At this time, going to major pepper growing areas of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province such as Chau Duc, Xuyen Moc … many pepper gardens are falling into a crop failure, while so far the pepper market still has no signs of recovery. price, though pepper prices inched up a little, but remained low, only from 55,000-57,000 VND / kg.
Many pepper gardens no longer have the ability to bear fruit
Crop failures – falling prices make pepper farmers fall again in danger of losing income in the 2020-2021 crop.
Accordingly, the pepper gardens in the province are in the time of fruit raising, but the rate of pepper per tree is very low, only sparsely and sparsely on trees. In Xuyen Moc district – a large pepper growing area of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province, many pepper gardens produce luxuriant leaves, green and good, but the rate of fruiting is very sparse.
An unusual thing is that this year’s pepper crop saw second flower flowering in one crop, which weakened the pepper trees as they had to continue to raise flowers while the fruit was being raised; meanwhile, if the pilot will set fruit this time, he will be flattened. Therefore, farmers are forced to hire workers to remove flowers for this second phase, which increases costs.
Mr. Phan Huy Duan, in Hamlet 2, Hoa Hoi Commune, Xuyen Moc District, is currently planting 6,000 square meters of pepper area. In the past two years, his pepper garden has continuously lost crops; If in previous years he harvested about 4 tons of pepper, this year pepper crop is estimated at nearly 2 tons. For many consecutive years, pepper prices were low, along with the influence of weather, Mr. Duan and other pepper growers reduced their investment in care, so the rate of pepper fruit was not much, leading to crop failure. .
Mr. Phan Huy Duan, pepper farmer in Hoa Hoi commune, Xuyen Moc district, said that the time when pepper started to flower, but due to unfavorable weather, sunny and drought, the pepper pods were thin, few seeds, yield. only 60% compared to every year. Meanwhile, the pepper price is too low, so farmers are not interested in pepper but much more, so the cost of investment and care is not much, making pepper even more poor.
Mr. Do Long Mac, farmer in Hoa Hoi commune, Xuyen Moc district, also has 8 pole of pepper, about 12 years old, if every year the harvest is nearly 7 tons, this year the estimated target for the harvest is less than 5 tons. According to Mr. Mac, the reason is due to the change of weather, along with the fact that his family has no capital to invest in fertilizing, so the pepper plant does not give high yield.
If the pepper crop last year, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh’s family, in Tan Hung village, Bau Chinh commune, Chau Duc district had 2ha of pepper land, now the pepper area has decreased to just over 1.3ha due to deadly diseases. The rapid death and slow death forced Ms. Hanh to demolish, the rest of the area was converted by Ms Hanh to durian and some other intercropped crops.
Since 2017, Hanh’s pepper garden productivity has been steadily decreasing, according to Ms Hanh’s estimate, this pepper crop with 1.3ha of pepper for nearly 2 tons instead of 4 tons as in the previous season. The reason for the decrease in pepper yield, Ms. Hanh said partly because of the weather, partly because the pepper prices in recent years were too low, so she, like many other pepper growing households, almost neglected, had no money to invest and care for. squirrel.
It is a fact that when pepper prices are high, farmers massively destroy other orchards to switch to pepper, making the area of pepper in Ba Ria-Vung Tau increase rapidly, sometimes up to about 13,000ha. After the price of pepper fell to low, people neglect and massively demolish it to switch to fruit trees.
Statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, if 5-6 years ago, pepper prices were high, people in the province massively increased their cultivated areas. Now, when the price falls sharply, many pepper areas are infected and dead, causing the area of pepper in the province to decrease as well.
Currently, the whole province has just over 11,300 hectares, a decrease of nearly 2,000 hectares compared to the same period in 2019; the total output of harvested pepper was estimated at 19,340 tons, equal to 91.7% of the plan, down 1,754 tons against the same period last year.
According to the Vietnam Pepper Association, at present, most of Vietnam’s pepper output is sold to foreign markets. Facing the fierce competition in quality from countries such as Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia …, in order to develop, Vietnamese pepper needs to build a brand name, step by step forming a chain link from production to pepper. and gradually shift to deep processing.
In fact, apart from being a spice, pepper is used a lot to make raw materials for health care products, cosmetics, medicine; exploiting this consumption segment, can solve the difficult problem of sustainable development of pepper plants.
In the long run, without forming a chain of links from production to consumption and processing, farmers will forever have to pursue the chorus of good harvest – devaluation and vice versa.
Source Hoang Nhi (VNA)
