At the invitation of the leaders of Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Chau, former Director of the Southern Institute of Fruit Trees, has just visited and surveyed many gardeners, cooperatives, and production farms. Organic and responsible direction in this province. Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper discussed with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Chau about his observations after the trip mentioned above.

Transformation with action

Organic agriculture is increasingly interested in society, the agricultural industry and many localities are also devoting specific policies and programs to organic agricultural production. Through practice in Dong Nai, how do you evaluate the application of organic farming by farmers?

The use of organic fertilizers in orchards in Dong Nai is no longer a rare thing. There are many good models of using organic fertilizers such as the model of growing oranges and tangerines by Mr. Ha Thang with an area of 3 hectares in Phu Ly commune, Vinh Cuu district. The garden of oranges and tangerines is planted sparsely by Mr. Thang (the trees are about 4m apart) to limit disease, the garden is cleared by hand to avoid the use of chemical drugs.

This garden has been using organic fertilizers for many years now. Previously, Mr. Thang used EM yeast to decompose organically, now uses IMO yeast. IMO yeast helps to break down organic matter very quickly to fertilize the soil. Therefore, Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has encouraged farmers to use IMO since 3 years ago. Mr. Thang's organic fertilizer regime is one year of using chicken manure and then one year of using cow manure. In addition, Mr. Thang also uses chopped bananas to provide potassium, and uses IMO in combination with fish manure to provide N for the plants.

In disease prevention, Mr. Thang is very experienced in using a mixture of ginger, garlic, chili and IMO or using the biological insecticide Abamectin to kill pests. Thanks to planting sparsely, applying organic measures in providing nutrients and preventing diseases for trees, the orange and tangerine trees in Mr. Thang's garden are still green and healthy even though they are about 12 years old.

In Xuan Dong pomelo cooperative (Xuan Dong commune, Cam My district), farmers used a lot of manure (cow, goat, chicken), did not spray weeds, and limited the use of chemical drugs (only used when flowering, promoting fruit, 3 months before harvest is to stop using).

In addition to models of using self-composting organic fertilizers, many models of using industrially produced organic fertilizers also give good results such as the durian garden of Dona Techno Company in Xuan Que commune, Cam My district. It can be said that this is a very beautiful durian garden.

Or the durian garden of Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh in Xuan Bao commune, Xuan Loc district. This garden only uses a little chemical fertilizer, most of the rest (about 80%) is organic chicken manure imported from Japan combined with fish manure. Thanks to the use of organic chicken manure, the garden has few diseases and no pus-fissures.

Dramatically reduce production costs

Many places now think that organic farming is difficult because of the high cost and high cost. Practice in places promoting the use of organic fertilizers in orchards in Dong Nai that you have visited, have specific results, sir?

First of all, the use of organic fertilizers has helped many gardens to drastically reduce production costs. For example, Mr. Ha Thang's tangerine garden has reduced the cost of buying fertilizers and pesticides by 50-70%. Many other organic fertilizer gardens in Vinh Cuu district, farmers have self-reported, there are models that can reduce costs by up to 70%, other models can reduce by 40 - 50%.

In general, from this trip, I found that it is possible for farmers to reduce production costs by 50% by promoting the use of organic fertilizers. Besides, in the gardens that use a lot of organic, it is clear that the soil has been improved very well, the trees are healthier, the fruit doesn't look very good because it doesn't use beautifying drugs, but the fruit is beautiful. Better quality, better taste.

Please also clarify that the fruit is not beautiful not only because of organic production but also because Vietnam does not have the stage of packaging right after harvest. Like in the US, Australia..., they have a very methodical post-harvest packaging system, which helps the fruit to be more beautiful and preserved for longer.

Many organic production gardens achieve very good sales and profits. Like Mr. Ha Thang's orange and tangerine garden, each year harvests about 80 tons of fruit, although the selling price is not high, it still achieves a revenue of about 1.6 billion VND. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh's durian garden is 700 million VND/ha.

Good signal

As he has just shared, the use of organic fertilizers in fruit production is not only more and more popular in Dong Nai but also in many other localities. Is this a good sign because farmers are more and more interested in sustainable production?

In Dong Nai now, many gardeners grow durian, orange-leaved grapefruit, sugar tangerine... using a lot of self-composted organic fertilizers or industrially produced organic fertilizers. Using any type of organic fertilizer is good for soil improvement, plant health and fruit quality.

Many farmers are no longer chasing productivity but more concerned with product quality. There is a gardener growing citrus in Vinh Cuu district, the trees are planted sparsely, so there are few diseases, the garden uses a lot of organic fertilizers. Garden owners accept not intensive farming, low yield, but good quality fruit to sell at a higher price. Thanks to this way, this orange and tangerine garden is now 20 years old, but the trees are still green. Meanwhile, in the Mekong Delta, orange and tangerine orchards grown for no more than 10 years are damaged, common at only 6-7 years.

In Dong Thap, there have been many models of composting rice straw as organic fertilizer, which is also very good. In the Central Highlands, composting fish manure to fertilize plants is now very popular. Farmers in the Central Highlands went to the Southwest region to buy cheap fish for composting. Now there are very good composting yeasts that break down very quickly and don't stink.

In general, each locality, each region has different ways of using organic fertilizers, but they are all good for improving soil, improving crop quality and helping farmers reduce production costs. In particular, many farmers know how to make their own probiotics to decompose organically. There are people who make leaven very well, very respectable. Many gardeners not only know how to compost themselves, but also make pesticides and diseases with natural ingredients such as garlic, chili, ginger...

"It is very difficult to be completely organic on fruit trees, so the fact that many gardeners in Dong Nai as well as other localities have applied a lot of organic fertilizers in their orchards is very encouraging. However, it is necessary to have specific surveys and evaluations on the economic efficiency of models of using organic fertilizers compared to using only chemical fertilizers before. product planning and marketing.

In addition, localities need to organize farmers to visit and learn good models of using organic fertilizers in production. The press also needs to learn and promote communication on how to make and use organic fertilizers in gardeners.

Thank you Sir!"

Source: Son Trang - nongnghiepviet.vn