point it is only 35,000 VND / kg. Therefore, people almost only invest in moderation to maintain the orchard, leading to a gradual decrease in productivity each year. We hope that pepper prices will increase strongly again in the near future so that we can partly ease our difficulties as well as have money to re-invest and repay bank loans ”.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hop-Head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Chu Se district, pepper trees do not appear to die as fast or slow as before. However, pepper prices in the past years are always low, making farmers face many difficulties and do not have money to re-invest. Consequently, pepper productivity continued to decrease. It is expected that pepper yield in this crop district will decrease by about 20% compared to the previous year.
To mobilize farmers to link production with processing
Talking to PV, Mr. Hoang Phuoc Binh – Permanent Vice Chairman cum General Secretary of the Chu Se Pepper Association said: Currently, almost the pepper reserve in the population as well as agents has been exhausted. Meanwhile, according to the estimate, pepper production in the whole country decreased by about 30% compared to the previous crop.
Currently, the city’s large enterprises. Ho Chi Minh is strongly starting to buy goods to reserve for export. Therefore, this time began to appear the situation of demand exceeding supply. Due to the shortage of supply, pepper prices started to rise again and is expected to increase sharply in the near future.
According to the Head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Division of Chu Se district, the district’s orientation in the coming time is not to develop more pepper acreage. However, the district also recommends that people keep the existing pepper area. In case you want to convert crops, people need to choose the type suitable for the soil and climate in order to promote the advantages of the region. At the same time, the district will continue to propagate and mobilize people to join the organic production chain in order to step by step improve value, product brand, increase competitiveness, create stable output for the this row.
According to Mr. Nguyen Long Khanh – Deputy Head of the Division in charge of the Division of Agriculture and Rural Development of Chu Pu district, over the past time, the district has built up linkages in the model of cooperative groups and cooperatives to reorganize the above production. key crops such as pepper, coffee, fruit trees …
For pepper areas that are dead due to epidemics or old age, the district instructs people to switch to planting crops suitable to local climatic and soil conditions such as fruit trees and vegetables associated with the province. chain link to create stable output. In particular, the district will support the building of strong enough cooperatives to organize the organic and sustainable production of pepper as well as call on businesses to join the chain to purchase products for farmers with stable prices.
Regarding the pepper production industry, Mr. Doan Ngoc Co – Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development – said: The whole province currently has 13,673 hectares of pepper, of which nearly 12,582 hectares are for business, the rest are in the process. basic construction and new planting. Total annual pepper output is about 47,260 tons.
Although pepper prices have been low in recent years, many areas have died from epidemics and droughts, but pepper is still one of the main crops of the province. Therefore, over the past time, the provincial Agriculture sector and localities have focused on mobilizing people to develop organic and sustainable production. Up to now, the province has more than 200 hectares of pepper produced according to standards such as VietGAP, Organic. Many pepper areas have also been applied water saving irrigation technology.
“For pepper to develop sustainably, in the coming time, the Agriculture sector will not expand its acreage. Instead, the industry will focus on mobilizing people to maintain and stabilize the pepper area from 12,000 hectares to 13,000 hectares. At the same time, continue to promote the building of production linkages between farmers, cooperatives and enterprises associated with deep processing in order to create high quality products for export and domestic consumption; focus on guiding people to produce according to standards and deep processing, in which pay great attention to the traceability, promote promotion, trade promotion, step by step improve Gia Lai pepper brand. ”-Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development gave more information.
Source Quang Tan (Bao Gia Lai Online)
