Bau Tre Durian.

Wanting to grow durians, one has to join a club.

Mr. Tran Kiem Long, deputy head of high quality durian club, is at Mon Thoong  durian stump in his orchard

There is little doubt that, specialty orchards in Binh An village is the younger generation than that of any other villages in Long Thanh district. This village’s main crop plants were only rice plants, manioc plants and cashew for previous years. Farmers were tied with soil and fields all the year round, working hard but they could not afford their daily lives. Therefore, in the course of the local economic development, leaders of Binh An village were very active in calling upon people to bravely change the plant structure, growing trees that have high economic value so that people could escape from the endless circle of poverty. Realizing that durian trees are appropriate to the soil of this region, a great number of households courageously invested in durians by growing durian trees and other trees alternately. However, the productivity was not high because each household followed its own ways and the seeds used were not picked and chosen. Durian trees bore many fruit but they did not meet good quality. Therefore, many people became discouraged and had intentions of cutting down durian trees and growing the others. In this tight circumstance, the people in positions of responsibility in the village arduously asked for help from the provincial agricultural expansion encouragement centre. After that, officials of the agricultural expansion encouragement centre came to Binh An, found out the cause and conducted research. They suggested that farmers in the village should establish a durian-specializing club. The reason is that only when the farmers join the club, can they be fully instructed in the technique of growing and taking care of this kind of tree. After many mobilization series, “high quality durian” club was founded in Binh An village in 2003.

        Mon Thoong, Ri 6 occupies the market.

After the club went into operation, heads of Binh An “high quality durians” club with the active assistance of the agriculture expansion encouragement centre, checked the durian area which had been used before and simultaneously picked up and chose trees with high value and a strong trademark in the market to go on with investment in and care for them.  Miscellaneous and old durian seeds were replaced with such strong trademark seeds as Moon Thoong, Ri 6, Ray.  These seeds were chosen to be invested in and develop in Binh Anh village because they are Vietnam Thailand high-grade durians, which were crossbred and grafted for high productivity and good quality, gaining in popularity. As an example, durian variety Ri 6 originated from Cai Mon is easy to grow, take care of, and bear fruit. It takes the trees thirty-six moths to bear fruit counted from sowing with grafted stump time, which is suitable to local climate. As for quality, Ri6 has thick aril with flat seed percentage of 40% per durian and average weight of between 3 and 5 kilograms per durian. Mon Thoong has the same features as Ri6. However, they are less sweet than Ri6 and have flat seed percentage of 60% with average weight of between two to four kilograms per durian.

According to Tran Kiem Long, deputy head of the club, Mon Thoong and Ri6 quantities do not meet customer’s demand presently. When the harvest comes, dealers from different places get to right durian orchards to make purchases. A kilogram was averagely sold between 11 to 12 thousands VND. According to Mr. Tran Kiem Long’s estimation, if every hectare of cultivated area gains fifty million VND per year, households in Binh An village can double this amount of money by growing high quality durians, namely Mon Thoong, Ri6… A case in point, with cultivated area for the above-mentioned durians of 16 hectares, Mr.Tran Kiem Long’s family harvested over 5 tons of durians, gaining approximately hundreds of million VND only in the first crop in 2005. In the next from two to three years, when durians develop steadily, the productivity will be far higher.

To make Bau Tre Durian to acquire high reputation.

We visited Bau Tre hamlet on days of Lunar May. While we were walking along the hamlet, we could enjoy widespread durian aroma. Hidden in durian orchards are new-built houses with the fresh limewater scent. They are remarkable achievements of people in Bau Tre – Binh An. To achieve these, they had to work hard and struggle with difficulties in changing the plant structure and in applying advance technique to high quality durian cultivation and care. As far as we concern, the high quality durian club in Binh An village (Long Thanh district) has attracted 24 members whose total durian cultivation area is thirty six 36 hectares of Monthoong, Ri6, Ray. The area a household can cultivate is up to five hectares or at least between 1.4 and three hectares. Mr Dinh Van Ban, Deputy Director of Binh An People’s Committee informed us that “economic effectiveness from durian specialization has been gained. However, in the long term, for a steady development of durian specialty in the locality, it is suggested that State assist in contribution of low voltage output station in Bau Tre hamlet so that households can use the water resources on their own initiative without taking electricity from other households or using water pump at great expense.

Translated by TV.