Mr. Ha Van Chien, a farmer living in the town of Moc Chau Farm (Moc Chau district, Son La province) has an income of nearly 1 billion VND per year from growing strange and poisonous navel oranges (Navel oranges).($1=24,000 VND)
Successful grafting like a convex navel orange
As a place with favorable conditions in terms of climate and soil, the Moc Chau district (Son La) has great potential for developing agriculture and tourism. These are also two areas that are bringing a stable source of income for people in the district.
Notably, in recent years, many households in the district have boldly developed a model of agricultural tourism that combines experience in fruit orchards such as rose gardens, plum gardens, and convex orange orchards. orange Navel)… Thanks to that, people have achieved high economic efficiency, contributing to diversifying more types of tourism in Moc Chau National Tourist Area.
In the midst of the cool weather of spring, fresh air with a little bit of sunshine, we had the opportunity to visit the orange garden of Mr. Ha Van Chien’s family, sub-zone 68, Nong Truong Moc Chau town, Moc Chau district. Son La).
This is one of the famous orange gardens in Moc Chau when every day welcomes hundreds of tourists to visit and experience thanks to its beautiful garden and strange orange varieties.
Mr. Chien was the first person to bring the umbilicus orange (Navel orange) to successfully grow in Moc Chau. This orange variety has thin skin, no seeds and is sweet to eat, so it is very attractive to tourists.
Taking us to visit the orange garden, Mr. Chien passionately talked about his predestined relationship with the orange umbilicus. Born in a poor family with 5 brothers in Nam Dinh, Mr. Chien only finished 3rd grade and then retired. Growing up, Mr. Chien worked on his own to work as hired laborers across the provinces and cities to earn money.
Friends went to the street, but Mr. Chien chose to go to the mountain because he thought that wherever there was a lot of land, he could grow a lot of corn, potatoes, and cassava.
Then he went to Moc Chau (Son La) to set up a career. He bought a piece of land of 1,000m2 to build a temporary shack, and then went to pick tea for rent, he plowed the land to grow corn, potatoes, and cassava to exchange for the day.
Thanks to hard work, when he accumulated money, he borrowed more to buy land to expand the family’s arable land.
Having a large land, he planted tea, along with that, Mr. Chien and his wife went to Hoa Binh to learn how to grow oranges and buy varieties of Canh and Cao Phong oranges for trial planting. fruit.
“About a decade ago, when my wife was pregnant with our second child, I went to the supermarket to buy oranges for my wife to eat. Seeing that my wife especially liked the Australian seedless Navel orange because of its aroma and sweetness. , so I had a burning desire to propagate. But this is a seedless orange, so I don’t know how to do it. Looking at the Navel oranges over and over again, I suddenly saw 2 fresh stems, so the idea came to me. Tried grafting on wild pomelo root and since then, I have grafted 4 seedlings,” Chien said.
After 2 years of taking care, suddenly 4 Navel orange trees produced fruit laden with branches, Mr. Chien obtained more than 20kg of fruit, sweet and fragrant like oranges bought at the supermarket.
Seeing this, Mr. Chien continued to propagate this type of orange in his home garden. To promote new orange products, Mr. Chien boldly joined the Northwest Specialty Cooperative and coordinated with Moc Chau Moc Tourism Joint Stock Company to build an agricultural tour at the family’s orange orchard. To please visitors, he also takes care of his garden.
“We take care of these orange trees according to VietGAP procedures, using organic fertilizers. After I have grown a good quality orange, I want to be a gardener for tourists to visit. and taste the products. Now there are many visitors to the garden, so my family is very excited,” said Mr. Chien.
Orange garden becomes a tourist attraction
The enthusiasm of the diligent gardener has paid off when more and more tourists come to visit, take photos and check-in at the garden. Oranges are properly cared for by good agricultural processes, so coming here, visitors can experience the transformation of orange farmers and enjoy fresh oranges right in the garden.
Phan Thi Thu Hang, a tourist from Hanoi shared: I went to Moc Chau for the first time, introduced by my son and brought to this orange garden to experience. When I stepped in here, I felt very refreshed because the climate was cool, every orange garden was full of fruit, very beautiful golden color.
Ms. Bui Phuong Hong, a tourist from Son La city shared: “When I set foot in the orange garden, I was extremely surprised because I did not think this orange garden was so beautiful. It felt like I was photographed in the orchard, but the fruit was beautiful. Besides, there was a chance to pick oranges by hand, enjoy right in the garden, very wonderful.”
In addition to planting umbilical oranges that cover the family’s land, Mr. Chien also propagates and sells thousands of seedlings to local people. Up to now, Australia’s umbilical cord orange variety has been popularly grown in Moc Chau, giving a stable fruit yield with a selling price ranging from 70,000 to 100,000 VND/kg.
Along with more than 300 umbilical stumps, Mr. Chien’s 10,000m2 garden is now covered with many other fruit trees such as Canh oranges, Cao Phong oranges, and green skin pomelos. Each year, the revenue from orange orchards is about 900 million VND, of which 2/3 of the revenue comes from selling Navel oranges (Navel oranges) and part is income from tourism.