Currently, many households in the Southeast region and the Central Highlands continue to plant new pepper trees. This not only disrupts the planning of specialized pepper growing areas, but also makes it difficult for pepper growers due to oversupply and unstable prices.
Breaking the planning of specialized farming areas
Since mid-2006, pepper has entered a price increase cycle. The price continuously peaked, reaching 220,000 VND/kg in 2015, causing people to rush to grow pepper. In key pepper growing areas such as Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai…, farmers massively cut down other crops and switched to growing pepper and many people got rich thanks to big investments. Mr. Le Cong Chong (living in Binh Tan commune, Phu Rieng district, Binh Phuoc province) said that in the period of 2013-2015, pepper prices reached from 170,000-220,000 VND/kg, his family cut down more than 2 hectares of fruit trees and expanded. pepper growing area to 4ha. With a yield of more than 18 quintals/ha, minus expenses, his family earns nearly 800 million VND/year.
Mr. Ho Mung destroys a two-acre coffee garden to grow pepper. Photo: HUU PHUC
The income from pepper is high, so in Binh Phuoc, there is a movement of people and families to grow pepper. By 2016, the area of pepper trees increased sharply in localities. Specifically, in Binh Phuoc increased to 16,452 ha (over 6,000 ha of planning), 13,000 ha in Ba Ria – Vung Tau (over 5,000 ha), 13,638 ha in Dong Nai (by nearly 7,000 ha) and Gia Lai up to 16,322ha (exceeding the planning by nearly 11,000ha).
However, from 2016 to the end of 2020, pepper prices plummeted, sometimes only 34,000 VND/kg, households cut down pepper trees and switched to other crops, causing the area of pepper to decrease rapidly. Compared to 2016, Binh Phuoc now has 15,889 ha (down 563 ha) and the same situation also occurs in many other localities, such as: Dong Nai reduced by 1,638 ha to 12,000 ha, Ba Ria – Vung Tau reduced by 2,000 ha to 11,000 ha and Gia Lai decreased by 2,649 ha to 13,673.2 ha. Accompanied by a decrease in productivity, due to lack of care, pepper reduces both yield and quality.
Dr. Phan Viet Ha, Deputy Director of the Central Highlands Agro-Forestry Science and Technology Institute (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), said that currently, although the area of pepper has decreased, the country still has 130,000 hectares, still too large compared to with the planning of the agricultural sector with only 50,000ha. Particularly, 4 provinces Gia Lai, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai and Ba Ria – Vung Tau planned 29,500 ha, but the actual area was over 52,500 ha.
Rushing to plant new
Although the actual pepper area has far exceeded the planned area, but due to the increase in pepper prices, people continue to plant new ones. Along the Ho Chi Minh road, from Ia Bang commune (Chu Prong district) to Chu Se town (Chu Se district, Gia Lai province) there are many trucks carrying pepper seeds for sale, and buyers are equally busy. Mr. Ho Mung (living in Chu Se town) after turning over each bunch of pepper seeds loaded on a truck to check the quality, bought 100 pepper lines to plant. He said: “Because pepper prices went up, I broke 2 sao of coffee to grow pepper. The stage of soil preparation and burial has been completed, so waiting to buy seeds to plant. Two poles require 1,000 seed lines, but today the seed wire did not meet my expectations, so I only bought 100 strings.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hop, Head of Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Chu Se district (Gia Lai province), pepper is priced at more than 76,000 VND/kg, twice as high as last year, farmers have made a profit, so people continue to continue. new planting without replanting on old pepper growing land.
Similarly, some localities in the Southeast region are also entering a new pepper growing season after the harvest. In the border commune of Hung Phuoc (Bu Dop district, Binh Phuoc province), from March 2021, after seeing the price of pepper increase, many households planted new pepper trees with a large area. Mr. Bui Quoc Hay, Director of the Clean Pepper Production Cooperative in Hung Phuoc Commune, said: “Households plant new pepper plants but not as massively as before. The cooperative also recommends that people should choose good varieties, and the land for pepper cultivation must be suitable and convenient for irrigation and care. Not only Hung Phuoc commune, households in some communes in Bu Dop and Loc Ninh districts, people are also continuing to plant new pepper trees.
In Lam San commune, which has the largest pepper area in Cam My district (Dong Nai province), after the last harvest, many households rushed to work the land and prepare pillars to plant new pepper. According to preliminary statistics, from the beginning of 2021, when people in the commune saw the price of pepper starting to increase, they planted about 200ha of new pepper. Most of the households grow spontaneously, the farming techniques are not high and are being called to participate in the project of large fields, linking production and consumption as the focal point of Lam San Cooperative.
The Central Highlands Agro-Forestry Science and Technology Institute (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) recommends that people who want to continue growing pepper need to learn new techniques, clean, germ-free varieties and organic production to create new products. quality products, meeting the needs of the world market. The Institute also classified, assessed and helped the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to recognize two new varieties of pepper with good disease resistance and will soon be deployed for people to use to limit the risk of disease.
According to SGGP
