Pepper, once dubbed the “black gold,” is now a burden that makes farmers frustrated and frustrated, many people cut down pepper gardens, hoping for other crops.
Farmers in Xuan Tho commune, Xuan Loc district are taking care of pepper.
Pepper was once dubbed the “black gold,” helping many farmers in Dong Nai become billionaires. However, in recent years, the price of pepper has continuously set “sad records,” the grower falls into a state of plague.
“Black gold” is now a burden, farmers disappointed, bored, many people cut down pepper gardens, hoping for other crops.
Meanwhile, many people “heavy heart” with pepper still determined to keep the garden in the hope of the future, the price will be brighter.
Xuan Tho commune, Xuan Loc district is considered as the “capital” of pepper in Dong Nai province as well as the southern region with more than 800 hectares of pepper.
At the peak of the dry season, in the hot sun, long-term, water-depleted gardens of farmers in Xuan Tho commune were in a state of yellowing, leaflessness, and death of the vines.
Mr. Ho Van Nam's family (Xuan Tho commune) has more than 1 ha of pepper. In his heyday, the pepper garden brought him Five billion dollars a year, helping him become a billionaire. But now, for Nam, pepper is a burden, he has to cut half of the area to switch to planting custard.
Nam calculates the next time, if the price of pepper remains low, he will cut the rest of the area.
According to Mr. Nam, from 2016 until now, pepper has continuously fallen, currently only VND 36,000 / kg, with this price, selling pepper is not enough to pay rent to harvesters.
About 4 years, pepper continuously set “sad records” of prices. In 2015, the pepper peaked at more than VND 250,000 / kg, in the following years, the price decreased gradually and from the beginning of 2020 until now, the pepper has always been below VND 40,000 / kg.
Pepper dropped dramatically, but Mr. Le Dinh Trong (Xuan Tho commune), a farmer with more than 40 years of attachment to pepper, still determined to keep his garden.
According to Mr. Trong, due to low prices, he does not care, so this year's pepper crop only reached 3 tons / ha (formerly 5 tons / ha). Currently, the wage for harvesting pepper is 230,000 VND / person / day, while the price of pepper is low, if selling, it will be a loss so he decides to hoard and wait for the price to be sold.
Mr. Trong said that pepper growers have been suffering from constant losses for many years, this area has been cut down pepper area. Trong has 1.5 ha of pepper, about 10 years old, even though the price is down, he still resolutely retains the garden, along with reducing care costs to reduce losses. Now it is easy to cut pepper, planting new trees, but the prices of agricultural commodities are constantly changing, and the future is unknown.
According to Pham Dinh Nam, Chairman of Xuan Tho Commune Farmers Association, in 2018, the whole commune of Xuan Tho had more than 800 hectares of pepper, in the “price storm”, many farmers cut down pepper trees. 600ha, down 200ha compared to 2 years ago.
Due to natural conditions and farming practices, most farmers in Xuan Tho still retain pepper, but in a few years, if the price does not increase, it is likely that most of the area of Xuan Tho will be destroyed. .
In Dong Nai, when pepper is high, farmers massively grow, in 2018, it reached 19,000ha. Due to falling prices, over the past 2 years, farmers in the province have cut down 2,000 hectares of pepper. Previously, Dong Nai pepper had the highest average yield of the whole country (more than 2.2 tons / ha), nowadays the price is deeply reduced, farmers do not invest in caring so the yield decreases about 40% compared to before.
Mr. Huynh Thanh Vinh said that in the period of high price of pepper, Dong Nai functional industry has encouraged people not to massively increase the area, but farmers only see the immediate benefits and follow the movement.
To ensure the livelihood of farmers, the agricultural sector encourages households to convert old pepper areas, planting on unsuitable land types to other crops.
For newly planted, well-harvested pepper, farmers should not apply science and technology to reduce production costs, research intercropping other trees in pepper gardens.
Dong Nai's agriculture sector will support farmers to produce clean pepper, meeting safety standards, linking farmers and businesses to expand export markets.
