After 8 years of perseverance, the pepper of Binh Phuoc Organic Agriculture Cooperative has been certified to meet European organic standards, with a selling price 25 – 40% higher than the market.
8 years of persistently switching to organic production
Coming to Dac O commune (Bu Gia Map district) – the pepper capital of Binh Phuoc, it is not difficult to come across pepper gardens that were planted about 20 years ago but are still very green and highly productive. The households that own these pepper gardens are all members of the Binh Phuoc Organic Agricultural Cooperative, all gardens are cared for in the same process according to European organic standards. Thanks to that, people still “live well” despite erratic weather, pest damage, and unstable prices…
According to the introduction of Binh Phuoc Organic Agriculture Cooperative, we visited the pepper garden of Mr. Nguyen Van Luan’s family, one of the core members of the cooperative. Mr. Luan said that in the past, his family cultivated pepper in a traditional way, mainly using chemical fertilizers to fertilize the garden. Over the years, he noticed that the soil was hardened, pests and diseases became more and more difficult to treat, not to mention that the use of many chemical fertilizers and pesticides also affected the health of himself and his family.
“Why do farmers like me have to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides to fertilize crops even though it greatly affects health and the environment? We need to live according to nature to ensure human health,” Mr. Luan confided.
From a very early age, Mr. Luan converted the entire pepper garden from traditional farming to safe production and moving towards organic standards. Accordingly, to have nearly 3 hectares of pepper with European organic certification today, Mr. Luan spent 5 years changing the pepper production method from traditional to safe production and another 3 years from safe pepper to organic pepper.
Mr. Nguyen Van Luan shares the secret to brewing IMO products. Photo: Tran Trung.
According to Mr. Luan, in the first years of conversion, he encountered many difficulties with the situation of “bottoming out” pepper because pepper prices entered a period of recession, and productivity initially decreased sharply from 2.5 tons/ha. less than 1 ton/ha left. However, the land does not betray the people. In the last 3 years, the quality of pepper products from his garden has always met the requirements for more than 900 active ingredients that must be analyzed according to European organic standards. Pepper productivity is even higher than before, the selling price of pepper products is also 40% higher than the market price, while production costs are greatly reduced.
“Growing organic pepper is not difficult. Many people mistakenly think that they must use chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides to treat pests and diseases effectively, but that is wrong thinking. As long as the soil is healthy, the tree is strong and can resist pests very well,” Mr. Luan said.
Besides strictly following the cooperative’s procedures, Mr. Luan is considered an “experienced innovator” and a pioneer in producing organic fertilizer from indigenous microbial products (IMO) to fertilize gardens. of family. In fact, this type of preparation is low cost but highly effective, so many members and people in the area follow it.
“If you want to take care of your garden effectively, the only way is to make IMO products. Therefore, I take advantage of all the by-products available at home such as bananas, papaya, avocado, jackfruit, vegetables…, and add probiotics to the mix and then ferment in a drum for about 7 days. into the original IMO product”, Mr. Luan shared.
Mr. Nguyen Van Luan (right) shares organic farming secrets with cooperative members. Photo: Tran Trung.
According to Mr. Luan, after successful incubation, he mixed the original IMO product with molasses, rice bran and water at a ratio of 1/10. By using IMO products, his family only spent more than 10 million VND/ha/year to fertilize the plants. The cost will gradually decrease each year as the nutrients in the soil have accumulated. Currently, investment costs are reduced to about 30 million VND/ha/year. Meanwhile, in the past, when he used chemical fertilizers, the investment cost was at least 100 million VND/ha/year, not to mention adding manure. It is important that from the day organic farming is applied, the health of everyone in the house is always guaranteed.
“It is the work of returning to the land the things that people have taken away for the sake of food and clothing over the past decades. The good news is that the movement towards organic pepper production is increasingly spreading and this will certainly be a mandatory path towards sustainable pepper production,” Mr. Luan said.
Move pepper to new page
Although newly established and in operation for more than 3 years from the foundation of a clean pepper production club, Binh Phuoc Organic Agricultural Cooperative has initially achieved success in production and business.
Mr. Mai Hien Huy, Director of Binh Phuoc Organic Agricultural Cooperative, said that the cooperative currently has nearly 100 members, of which 29 members with a total area of nearly 60 hectares of pepper have been certified organic, all members The remaining area of hundreds of hectares is also maintained in production according to organic and sustainable standards (RA).
To have an organic pepper garden like today, it took Mr. Luan more than 8 years of persistent pursuit. Photo: Tran Trung.
Thanks to standard production, the cooperative is a partner of Nedspice Vietnam Spice Processing Company Limited (Nedspice Company). Wherever the products are made, the Company goes to the garden to buy them all at a price 20% higher than the market for organic pepper and 5% for safe pepper.
With the desire to bring Binh Phuoc organic pepper products around the world, realizing the great potential of organic pepper, from 2023, the cooperative decided to proactively invest more than 200 million VND to carry out application procedures. issue organic pepper certificates according to European standards.
“With the motto “going far together”, we evaluate the organic certification for the cooperative as a whole, not each individual farmer, so when analyzing over 900 banned active ingredients, if a household during the inspection process detects If chemicals are present, they will be eliminated immediately, at which point the entire cooperative will have to bear the loss. Therefore, member households in the cooperative always have a very deep awareness of complying with the organic production process,” Mr. Huy shared.
According to Mr. Huy, being granted an organic pepper certificate has helped the cooperative be more proactive in production. Product consumption is also more flexible, not dependent on fixed markets. “Since the independent certification, more and more partners want to order pepper in large quantities. The cooperative is building a production and business plan to partly meet order demand by expanding the scale of organic pepper production, diversifying products, focusing on deep processing,” Mr. Mai Hien Huy said.
Collaborating to produce pepper according to international standards is a trend among pepper growing households in Binh Phuoc. Photo: Tran Trung.
According to Mr. Tran Van Phuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Phuoc province, collaborating to produce pepper according to international standards is a trend among pepper growing households. Because no fertilizers or chemicals are used, pepper production costs have been significantly reduced, and the resale price is much higher than conventional products.
Especially through the production process, farmers said that organic farming has contributed to protecting their health because they no longer have to contact and use chemicals. At the same time, thanks to the application of organic production processes, the environment is also healthier…
“The ultimate result of organic agriculture is that nature is peaceful, diverse, and complementary, and people from generation to generation enjoy symbiosis with the good values that nature gives. donate. Enterprises in the agricultural sector and even farmers in remote and border areas of Binh Phuoc are aiming for that goal,” Mr. Tran Van Phuong emphasized.
According to Nongnghiep.vn
