Need to support connection to consume dragon fruit

​Recently, many farmers in Xuan Loc district cut down the dragon fruit trees that are being harvested because of low prices, uncertain output while high investment costs. People are in need of support to connect output, production orientation and market information for investment with confidence.

Sou A Tah's family (living in Xuan Hung commune, Xuan Loc district) hires people to cut down the dragon fruit garden.

Large investment costs, unstable selling prices

“Can no longer afford the cost with the current uncertainty in output and selling price" is the share of farmers who have been cutting down dragon fruit trees in Xuan Hung commune.Some households choose to cut down the area, not light the lamp, discard the fruit, some cut down the whole dragon fruit to reduce the cost burden.

Sou A Tah's family (living in Hamlet 4, Xuan Hung Commune) has more than 10 hectares of dragon fruit, in the past time because of the low price and no output, she cut down 2 hectares, the rest she took care of the tree but did not dare to "promote" "fertilizer, medicine to harvest fruit as before. Ms. Sou A Tah said: “In the past, low-priced dragon fruit still had traders familiar from Binh Thuan province coming in to buy. About a year ago, dragon fruit was always below 10,000 VND/kg, sometimes there were no buyers. I have cut about 700 dragon fruit pillars and plan to cut down about 2ha in total. Although I don't know what to plant, I can't take care of the dragon fruit." According to Ms. Sou A Tah, in the Cham Village Dragon Fruit Cooperation Group, some households have been cutting down dragon fruit because they cannot take care of it.

Mr. Tran Van Tuyen's household (living in Hamlet 3, Xuan Hung Commune) cut down 2/4 ha of dragon fruit to grow rice. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Tuyen's dragon fruit garden has just entered the 4th year and is in the stage of good yield. Mr. Tuyen lamented: "From the beginning of 2022 to now, the price of dragon fruit is low, to invest I have to borrow 100 million VND from a bank. As far as I could not, I had to give up half of it, losing a lot of effort and capital. The remaining half of the area must be kept to have money to pay bank interest.

Director of Xuan Hung Dragon fruit Agricultural Trade services Cooperative Nguyen Van Nga said that in order to grow 1ha of dragon fruit, farmers have to invest VND 300-400 million, about 10 months later, the tree starts to bear fruit. If fertilizers and drugs are adequate, the price is over 10 thousand VND/kg, about 3 years, capital can be recovered. However, more than a year ago, the price of dragon fruit was only 5-7 thousand VND/kg, sometimes it could not be sold while the prices of fertilizers, pesticides, and labor increased, forcing farmers to cut down the dragon fruit tree. “Some households have switched to other crops, some still leave the garden empty. We are sorry but there is no way to help members. In 2021, the cooperative campaigned to make nearly 10 hectares of dragon fruit according to a clean process with the intention of exporting to Japan, but then encountered the Covid-19 epidemic, there was no cold storage, so farmers sold the products to traders and return to normal care, "- Mr. Nga shared.

 According to many farmers, the biggest difficulty now is the precarious output, the price of dragon fruit is so low that farmers do not dare to invest in production. Many households make more and more losses, so they choose to cut down trees and discard fruit.

Dragon fruit garden in Xuan Hung commune, Xuan Loc district

Need output connection

Director of Xuan Hung Dragon fruit Agricultural Trade services Cooperative Nguyen Van Nga said that, in the past time, the cooperative many times has proposed central and provincial governments to organize a number of connection programs and online seminars to support the output of dragon fruit, but in reality, farmers are not tech-savvy. The conference heard sometimes it didn't, so it didn't recommend anything. Mr. Nga said that the long-term and fundamental solution is the functional sector to step in to support the output connection to help farmers. When there is output, farmers will know what to produce, how much output, and what quality requirements is. In addition, the government supports forecasting information, predicting domestic and foreign market demand for farmers to have production plans.

​Chairman of Xuan Hung Commune People's Committee Tran Dinh Lai said that the locality has the largest area of dragon fruit trees in the district with about 540 hectares. At this time, some farmers are switching to other crops themselves because the price of dragon fruit is too cheap and the investment costs are high. Mr. Lai advised farmers not to rush to destroy the dragon fruit garden that is being harvested, not to follow the season but try to maintain production until the market stabilizes again.

​“The locality is continuing to statistic the area of dragon fruit that has been cut down, and at the same time, it is urging people not to cut it down massively because it takes 1-2 years for other trees to be harvested, many types of trees are in the same situation scene like dragon fruit. Recently, the Provincial People's Councils and districts in contact with voters and communes have proposed to support output for dragon fruit. In addition, the commune also proposes in writing, in person, at meetings "- Mr. Lai shared. According to Chairman of the Xuan Hung Commune People's Committee, the commune has now formed a large production area, established collective economic units, but lacks output connections, lacks warehouses to store and stockpile.

Having just cut down 2 hectares of dragon fruit, Mr. Le Van Sang (who lives in Hamlet 3, Xuan Hung Commune) said that cutting down dragon fruit trees is a very difficult job. Some households after cutting planted pomelo, melaleuca, rubber, and rice, but his family still did not know what kind of tree to plant. Mr. Sang hopes that the Agriculture Industry and the government have an orientation to grow crops, and with whom to cooperate so that he can boldly invest in production.

Obviously, planting or cutting dragon fruit is the right of farmers, but in order to limit the vicious cycle of planting - cutting down, farmers need information such as: what kind of tree to plant suitable for climatic and soil conditions, needs market for the product, connect the output to any unit so that there is a suitable production plan. In addition, farmers also have to change their farming habits, produce according to the needs of the market, participate in the chain of production, consumption and processing of agricultural products, but cannot rely on familiar traders.

Box: Statistics of Xuan Hung Commune People's Committee, there are about 540ha of dragon fruit in the commune. By the end of June 2022, farmers have cut down about 80ha of dragon fruit. In which, many households cut down the area of 3-5ha. Some have been replaced by trees such as pomelo, cashew, rubber, durian..., but most of them are still vacant.