Joy comes back to black pepper farmers in Phu Giao district

In the days of hardship as black pepper farmers in provinces of Southeastern and Western regions are facing loss of harvests and product prices, in Binh Duong, province, local farmers are offered measures to mitigate worries.

Black pepper farmers in Phu Giao district are expecting for high production yields by application of technologies

Seeking for measures

As a north district of the province being planned for industrial plant and agricultural cultivation by 2017, Phu Giao district has over 320 hectares of black pepper. Despite the humble cultivation area and possible little effects of market downturn, the actual incurrence in the district has puzzled functional agencies and scientists.

“Beforehand, we need a measure to help farmers overcome harvest losses,” said Pham Van Bong, Director of Binh Duong provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Prompted by request of agricultural department, leaders of Binh Duong provincial Department of Science and Technology contacted Academy of Agricultural Science and Technology of the South to carry out a research on general management of black pepper in Phu Giao district of Binh Duong province. The academy, then, planned and officially implemented the research since July 2017.

In 39 months of researching in terms of soil, weather and test cultivation of possibly right black pepper seedlings, the researchers host by M.S. Nguyen Van An identified detail developmental indices and reported to Binh Duong provincial Council of Sciences. As a result, the research was defended before the council on September 29, 2020. Accordingly, to develop cultivation zones of black pepper in Phu Giao district, farmers should comprehensively invest to models and right choices of black pepper seedlings along with deep understanding of cultivation techniques and disease prevention for the black pepper.

Nguyen Van An informed that GAP-standard cultivation of black pepper could bring about sustainable growth of 10-15% from traditional cultivation. Particularly, the GAP-standard would be worry free for farmers in terms of harvest losses due to diseases or pests as 95% of risks have been mitigated.

Presenting the evaluation and recommendation of the research before Binh Duong provincial Council of Science on September 29, 2020, an unnamed representative of the researches informed that in more than 3 years, they have successfully applied standards to select seedlings, cultivation, and disease prevention. As a result, production costs has been reduced drastically while the yields have been improved in two types of black pepper farms in trading and basic preparation phases. On implementing the research, the researchers have combined with construction of collective black pepper brand of Phu Giao district along with training and transferring the technological advancement to over 300 farmer households of the district.

On recent visiting trip to check and evaluate the construction of new rural areas in Phu Giao district, the central supervisors have proactively evaluated the changes of the land. Accordingly, after nearly 10 years of implementing the national pivotal program of constructing new rural areas, all 10 communes of Phu Giao district have been standardized as new rural areas. Material and spiritual lives of local people have been improved as average income per capita of the district by the end of 2019 has been nearly VND 60 million per person a year.

Brandname construction

A the defending session of the research, researchers proposed measures to develop black pepper production in Phu Giao district in sustainable manner by producing black pepper of sanitation standards. As result, pepper seedlings from Vinh Linh and Loc Ninh have been selected for their high yield and good characteristics to be suitable for cultivation conditions and climate in Phu Giao district. The administration of biological products showed good outcome of disease prevention for black pepper in two crops of 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 in Phu Giao district.

The yield and profit of the test farm of biological product administration have been higher than the samples by 4.5-13.9% and 9.1-74.9%. The general management of 10 hectares of black pepper has been carried out at An Binh commune of Phu Giao district to be of GAP standards by April 2021 against 18 cooperation groups of An Binh commune.

Ever since the end dof August 2020, the farms specialized in black pepper in Phu Giao district have drastically changed. Accordingly, application of technologies and sciences has been available on the farms to monitor weather and humidity changes to propose timely resolutions. Le Van Tinh, a farmer household of VietGAP black pepper cultivation said: “Based on development of sciences and technologies, time, cost, and efforts have been saved as adjustments are made to match the indices of the environment to ensure growth of black pepper.”

Talking to us, M.S. Nguyen Van An, confidently, said: “As we are knowledgeable of ideal conditions of any plant, we only need to find a place of equivalent climate and soil for them and take good care of them to get the highest yield while mitigating risks for them.”

According to An, the black pepper seedlings of Vinh Linh and Loc Ninh are adaptive to natural conditions of Phu Giao district.

Replying to interviews of Binh Duong Newspaper reporter, Doan Van Dong, Chairman of Phu Giao district People’s Committee informed that the district authority has promoted the implementation as the provincial authority hand over the research. In the first moves, the district authority has coordinated wth scientists and agricultural engineers to share the experience and cultivation techniques and well as effective disease prevention for black pepper.

By our observation, by the middle of October 2020, the close direction of Phu Giao district People’s Committee and Division of Agriculture has coordinated with local Association of Farmers to promote the relations and dissemination of black pepper seedlings of Vinh Linh and Loc Ninh with assistance for seedling supply for local farmers.

The rural roads of rubber plants’ canopies pass through black pepper farms that become more popular. Along the roads through An Long, An Linh and An Binh of Phu Giao district, we could see bright smiles of farmers who had once suffered from harvest lost in 2016-2017. And, we believe that by the new knowledge and assistance of technologies, the local cultivation of black pepper would be welcoming with high yields ahead.