Pepper prices are at the bottom of a sine wave and it is expected to take several more years to improve. But people did not wait anymore, they hurriedly cut the pepper and switched to planting Thai jackfruit, durian, avocado, passion fruit … without even thinking about the possibility of redundant crises in the future. .
The price of “mass development”
Chu Se is a key growing area of Gia Lai district. Chư Sê also has been given geographical indications, is a protected name. The ups and downs of pepper plants after decades of attachment to this land are also many, prices are up and down, but certainly it is not as terrible as the “storm” and the recent disease, enough to make the farmers The most experienced pepper farmers in Chu Se also could not escape the spiral.
Target fields on both sides of the road in Gia Lai. Photo: A.T
Mr. Hoang Phuoc Binh – Vice President and General Secretary of Chu Se Pepper Association said that pepper has been attached to Chu Se land for many years, this is also one of the major pepper intensive areas in Vietnam. , is also the first place to own collective trademark of pepper. Compared to many pepper growing areas across the country, Chu Se pepper produces the highest yield and quality due to soil, climate and farming techniques of farmers.
According to Mr. Binh, after the sweet fruit season, starting from 2015, there were signs of instability, threatening the sustainable development of pepper on this land. In 2015, the Central Highlands had never experienced such a severe drought, at that time, growing pepper on a pillar of survival still had a chance, if planted on a concrete pole, the pepper would die almost. Next to the rainy season in 2018, due to excessive rainfall, the water stagnated at the root of pepper, creating an environment for the development of pests and diseases, causing the disease to die quickly and die slowly, spread quickly, nothing can be saved.
“After that, it was a” storm of price “, farmers Se Se and Chu Puh got richer because they spent time and lost their lives because of pepper,” Binh said.
According to Mr. Binh, the Chu Se Pepper Association has 1,682 members, including 36 members are organizations and businesses, the rest are farmers but until this time, the Association could not statistics all. the number of members went bankrupt, went bankrupt because of spending and had to leave the country.
Mr. Binh said that, paradoxically, Vietnamese pepper accounts for 60% of the world's import and export output, we have grown to be the No. 1 exporter of pepper but can not dominate the market.
“Pepper prices are like waves of the sea, sometimes high, sometimes at the bottom. This is the reason why India's pepper area has hardly increased even though it has a history of growing pepper for a hundred years. But we are different, too much of the rush to plant, abuse of pesticides, fertilizers have left consequences today ”- Mr. Binh stated a fact.
Hovering bad debt
For people like Mr. Vo Hoai Nhon in Hoa Binh village, Nhon Hoa town (Chu Pưh, Gia Lai), messages and phone calls from bank officials about debts will always be an obsession. Because, many pepper farmers are in a dilemma. They have just hugged a large debt, but to have more capital to change the structure of plants and animals, hoping to have money to repay the debt, they no longer have access to the bank.
Plates for sale of land are hung along the road to Hoa Binh village, Nhon Hoa town. Photo: P.V
In mid-2019, the information provided in a conference must have made many people startled. According to the statistics of Gia Lai People's Committee at that time, the province had more than 5,547ha of pepper died from disease with 32,278 households damaged; total outstanding loans of the province's people for pepper is over VND 4,300 billion with more than 26,000 households borrowing, of which about VND 2,600 billion is overdue loans, particularly bad debt is more than VND 450 billion.
Gia Lai is also the province with the largest area of pepper killed by disease. While this figure in Dak Lak is 2,210 / 38,616ha; In Dak Nong, the area of dead pepper was 1,827 / 34,113 ha.
According to Vu Ngoc An – Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Gia Lai Province, one of the reasons for the rapid death of disease, slow spread to many pepper areas is due to the golden age, people overused fertilizer too much. to push pepper productivity too high gave rise to fungal diseases, causing mass deaths.
“For cases of borrowing from a pepper plantation bank and then dying and paying off debt, we recommend that the bank freeze the debt; converting the area of dead pepper to growing fruit trees, at the same time mobilizing people to implement sustainable organic farming models to ensure quality and improve the value of pepper ”- Mr. An said.
Mr. Hoang Phuoc Binh also said that the Association also advised people to stop growing pepper and change production models to suit the local climate and soil. “In the next three years, consider planting a new crop because the price of pepper will improve then” – Mr. Binh predicted.
Mr. Binh wants the State to have solutions to support people to overcome difficulties in the current period; Research should be made to diversify crops so that people have more choices and peace of mind about production.
At this time, on many pepper fields, farmers began planting coffee, cassava, fruit trees. Only the area of fruit trees on converted pepper cultivation land is about 5,000 ha.
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Given the world demand and Vietnam's conditions, pepper cultivation area should be maintained around 100,000 – 120,000 ha, the area for 95,000 ha products, average yield of 25 – 27 quintals / ha, output of about 237,000 – 256,000 tons. By 2025, the area of pepper cultivation will be 110,000 ha, the area for products will be 94,000 ha, the average yield will be 26 quintals / ha, the output will be about 244,000 tons. |
This is what makes farmers like Mr. Vo Van Ky in Phu An village, Ia Hrú commune (Chu Pưh, Gia Lai) worried. His family, after defaults, went bankrupt because of pepper, luckily still kept the land, he turned to Thai jackfruit. But after Thai jackfruit and avocado and durian kept going up, he realized that the area of these crops kept spreading to the local pepper gardens.
“If there is no timely intervention with these fruit trees, I am worried that in a few years there will be a price crisis as if it had happened with pepper” – Mr. Ky said anxiously.
Meanwhile, passion fruit trees are also growing rapidly on this land, Gia Lai plans to plant an area of about 3,000 hectares of passion fruit but has now reached 2,100 hectares and is expected to increase because the market is now very good.
“We have warned and advised people not to massively expand the area but before the attractiveness of prices, people still defy, destroy pepper and coffee to grow fruit trees,” An said. reality.
The lesson with pepper seems still too new and the consequences so far have not been solved, but it seems that farmers continue to plunge into a new spiral that if not alert, they will probably step on the “stain.” dump truck “of a tree once known as” black gold “.
According to VietnamBiz
