More abundant crop of grapefruit on Bach Dang islet

Ngo Minh Hung in Tan Trach hamlet harvests grapefruit.

Visiting Bach Dang commune, Tan Uyen town on the first days of the Lunar New Year 2015, we are very excited to witness change of life in this locality. Local farmers in this year enjoy a comfortable life, thanks to abundant crop of grapefruit.

Farmers constantly enjoy abundant crops of grapefruit

Road leading to Bach Dang islet – a new rural commune located near Dong Nai River linking Tan Uyen town with a concrete bridge becomes more lively on the Tet holiday. On the asphalted road in this islet, visitors see wide houses and huge orchards along to rivers.

Visiting Ngo Minh Hung’s house in Tan Trach hamlet, we heard about joy of abundant crops of grapefruit. In the past crop, Hung harvested 7-8 tons of sugar grapefruit with the price of VND700-800,000 a dozen. This income brings his family a comfortable life. “Growing grapefruit is not hard like other fruit trees and now grapefruit is an advantaged tree on this islet, owing to its economic efficiency”, Hung said.

Regarding grapefruit crop 2015, Nguyen Huu Tam in Dieu Hoa hamlet happily said that he reaps more than VND100mil in this year’s grapefruit crop. As a head of VietGAP team under Bach Dang communal team for grapefruit growers, he wins more than VND300mil per year on the area of only 4,000sqm of grapefruit.

New rural area shows its change

Ngo Van Hai, chairman of Bach Dang commune Farmers’ Society said that as an agricultural commune with the productive area of 600ha, the locality has 630 households growing grapefruit. Local people now are now living in wide houses, thanks to grapefruit.

According to Ngo Van Hai, thanks to new technique, Bach Dang islet-based grapefruit growers create crops on time, especially on holidays and Tet, bringing high economic value. Therefore, local grapefruit growers enjoy an income of VND700-800mil per ha per year.

In reality, Bach Dang grapefruit trademark has become famous on the market. By supportive policies of preserving and developing specialty orchards, the provincial administration has supported grapefruit growers in Bach Dang commune from 2013 to 2016. Accordingly, on the area of 500sqm and more, growers will be supported 100% of nursling, 50% of agricultural materials and VND5mil per ha for new cultivation.

In addition, growers will enjoy VND4mil in cash for per ha per year for planting grapefruit.

Combined with the above policies, Binh Duong provincial administration has assisted Bach Dang farmers to plant grapefruit on VietGAP standard and helped local administration establish trademark of Bach Dang grapefruit.

Until now, Bach Dang grapefruit has appeared across Central, Northern and Southern provinces. This position has helped local farmers enjoy a comfortable life.

Talking about efficiency of grapefruit, Bach Dang communal People’s Committee chairman Pham Van Hoang said that grapefruit on this islet really becomes a key kind of fruit tree, bringing a high and stable income for local farmers. Therefore, the locality no longer exists poor households on the national poverty line.

Reported by T.MINH – Translated by A.C