A place 'endowed' to grow medicinal plants

A land rich in potential

Lam Dong is a province with strengths in developing medicinal plants of high economic value. Currently, the total production area of medicinal plants in Lam Dong is about 332 hectares, with a total output of about 9,500 tons/year. About 263 hectares of medicinal plants are grown on agricultural land, 68 hectares are planted under the forest canopy.

In Lam Dong, medicinal plants have been put into production for a long time by people such as artichoke, chlorophyll, ganoderma lucidum, cordyceps , ginseng, yellow flower tea, tam ventricular ... in Da Lat City, Lac Duong, Lam Ha, Duc Trong, Dam Rong, Cat Tien, and Di Linh districts.

In Lac Duong town (Lac Duong district), Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kim Dung's family is developing stably with the model of growing red reishi mushrooms in Da Lat with a size of 72 m2 mushroom house. According to the owner of the establishment, the family planted Ganoderma lucidum many years ago and by 2020, it will focus on developing in the direction of applying IoT (connection of things) technology to production. Up to now, this model gives high economic efficiency.   

Thanks to good care, the red reishi mushroom grows and thrives. The rate of fungal embryos is up to 90%. About the process, the owner of the establishment confessed: The time from hanging the mushrooms to harvesting is about 105 days, and the time from transplanting to harvesting is about 120 days.

The red reishi mushroom produced by Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kim Dung's family is of high quality, beautiful product with even mushroom ears, light yellow color and weight from 12-15 grams/ear. The weight of dried mushrooms per bag of mushroom embryos is from 24 to 30 grams, for every 3 kg of fresh mushrooms, 1 kg of dried mushrooms is obtained.

Currently, the yield of fresh mushrooms of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kim Dung's family is 750 kg/10,000 embryos; dry mushroom yield is 250 kg/10,000 embryos/mushroom house. The red reishi mushroom model applying IoT technology requires about 4.5% higher investment capital than conventional models. However, this technology helps improve productivity, about 8% higher than the conventional model.

With a selling price of about 450,000 VND/kg, every month, a model of red reishi mushroom on an area of 72 m2 for Mrs. Nguyen Thi Kim Dung's family makes a net profit of about 5 million VND.

In addition to Ganoderma lucidum, artichoke in Lam Dong is also a popular medicinal plant and is concentrated in Da Lat city . According to Lam Dong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the total area of artichoke in the locality is about 162 hectares with an output of over 8 thousand tons.

The tree is suitable for the climate, soil and has high economic value, so over time, many households in the neighboring districts of Da Lat such as Don Duong, Duc Trong, and Di Linh have also experimented. In particular, in Lac Duong district, the development of artichoke brings high profits and has formed linkage chains in production. Up to now, in this district, there are about dozens of households associated with Ladophar Company to develop tens of hectares of artichoke and is expected to reach 100 hectares by 2025.

According to the Lam Dong Agricultural Extension Center, the local medicinal plants have many endemic species, have high economic value and are currently being propagated such as brocade orchid, Ngoc Linh ginseng , Seven Diep Nhat flower, and Hoang Lien ooro. , serrated rhizomes, three ventricles, yellow flower tea. Some types have high competitive advantages such as ginseng Ngoc Linh, jagged jasper, and lily of the valley .

“The production of Ngoc Linh ginseng in reality is not much, but in Da Lat, it has succeeded in clonal propagation by tissue culture method. Saw-toothed heather is increasingly rare and in Lam Dong, it only grows in the Bidoup - Nui Ba forest area," said Nguyen Van Dien, an officer of the Lam Dong Agricultural Extension Center.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dien, officer of Lam Dong Agricultural Extension Center said: Lam Dong has great potential for producing medicinal plants with many varieties. Especially developing medicinal plants under the forest canopy. However, for the models to be really effective and bring income to the people, the most important step is still to organize the linkage chains and promote the market.

According to Mr. Dien, medicinal plants have high economic value, but this is a relatively new field, so people are still confused and do not dare to do much. Therefore, it is necessary to have an incentive and support mechanism for them to access and develop.

Outstanding in economic value

Lam Dong has favorable natural conditions, with potential for the development and cultivation of many precious and rare medicinal plants of high economic value. Moreover, the domestic and international market for medicinal herbs is considered to be very large and is expanding, so this is also a great opportunity.

Lam Dong's climate is divided into 3 regions including altitudes below 500m, from 500 - 1,000m and above 1,000m above sea level. In each of these regions, it is suitable for the development of a number of different types of medicinal herbs. From here, creating a richness and diversity for local products. Besides, Lam Dong forest resources are also very rich with 513 thousand hectares of forested land . This is the potential to develop intercropping trees under the forest canopy.

Currently, the agricultural sector of Lam Dong province is researching and developing intercropping under the forest canopy for medicinal plants that are harvested naturally. Including Panax ginseng species distributed in the forests in the mountainous district of Dam Rong; Ha Thu O in Duc Trong and Don Duong districts ; wisteria in Cat Tien, ancient history in Biduop - Nui Ba; shuffle the three divisions in Da Lat, Lac Duong...

Some other types such as yellow flower tea, vine tea, samosa, black turmeric, ginseng areca... are suitable for the pattern of interspersed under the forest canopy. For these medicinal herbs, a number of businesses and units are investing in developing raw material areas.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Lam Dong province, the province currently has 59 enterprises purchasing products from medicinal plants for preliminary processing and processing with a total output of over 7,000 tons. In which, artichokes are consumed the most with about 45 enterprises and purchasing units, followed by 15 enterprises of cordyceps and 10 enterprises of Ganoderma lucidum.

In terms of economic efficiency, the production of medicinal plants such as artichokes, ginseng , dong quai... compared with crops such as carrots, cabbage, lettuce, coffee... the economic value is higher, helping people improve income.

An agricultural official compared, on the same unit of area, the development of artichokes can achieve a profit of over 500 million VND/ha/year and this level is 190 million VND higher than the profit of growing carrots, which is high. more than 400 million VND compared to growing cabbage.

Similarly, Ganoderma lucidum gives a profit of 665 million dong/ha/year, dong quai makes 400 million dong/ha/year, and ginseng also gives a profit of up to 329 million dong/ha/year.

According to Lam Dong Agricultural Extension Center, the current difficulty in the locality in developing medicinal plants is that there is no centralized production and trading facility of medicinal seeds. Some varieties cannot be actively sourced and have to be imported from abroad or migrated from other provinces.