Dragon fruits being grown to organic standards in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Long An. (Photo: VNA) In 2013 the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had unveiled plansfor growing five key fruits - dragon fruit, mango, rambutan, durian, and longan– during their off-season in the delta’s 12 provinces and Can Tho City and thesouth - central province of Binh Thuan, the country’s largest dragon fruitgrower.
This is meant to help avoid oversupply during the regular season, thus ensuringprices never fall too low.
Le Thanh Tung, deputy head of the ministry’s plant cultivation department, saidthe delta and Binh Thuan grow the five fruits off-season on up to 73,800ha oftheir 132,200ha under them.
Of the 73,800ha, dragon fruit accounts for 45,100ha, durian for 6,300ha, mangofor 11,200ha, rambutan for 3,100ha, and longan for 8,100ha. This accounts forabout 51 per cent of their total output.
The off-season fruits have 1.5 – 2 times higher economic efficiency thanseasonal ones, according to the ministry.
In recent years more and more farmers are adopting good agricultural practices(GAP) standards to grow fruits out of season.
For instance, during the main season durian is sold at orchards at 35,000 –40,000 VND (1.5 – 1.7 USD) per kilogramme while off-season fruits fetch 60,000 VND(2.6 USD).
Durian is one of the delta’s key fruits, and has seen high prices and demand inrecent years.
Tien Giang province, the delta’s largest fruit producer, has more than130,000ha under durian with an average yield of 25 tonnes per year.
Dao Ngoc Thoai, who owns a 1ha orchard in Cai Lay district, said during theoff-season the fruit fetches 1.7 times the main-season income.
He has been harvesting around 20 tonnes during the former each year, earningprofits of more than 1 billion VND (43,400 USD), he said.
Production efficiency
To improve efficiency, research institutes, universities and relevant agencieshave transferred techniques for growing fruits during the off-season tofarmers, the ministry said.
The Southern Fruit Research Institute would continue to do research, it said.
The ministry has instructed provinces producing off-season fruits to helpfarmers develop links with companies to secure outlets for their output.
In the delta, Dong Thap and Vinh Long provinces and a part of Long An and TienGiang provinces grow dragon fruit, durian, rambutan, and longan during theoff-season.
The ministry said the provinces of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh and a part of VinhLong, Tien Giang and Long An provinces should ensure there is sufficientirrigation water for fruits this year and to address problems like drought andsaltwater intrusion into water bodies.
In the 2020-21 dry season, which usually lasts between last December and April,farmers took several measures to mitigate the impacts of saltwater intrusion onfruit cultivation like storing water in ponds, using rice straws, leaves andplastic sheets to cover tree roots to reduce water evaporation.
They also increased the use of organic fertilisers, lime and bio-products totend trees, pruned branches, discarded a part of the flowers and young fruitstheir trees produced to enhance their ability to resist drought and saltwater.
In Tien Giang, saltwater intrusion caused little damage to durian trees asfarmers took effective measures to mitigate it, according to the provinceDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The province has also recovered nearly 1,000ha of durian plants and replantednearly 2,000ha that were damaged by drought and saltwater in 2019 – 20.
During that dry season nearly 4,500ha of orchards were severely damaged, with3,500ha being a write-off.
The delta, the country’s largest fruit producer, gradually increased its totalarea under fruits from 287,300ha in 2010 to 377,700ha last year, or 33.3 percent of the country’s total, according to the ministry.
The increase focused on dragon fruit, durian, pineapple, mango, grapefruit,banana, rambutan, jackfruit, and orange./.
VNA
