Farmers tend lemongrass in Tien Giang province’s Tan Phu Dong district (Photo: VNA) Tien Giang (VNS/VNA) - Lemongrassfarmers in Tien Giang province’s Tan Phu Dong district, the MekongDelta’s largest producer of the herb, are earning growing incomes now since pricesare increasing.
Nguyen Thi Van, who grows 3,000sq.m of lemongrass in the district’s Phu Thanh commune, has harvested 4.5tonnes of stalks and sold them for 18 million VND (780 USD).
Traders now pay 4,000-4,500 VND fora kilogramme, up 1,000 VD from lastmonth.
At these prices, farmers can earn 50-60 million VND (2,150-2,580 USD) per hectare per year.
The prices of major agricultural produce normally increasearound Tet (theLunar New Year), and so the price of lemongrass too could continue to increase,according to Van.
Tet falls on January 25 next year.
Lemongrass is one of the key crops of Tan Phu Dong, an islet district thatis badly affected by saltwater intrusion from the sea during the dry seasonsince it is located at the mouth of the Tien River,a distributary of the Mekong.
Nguyen Van Hai, head of the district’s Bureau of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, said lemongrass farming had made a large contribution to reducingpoverty locally.
"The advantages of the crop are that it could be grown insoil affected by saltwater and still have high yields while demand issteady," he said.
The district has encouraged farmers with low-yield rice farms toswitch to lemongrass and other drought resistant crops in the dry season.
Farmers can either completely switch to lemongrass or rotatewith rice in the rainy season and grow the grass in the dry season.
The area under the grass has increased from 831ha in 2015 tomore than 1,900ha now, and the annual output is 30,000 tonnes of stalks,according to the bureau.
They are sold in Tien Giangand other provinces and Ho Chi Minh City.
To avoid oversupply, the bureau has instructed farmers to growlemongrass only in zoned areas and to Vietnamese good agricultural practices(VietGAP) standards.
It encourages farmers to establish co-operatives andco-operative groups to ensure outlets.
In August the National Office of Intellectual Property grantedthe district’s lemongrass the collective brand name of Sa Tan Phu Dong.
The crop is grown mostly for the stalk while the leaves areunused. Local authorities have called for investment to process the leaves toproduce oil and use the residue to grow mushrooms, vegetables and flowers.
A hectare of land can produce about 20 tonnes of lemongrassleaves a year, and the leaves, after oil is extracted, can be used to producearound two tonnes of mushroom a year, according to the district’s authorities./.
Nguyen Thi Van, who grows 3,000sq.m of lemongrass in the district’s Phu Thanh commune, has harvested 4.5tonnes of stalks and sold them for 18 million VND (780 USD).
Traders now pay 4,000-4,500 VND fora kilogramme, up 1,000 VD from lastmonth.
At these prices, farmers can earn 50-60 million VND (2,150-2,580 USD) per hectare per year.
The prices of major agricultural produce normally increasearound Tet (theLunar New Year), and so the price of lemongrass too could continue to increase,according to Van.
Tet falls on January 25 next year.
Lemongrass is one of the key crops of Tan Phu Dong, an islet district thatis badly affected by saltwater intrusion from the sea during the dry seasonsince it is located at the mouth of the Tien River,a distributary of the Mekong.
Nguyen Van Hai, head of the district’s Bureau of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, said lemongrass farming had made a large contribution to reducingpoverty locally.
"The advantages of the crop are that it could be grown insoil affected by saltwater and still have high yields while demand issteady," he said.
The district has encouraged farmers with low-yield rice farms toswitch to lemongrass and other drought resistant crops in the dry season.
Farmers can either completely switch to lemongrass or rotatewith rice in the rainy season and grow the grass in the dry season.
The area under the grass has increased from 831ha in 2015 tomore than 1,900ha now, and the annual output is 30,000 tonnes of stalks,according to the bureau.
They are sold in Tien Giangand other provinces and Ho Chi Minh City.
To avoid oversupply, the bureau has instructed farmers to growlemongrass only in zoned areas and to Vietnamese good agricultural practices(VietGAP) standards.
It encourages farmers to establish co-operatives andco-operative groups to ensure outlets.
In August the National Office of Intellectual Property grantedthe district’s lemongrass the collective brand name of Sa Tan Phu Dong.
The crop is grown mostly for the stalk while the leaves areunused. Local authorities have called for investment to process the leaves toproduce oil and use the residue to grow mushrooms, vegetables and flowers.
A hectare of land can produce about 20 tonnes of lemongrassleaves a year, and the leaves, after oil is extracted, can be used to producearound two tonnes of mushroom a year, according to the district’s authorities./.
VNA
