Being a land of advantages, Hieu Liem Commune has witnessed the development of citrus, bringing up tremendous economic yields. Nhan Duc Collective has chosen to develop citrus orchard on 79 hectares of land in Hieu Liem Commune of Bac Tan Uyen District and earn billions of VND a year.
The daring actions
Visiting Nhan Duc Collective, we were overwhelmed by a large eco-resort. The smooth hills are covered with fruit trees and green leaves of oranges, tangerines, and pamelo in the full growth.
On meeting Mr. Tran Thanh Co, Director of Nhan Duc Collective, we were informed of his visiting Hieu Liem in 1982 when he saw only a place of dark woods. Born into a family of farmers, Tran Thanh Co, on working in a collective, was very confident to start his business locally. He had switched through rubber trees and husbandry without success.
In 2011, Co decided to plant citrus trees, starting with 7 hectares of oranges and 4 hectares of pamelo. As he mastered the cultivation method, he was so daring to mortgage for VND 6 billion to invest into citrus trees. Thanks to the new technology, the orchard was well organized and efficiently protected from pests and diseases. After 3 years of transplanting, he harvested the first crop of delight at 40 tons of fruit a hectare.
“Those are new seedlings from Mekong Delta. As they are brought here, they develop harmoniously with ratio of bearing fruits comparable to anywhere else,” said Co.
By the beginning of 2014, on recognizing the potential of citrus development in wider scale, Co gathered some others to establish a collective – Nhan Duc Collective, which now has 11 members. Taking advantage of Dong Nai and Be Rivers and the high hills of flood prevention, he succeeded in improving quality of the orchard. Currently, average yield of the collective has been increased to 50 tons a hectare.
All the harvest fruits are sold out at VND 30,000 a kilogram.
It was remarkable that a power grid of 220kV has been established to service the production supported by machinery. Co said that the machinery labor is a step forward in minimizing manual work. The 3-km power grid has been constructed by the collective investment at nearly VND 5 billion.
A model of success
Mr. Tran Huu Duc, a member of Nhan Duc Collective, currently has 5 hectares of oranges giving him income of about VND 4.8 billion a year. He said that his participation into the collective offered him with improving quality of oranges and stable sales.
“The soil is very suitable for fruits, particularly citrus, giving sweet and juicy fruits. The economic yield is beyond discussion,” added Duc.
Besides, the collective is maintaining a system of cold farm from 100,000 poultries and 50,000 egg-giving hens. The system is invested and equipped with facilities for chicken from USA. The chicken farm, yielding about VND 700 million a month to the collective, also produces refuses to be reused as soil fertilizer.
Taking us around the hills well planned, Tran Thanh Co additionally informed that the collective, in 2015, was expanded with 30 hectares of orchard supported by machines to save up to 50% of transportation work. Accordingly, the yield has been elevated to 60 tons a hectare to maintain the title of a model collective in agriculture in 2015, orienting to both machinery application and VietGAP standardization.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dat, Deputy Chair of Hieu Liem Commune Association of Farmers, affirmed that the success of Nhan Duc Collective is an example for stable income yielding. Aside from economic yields, Nhan Duc Collective has also contributed to local economy, traffic construction, and charity drives for the poor as well as the creation of frequent jobs to 50 people with average salary of VND 5 million a month.
Reported by Quynh Nhien – Translated by Vi Bao
