After losing everything due to the heat and frost, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Trung decided to plant the cloves in a net house. This decision helps him collect hundreds of millions of dong a year.
Enhance the value of natural medicinal plants
In the net house, beside the beds of bitter melon, vegetables, and clean cabbage, there are thousands of lush cloves and luxuriant green leaves. “This batch is about to be harvested. Every 50,000 VND ($2)/kg but only enough for high production, not for the outside market”, veteran Nguyen Ngoc Trung (Tien Thanh village, Chi Khe commune, Con Cuong district, Nghe An) said.
Mr. Trung was the first person in this mountainous district to experiment with growing cloves in a net house and was more successful than expected.
In 1981, returning from the Cambodian battlefield, wounded soldier 4/4 Nguyen Ngoc Trung participated in activities in the local government. 10 years later, he resigned, looking for directions for economic development.
Planting cloves in net houses, veterans pick leaves and earn a lot of money
Con Cuong mountainous district is blessed by nature when it is located in the biosphere reserve of western Nghe An, there are many precious medicinal herbs such as ha thu o, prickly pear, fenugreek…
Having experience in cooking Ha Thu O anise in the army, Mr. Trung buys dried ingredients from the people picked in the forest to cook the soup and mix it with drinking water. At first, it was mainly produced for family use, but gradually friends and relatives began to learn the uses of Cao Ha Thu O, and ordered Mr. Trung to cook it.
From Cao Ha Thu O, he expanded to cook high or produce tea from other available herbs, including Ming aralia. According to oriental medicine, Ming aralia is precious folk medicine, from tubers, branches, and leaves that can all be used. In particular, Ming aralia has the effect of nourishing blood, clearing meridians, regulating heart rate, and stabilizing the cardiovascular system… Ming aralia grows popular in the wild, plus has many uses in prevention and treatment. diseases, improve health, so it is also likened to “poor man’s ginseng”.
Ming aralia grows naturally in the forest or is grown by people as an ornamental or vegetable in small quantities. High cooking, and processing into tea requires large quantities, so to take the initiative in the source of raw materials, Mr. Trung decided to plant cloves.
Mr. Trung tinkered with and learned about planting techniques, taking care of cloves, investing in fertilizers, making soil… This veteran nursed 7,000 cloves from branches and planted them in the field.
“Linganx is suitable for the soil, quickly takes root, produces green leaves, but near Tet, when it is about to be harvested, it encounters dense hoarfrost, and the leaves “burn” all. After the frost, the sun is out of season, the leaves are curled. In the first case, I lost 120 million dongs($4,800),” Mr. Trung recalled.
Bringing cloves to the net house
At this time, Chi Khe Commune Tree-Child Cooperative was invested in building a net house to produce clean vegetables. However, the production cost of clean vegetables is high, it is difficult to find output, and members are not interested in growing vegetables. Faced with this situation, Mr. Trung boldly proposed to use a part of net house to experiment with growing cloves.
In 2018, 2,000 cloves were brought in, covering 500m2 of net houses. Although the temperature inside the greenhouse is higher than outside, this option has completely solved the risk of frost and heat. Besides, the temperature is maintained stably to help the green clover. After 6 months of planting, Mr. Trung harvested the first batch of leaves and “great victory” with 8 quintals of fresh leaves.
“Dingling root, it takes 3 years or more to harvest. Digging for tubers requires replanting a new litter, takes a long time, and the economic value is not as high as harvesting leaves. If in the external environment , each If you can only harvest 2-3 litters of leaves a year, you will be able to harvest one litter in a net house, and cloves for harvesting 6 litters a year, even if you take good care of them, you can harvest one litter every 1.5 months, yield 6- 8 quintals/sao. Harvest properly, then apply NPK fertilizer, water, and do not need to take care of, “Mr. Trung said.
The price of Ming aralia fluctuates from 50,000-60,000 VND($2)/kg, calculated per pole of cloves for an income of around 200 million VND($8,000)/year. However, these leaves are mainly used by Mr. Trung to process the ginseng extract and tea bags to improve the product’s value. Leaves are not used up, he is dried and used gradually to ensure the source of production materials.
Currently, his products of tea and herbal extracts of Dinh Lang, Ha Thu O have been trademarked and sold widely to the market. In addition to the products from Ming aralia, Mr. Trung also registered for OCOP certification for 4 other products also from indigenous herbs. Not only helping the family to develop economically, but the process of planting – harvesting – processing – selling Mr. Trung’s products also creates regular jobs with stable incomes for many local workers.
With his achievements in labor and production, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Trung was twice awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs “The person with typical meritorious services to overcome difficulties to achieve excellent achievements in labor”. manufacturing”; The Central Committee of the Vietnam Veterans Association awarded the Certificate of Merit “for outstanding achievements in the movement of veterans to help each other reduce poverty and do good in the economy”…
According to the plan, by the end of this year, Mr. Trung will “cover” the 2,000 square meter net house. This veteran is also contacting pharmaceutical companies to associate with planting and supplying raw materials for leaves and roots to make medicines, and at the same time expanding distribution channels and promoting products to increase sales.
Photo: Internet (vinlove.net)