Farmers abandon special pomelos as earnings drop

A drop in Dien pomelo productivity in recent years has left growers concerned as bad weather and more lucrative alternatives are inducing farmers to abandon one of Ha Noi’s fruit specialities.

Nguyen Duy Trung, vice chairman of Thuong Mo Commune, Dan Phuong District, in Ha Noi suburb, said pomelo farming used to account for 100-120 hectares of area, equivalent to 50 per cent of the arable land five years ago, but now 10 per cent of the pomelo orchards had been replaced by banana, papaya or flower growing.

Local farmers had started uprooting pomelo trees because of a dearth of fruit in the last four years despite local farmers strictly following expert advice, he said.

Dan Phuong District’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department said the district had over 300ha devoted to pomelo farming, and the communes of Phuong Dinh and Thuong Mo both faced declining productivity.

Unfavourable weather, including heavy hail in November 2006 and a record cold spell in early 2008, was thought to be to blame for the damage to the trees, said a department officer.

Prior to 2007, local farmers could earn VND196 million (US$9,800) per hectare, but this figure had declined to a third of its previous value.

Nguyen Van Trung, a farmer in An Son Hamlet, Thuong Mo Commune, said he was one of the first to grow pomelo in the commune and he used to earn VND90-100 million ($4,500 -5,000) from his quarter of a hectare orchard.

However this year he did not expect to see such a high turnover despite more favourable weather.

Tran Thi Oanh from Dai Phu Hamlet, Thuong Mo Commune, said a few years ago pomelo trees would yield hundreds of fruit but over the last four years, each tree had produced less than a dozen fruits, to the consternation of local farmers.

Commune official Trung said many local farmers had gone to work in factories instead of tending their orchards, despite local authority encouragement for them to keep farming.

Early this year, experts from the city’s and district’s agriculture departments held a seminar on farming techniques for about 200 local farming households but the situation had failed to improve.

Meanwhile, in Tu Liem District’s Phu Dien Commune – the original home of Dien pomelo – land devoted to pomelo farming had declined due to the pressure of urbanisation.

Chairman of the Phu Dien Agriculture Co-operative Nguyen Van Cuong said the commune previously grew pomelo over an area of 50ha but now only half of that was devoted to the citrus fruit.

A local resident Nguyen Khanh of Duc Dien Hamlet, Phu Dien District, said she had stopped growing pomelo to build rooms for students to rent, which had brought her a more steady income than the currently blighted pomelo orchards. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam agriculture, Vietnam pomelos