These days, the farmers of Cu M’gar district enter the pepper harvest in 2021. Although the pepper price is higher than the same period last year, many people are still less happy because pepper productivity is low, the price of the kernel. The harvest is high, the disease on pepper still occurs… so the profit is negligible.
Quang Tien farmers harvest pepper.
March is the time to harvest pepper for local farmers, but the working atmosphere is not as busy as in previous years. Mr. Trinh Cong Trieu (Tien Thanh village, Quang Tien commune) was sad: In previous years, when pepper was found valuable, he broke a part of old coffee area and switched to pepper cultivation. After the first few years of good price, pepper prices started to plunge. With more than 350 pillars, now more than one third of them have been sick and dying, making his family face many difficulties.
Similarly, Mr. Y Thai Kbuôr’s family (in Su M’Dung village, Cu Su commune) has 800 intercropped pepper posts in the coffee garden, of which more than 300 are in the business stage. In recent years, due to the sharp decline in pepper prices, his family is no longer salty, but with care, productivity is not high, many trees are dead, it is expected that this year output is only over 6 quintals. Although the current pepper price is increasing again, fluctuating at 54,000 – 55,000 VND / kg, 10,000 VND / kg higher than the previous season, if hiring pickers, it is not enough to pay. Mr. Y Thai calculated that, plus the investment costs of fertilizers, plant protection drugs, and labor picking, his family will not make any profit this year, or even lose money.
In addition to low yields, harvesting workers are also a concern for pepper growers when the harvest is started. Mr. Hoang Van Chuong (Quang Phu town) said that his family has 2 hectares of pepper. Years ago, in the harvest season, his family hired 5-7 workers from different places to harvest each day. This year, productivity is low, labor is difficult to find, and the hiring is high, so he only dares to hire 2-3 workers to collect, the rest mobilize workers from the family to reduce costs.
The whole district of Cu M’gar has 4,800 ha of pepper, which is widely grown in the communes of Ea M’nang, Ea H’đing, Ea Kuêh, Quang Tien, Quang Phu town … the average output reaches 5,000-6,000 tons. In previous years, pepper was considered as one of the main crops contributing to poverty reduction, raising income for local farmers, even many people quickly became billionaires thanks to the pepper plant. In this year’s pepper crop, the labor cost for harvesting is from 200,000 to 220,000 VND / person / day. According to the farmers’ calculations, if pepper yields 2 tons / ha after subtracting care costs and hiring labor to harvest, there will be no profit. Not only that, when the harvest is booming, hiring workers to collect pepper is very difficult because many local labors have gone to work in industrial parks, factories and factories.
According to Mr. Pham Quang Muoi, Head of the District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the current pepper prices, if people invest properly in a sustainable direction, reduce input costs, pepper trees will still bring high economic efficiency. compared with some other crops. To cope with climate change and market price fluctuations, the district’s agriculture sector has been promoting propaganda and mobilization of farmers to rearrange intercropping rationally, proactively take care of , prevent diseases on pepper plants, avoid diseases in orchards and lead to mass death, causing great damage. In addition, the locality also encourages people to link organic pepper production in order to step by step improve product value and brand name, increase competitiveness, and create a stable output for this agricultural product.
Over the past time, because pepper prices have continuously decreased, farmers are no longer interested in investing and taking care of. Besides, the adverse weather conditions, unsustainable cultivation techniques lead to the death of many gardens, low yields. The disease of rapid death and slow death on pepper trees has not been controlled, with an affected area of about 20%. It is expected that the output in 2021 will decrease by nearly 50% compared to the previous year ”.
Head of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Pham Quang Muoi district
Source Do Lan (Electronic newspaper Dak Lak)
