Thanks to being organic, the Idor longan takes root in the 'kingdom of bricks'

The longan of Idor takes root in the land of clay

Nhon Phu Commune, Mang Thit District, Vinh Long Province is considered the "kingdom of bricks and tiles". The fertile alluvium of the Mekong River accumulated over the years has deposited clay deposits in this land. According to the people here, the brick kiln-making profession, formed more than a hundred years ago on this land, has become the main source of income for the villagers. At one time, people called this "Viet Kieu country" because many people got rich from brick kilns.

Over time, facing the risk of environmental pollution, hidden behind brick kilns, orchards began to appear because farmers changed their livelihood models, mainly durian and Idor longan.

Mr. Truong Hoang Phuong's family in Phu Thuan A hamlet, Nhon Phu commune has invested billions of dong to build 2 brick kilns, doing quite successfully. Compared to many brick kiln households in the area who have to hold a land contract to borrow from a bank, Mr. Phuong has never had to borrow money.

Concerned about environmental problems and depletion of land resources, Mr. Phuong decided to stop operating brick kilns. He spent more than a year visiting, learning about agricultural models, choosing crops. Seeing people grow high-yield longan, he loved it very much, a tree can yield a ton of fruit at a time, suitable for many types of soil, and healthy.

This direction was met with strong opposition from the family. “Relatives did not believe, prevented, were afraid of not being able to do it, then gave up halfway. Everyone says that brick soil is like a desert, but I am determined to do it”, said Mr. Phuong excitedly about his journey to agriculture.

On trips, he took his wife and children with him to see how other farmers did. After so many times, he was also convinced, the couple unanimously decided to start planting Idor longan.

On an area of 1.5 hectares, Mr. Phuong renovated the land used to make brick kilns, planted 600 original Idor longans interspersed with canoe longan, bar longan, purple longan and some short-term crops such as kumquat, chili, and natural flower. At the same time, he ordered dredging to create water lines, dig 8 ditches around the garden, build a separate embankment to raise snails, giant fish, carp... with the purpose of short-term farming. In 2017, when he had the opportunity, chili won the price, his income in this period was also several hundred million dong a year, enough for him to invest in "raising" the longan garden.

In 2020, when the longan garden began to bear fruit, he boldly cut down all other trees to concentrate the nutrients of the soil for the Idor longan roots. In the first crop, the average yield is 30-40kg of fruit/tree, in the second crop, the average yield is increased to 60-70kg of fruit/tree. The third crop is expected to be harvested in October with a yield of up to about 100kg of fruit/tree. The price of Idor longan is currently being purchased by traders at 20,000 VND/kg, earning more than a billion VND.

Through the exchange, Mr. Phuong is quite confident with the decision to transform the economy and develop this Idor longan growing model. He thinks that he has a "big liver", seeing that the supply and demand period, the epidemic will end, some people see fertilizer and give up, but he still maintains. 

After nearly 5 years of developing the garden economic model, Mr. Phuong has never encountered a failure. According to Mr. Phuong, he must have had good luck with farming.

"Before doing this, I first calculate, create a way to transport the longan when harvesting, arrange the position of each longan in such a way that the garden is open and beautiful for tourism in the future," said Mr. Phuong excitedly. Share the results after years of hard work.

I love using organic, the plants stay green

Idor longan garden has grown to be as productive as it is today, according to Mr. Phuong because of its own secret, which is "pleasant to use organic, less use of fertilizers but the trees still grow well because of that!".

Mr. Phuong shared, the fruit is clean and beautiful, now his model has fully converged. Due to too much "coal" information about the quality of fruit, and the indiscriminate and uncontrolled use of drugs and chemical fertilizers, prompted him to switch to organic agriculture.

He uses compost made from pangasius combined with probiotics at a relatively low cost, which is both economical and safe. “At first I didn't believe in this organic way of doing it, but seeing many people doing it successfully, I found the garden to be beautiful, impeccable, nothing! People have done it, why did I refuse, "said Mr. Phuong excitedly.

In his opinion, compared to using chemical fertilizers, longan trees may not be as beautiful, growing slower. But slow but good long, good durable. Mr. Phuong calculated that, on average, if each plant is watered with fish manure for 20-30 days, many people will be discouraged, but if it is good, it is very durable, reducing pests and diseases on the tree and the profit is still equivalent to that of other plants. use chemical fertilizers.

Currently, Mr. Phuong is researching to build a longan garden that meets VietGAP standards. At the same time, the method of organic composting from fish is replicated to farmers.

At the time of building the longan garden, Mr. Phuong was most worried about the handling of the fruit. Through many studies, he used the solution extracted from the incubation of pangasius to irrigate the longan garden to prevent pests. This is a very unique way to do it, and it works very well. Coming to this solution for the longan garden is divided into several stages, regularly about 4 times a year, evenly sprayed from the base to the leaves.

"During the fish composting process, thanks to probiotics , the solution extracted from the fish composting process has the ability to kill the "talented" insects. Thanks to this measure, the rate of dragon broom disease on longan has been reduced to only about 1%, and at the same time, it is very effective in preventing longan stem borers and prolonging the life of the tree," said Phuong.

Talking about the life cycle of the longan garden, Mr. Phuong confidently assessed that the family's Idor longan garden could still grow, develop and exploit sustainable values in the next 30-40 years due to the investment and care in accordance with the law. organic direction, so the life of the tree will be very durable.