At the end of November 2017, the member union of the Vietnam Pepper Association (VPA) carried out the first round of survey as an annual practice to assess the production situation, thereby getting clearer comments. about the upcoming 2018 pepper crop in two major pepper growing provinces in the Southeast region.
In Dong Nai, the survey team visited two districts with strong pepper development in recent years, Xuan Loc with about 3,000 hectares and Cam My with about 4,000 hectares, accounting for about 50% of the total area of the province. In BR-VT, the delegation also surveyed the two largest pepper growing districts of BR-VT, Chau Duc – a district with about 5,500 ha, accounting for nearly 70% of the total pepper area of the province and Xuyen Moc district, where has the fastest growing new planting area in the province from 2014 to present.
The VPA delegation visited the field of pepper farmers’ gardens
Survey results and interviews with 28 preliminary pepper growing households show that:
1- The pepper orchards are entering firmly, the fruit is sparser than last year, especially the garden planted over 8 years.
2- Harvested area increased over the previous year in all survey sites of the two provinces, especially in newly developed areas from 2013/2014. For example, in Xuan Tho, Xuan Loc, Dong Nai communes, in 2014 there was only about 500 hectares of pepper for harvest, in the 2018 crop, up to 800 hectares will be harvested, an increase of nearly 60%.
3- Pepper grown on dark gray soil is less affected in yield than pepper grown on red soil. Many pepper gardens are planted on black soil in Xuyen Moc with good drainage, the yield is almost not significantly reduced. Although it is still about 2 months to harvest, the yield is still expected to reach about 3-4kg dry / pillar.
4- Pepper garden is grown on poorly drained red soil, so it affects the roots, the vitality of the plant is added to the fungus, the snowworm attacks strongly because the roots are damaged, rotten due to waterlogging, so the yield is reduced by 30-50. % compared to the previous year, each pillar only reached about 1.5-2kg dry in all gardens in Xuan Tho, Lam San (Dong Nai), Quang Thanh, Quang Giao, Binh Gia, Binh Trung, Hoa Hiep regions. BR-VT).
5- Many farmers installed and completely depended on automatic irrigation systems. While this year’s continuous rain also caused pepper gardens to decrease in yield, orchards had a higher death rate than last year due to waterlogged plants.
6- Which garden has good drainage system, planting density is sparse or intercropping, planted on new land (for example, the gardens of farmers in Quang Giao, Binh Gia, Xuyen Moc), the yield is normal as last year, not significantly reduced.
7- This year in Dong Nai and BR-VT regions, farmers did not plant new crops, but they still replanted dead trees, so in general, the area did not decrease.
8- The production cost of pepper cultivation in the two regions is now equal to the market price as of December 2017 (about 72,000 VND/kg pepper 500g/l) because farmers include land investment. Production costs in the BRVT region are higher than in other areas because the land has been planted with pepper for many years, so the quality of the soil is poor, the pH is low, and there are many residues of pests and diseases, so it costs money to renovate and raise the fertility. fertilizers, pesticides than the same new planting 5-10 years. In addition, there is a phenomenon that small farmers (who only invest a few sao) have neglected to invest in taking care of them. Households with large areas also do not invest in fertilizers and drugs as much as in previous years. However, all are still determined to grow pepper without intending to destroy it, even if the price drops lower.
9- Surveying 28 households, there are 4 households that still keep the 2017 crop (accounting for 14%), a few households keep 1 ton, but some households still keep up to 9 tons. Households do not borrow from banks, so they are not pressured to sell to pay their debts. They want to keep it as currency and sell it when they need to spend.
10- The psychology of the first crop knows that the price will not be as expected as in 2015/2016, so most said they will sell immediately when the next crop is harvested.
11- The time to harvest the next crop in 2018 will still depend on the weather situation. This year has a lot of rain, few hours of sunshine, so it is likely that the harvest will be later than last year, full autumn after the Lunar New Year (about the end of February 2018).
Follow VPA (peppervietnam.com)
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