These days, farmers in Cu M’gar district enter the pepper harvest in 2021. Although pepper prices are higher than the same period last year, many people are still less happy because of low pepper productivity and low labor costs. The harvest is high, diseases on pepper trees still occur…so the profit is not significant.
Farmers in Quang Tien commune 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) is sad: Years ago, seeing that pepper was valuable, he destroyed a part of the old coffee area and switched to growing pepper. After the first few years of being priced, pepper prices began to plummet. With more than 350 pillars, now more than a third of them have been sick and dying, making his family difficult.
Similarly, the family of Mr. Y Thai Kbuor (in Sut M’Drung village, Cu Sue commune) has 800 pepper posts intercropped in the coffee garden, of which more than 300 are in the business stage. In recent years, due to the sharp fall in pepper prices, his family is no longer interested in taking care of them, so the yield is not high, many trees have died. Although the current pepper price is increasing again, fluctuating at 54,000 – 55,000 VND/kg, 10,000 VND/kg higher than the previous pepper crop, but hiring workers to pick it is not enough to pay for it. Mr. Y Thai calculates, plus the investment costs of fertilizers, pesticides, and labor, this year’s pepper crop will not make a profit, even a capital loss.
In addition to the low yield, harvesting labor is also a concern for pepper growers when entering the harvest season. Mr. Hoang Van Chuong (Quang Phu town) said that his family has 2 hectares of pepper. In previous years, during the harvest season, his family hired 5-7 workers from different places to harvest every day. This year, the productivity is low, labor is difficult to find, and the rent is high, so he only dares to hire 2-3 laborers to collect, the rest mobilize family labor to reduce costs.
Cu M’gar district has 4,800 hectares of pepper, which is grown a lot in communes of Ea M’nang, Ea H’ding, Ea Kueh, Quang Tien, Quang Phu town… the average output is 5,000-6,000 tons. In the past years, pepper used to be considered as one of the key crops contributing to poverty reduction, improving income for local farmers, even many people quickly became billionaires thanks to pepper trees. In this year’s pepper harvest, the labor cost is from 200,000 to 220,000 VND/person/day. According to the people’s calculations, if the pepper tree yields 2 tons/ha, after deducting the cost of care and hiring labor to harvest, there will be no profit. Not only that, when the harvest is in full swing, it is very difficult to hire workers to collect pepper because many local workers have worked 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 price, if people invest properly in a sustainable direction, reducing input costs, pepper trees still bring high economic efficiency. compared to some other crops. In order to cope with climate change and market price fluctuations, the district’s agricultural sector has been promoting propaganda and mobilizing farmers to rearrange their intercropping reasonably, take the initiative in taking care of their crops. , prevent diseases on pepper plants, avoid disease outbreaks in orchards and spread leading to mass death, causing great damage. In addition, the locality also encourages people to associate production of pepper in an organic way in order to gradually improve the value and brand name of products, increase competitiveness, and create stable output for this agricultural product.
In the past time, due to the continuous decrease in pepper prices, farmers are no longer interested in investing and caring. In addition, abnormal weather effects, unsustainable farming techniques lead to many dead orchards and low yields. The disease on pepper trees has not been controlled, with the affected area about 20%, the output in 2021 is expected to decrease by nearly 50% compared to the previous year.
Head of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Pham Quang Muoi district
According to the Do Lan (Dak Lak Electronic Newspaper)
