The effectiveness of lean vegetable cultivation in net housing

In the face of vegetables being contaminated and unsafe, the establishment of lean vegetable cultivation in netted housing and greenhouses under VietGAP and Global GAP has resolved the problems.

An officer of Thuan An city Center for Agricultural Services has a look a the model of safe vegetables being cultivated in confined netted housing of family of Tu Trung Hieu

We came to visit the model of the back-up hydroponic vegetable farm of Tu Trung Hieu at Binh Phuoc B quarter, Binh Chuan ward, Thuan An city. In the discussions, he said that the model of growing safe vegetables is the result of a study trip from Nguyen Van Tien's model of hydroponic vegetables on Binh Duc street in Binh Nham ward.

As a worker, after learning about the sales market and becoming confident, Hieu and his wife quit their jobs at the company and invested more than VND 1 billion to build a model of safe vegetable farm on 1,000 square meters in the land lot of the family. They have devoted all their efforts to develop the business model. The model of his closed net house has a height of 8.5 meters, which is very well ventilated and surrounded by nets to prevent insects from entering, partly lined under the ground with concrete.

Hieu confided: “We make a model of safe vegetables according to VietGAP and it requires hard work as every morning or even at night, the lights must be illuminated for in-depth inspection.  If a worm is found in a grown tree, it must be immediately isolated by uprooting to eliminate pests and diseases and prevent them from spreading to other plants.  Absolutely no pesticides is used but water from hydroponics, qualified fertilizers, and seeds sowed on processed coconut fiber.” Hieu added, on daily average, he harvests 50kg of leafy vegetables in half of his farm to be sold by the retail price of VND 25,000 - 30,000 a kg and wholesale price of VND 20,000 VND a kg.  The main supply is for clean vegetable stalls, Co.opmart and Bach Hoa Xanh marts.  Hieu's wish at this time is to expand the sales. To get quality and safe vegetable, the investment cost for a closed net house model is not small let alone higher product cost than other conventional vegetable cultivation. If people understand and see the value of safe vegetables, the corresponding price is not a problem.

Continuing to follow the local agricultural officer, we approached the model of an open-net safe vegetable farm of Le Duc Cong at Thanh Loc quarter, An Thanh ward, Thuan An city.  Currently, Cong family's total area of ​​safe vegetable farm is 7,000 square meters, of which 2,000 square meters of the farm is specialized for growing leafy vegetables and 5,000 square meters for fruit and vegetables such as melon, gourd, bitter melon, and cucumber.

Cong has been with his farming family since the age of 18, this farm was previously specialized in growing chives of cultivation durability of no less than 10 years and had high economic value.  However, a flood caused soil fertility to change and chives could not grow well ever since. Since 2010, the family has changed direction to plant alternate crops with an average income of VND 10 million a month.  According to Cong, the open net house model has lower cost, so the sales is easier in terms of low cost.  The main consumption markets of his family's vegetable garden are An Son market and Thu Dau Mot market. Compared with traditional vegetable farms, the advantage of an open net house is that in the rainy season, thanks to the protection of the vegetable net, leaves will not be crushed. He always takes advantage of the rainy season to grow crops that are in demand in the market to get a price.  Due to the characteristics of the open net house model, vegetables are grown on fertile soil, so the factor of pests and diseases cannot be avoided. However, during the production process, Cong's family chose bio-drugs of high safety under the supervision of instructions from agricultural staff regarding the type, dose, and time of quarantine before harvest as well as in terms of guaranteed quality.

According to Dang Tan Loc, Director of Thuan An city Center for Agricultural Services, agricultural net house models are increasingly popular and diverse in design to not only bring about high economic efficiency but also minimize problems of administration of pesticides. The advantage of the closed mesh house model is that it can completely avoid pests and diseases as well as minimizing and even completely eliminating pesticides. The open net house model would save investment costs and minimize the impact of the environment and weather but could not prevent insects. Therefore, the model owner must comply very closely with factors of drug selection as well as rational usage.  Currently, people are always trained and know how to use bio-drugs with high safety, low toxicity, and little residues in the environment. Therefore, both models have different advantages and can produce high quality and productive agricultural products.

Reported by Tien Hanh - Translated by Vi Bao

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