HCM City farmers prosper thanks to growing safe veggie
Farmer Le Ngoc Loi in Village No.4 was sweating
heavily after transporting a large amount of vegetables to Phuoc An
Cooperative in the sun. He smiled thinking about his family’s future.
His family used to plant rice. Despite hard work in the farm, he
could not make ends meet, therefore he left to work in a factory.
In 2006, he became one of the first four participants in Phuoc An
Cooperative’s safe vegetable growers with the hope of escaping poverty.
He was supplied a net house, seedlings and fertiliser to grow safe
vegetables following the Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP) standards
for the cooperative.
With the 10,000 square metres of
vegetable crops, he supplies 250-300 kilograms of various vegetables to
the cooperative. As a result, he is able to repay all of his debts and
buy motorbikes and mechanical plows for his family.
Growing safe vegetables has changed lives of farmers. Roads have been improved to facilitate vegetable transportation.
Many people had unstable income before joining Phuoc An Cooperative,
said Doan Van Chanh, chairman of the Farmer Association in Tan Quy Tay
commune.
An Giang Plant Protection, the market leader in
Vietnam in crop protection products, liaised with the Department of
Agriculture and Rural Development in Ho Chi Minh City to send engineers
to help farmers. The cooperative buys all products to sell 4-5 tons of
safe fresh vegetables in market.
The cooperative now has 45
members with 20 hectares of farmland. Each farmer makes 30-40 million
VND (1,423-1,897 USD) per year with 1,000 square meters of land.
Seeing that Phuoc An Cooperative is successful in safe vegetables
model, Tan Quy Tay administrations developed one more to supply two
tonnes of vegetables and create additional employment for local
residents.-VNA