Although it doesn’t take much time and money, growing melons is bringing high efficiency to farmers in Ha Trung district. Many families earn hundreds of millions of dong, so Tet is warm and full by planting this tree.
Cucumber field in Ha Linh commune, Ha Trung district is located along National Highway 217. This is considered one of the largest melon fields in Thanh Hoa province with 70 hectares. Next to Ha Linh commune, Minh Tan and Vinh Thinh communes (Vinh Loc district) is also one of the major melon growing areas of Thanh Hoa province.
With about 50 hectares, each year, these localities provide hundreds of tons of melons for domestic and foreign markets.
According to Mr. Hoang Van Huong (village 1, Ha Linh commune, Ha Trung district), his family has 3 Sao of melons, each year they harvest 2 crops. With the selling price of 10,000-12,000 VND/kg, each crop his family earns about 60-70 million VND. “Here, on average, each household grows 3-4 Sao (500m2/Sao), some grow 6-7 Sao of melons. My family grows 2 crops, but there are some areas of land that can grow all 3 crops. imported about 100 million VND”, Mr. Huong said.
According to Mr. Huong, melon varieties grown in Ha Trung are all sticky melons, the fruit is not too big but very firm, fragrant, and chosen by many people. Growing cucumbers is low cost, only 4-5 million VND per acre.
“I just need to pick and then traders come to my house to collect. If I work hard to transport it to the market, I can sell it for a higher price. At the end of September, I start planting, 45 days later to harvest, crop 2 makes pillows from May. 11 lunar calendar to sell on Tet holiday”, Mr. Huong added.
Not only Mr. Huong’s family, Mrs. Hoang Thi Minh’s family also switched from growing rice to growing 2 crops with 3 cucumbers. Every year, minus all expenses, Ms. Minh also pocketed tens of millions of dong.
“Cucumber is a crop that is not difficult to grow but requires a lot of care. After plowing, drying the field, the soil will be chopped by machine and raised to high beds to avoid waterlogging. Each bed has a trench about 50-70cm wide. to store water for irrigation and convenient travel and care… When the young plants grow about 30-40cm, we have to put up a row of stakes to let the cucumbers wrap around. If there is no trellis, the melon will give very little fruit and If there is, it is usually very small,” shared Minh
According to Mr. Trinh Xuan Hoang, Head of Bai An village, the whole village has 19 hectares of agricultural land, 17 hectares of land dedicated to growing melons. From 2005 to now, people have switched from growing rice to growing two crops of melon and one crop of corn. “Growing melons is 3-4 times more than growing rice, since planting melons, people’s lives have been improved, the whole village now has no poor households,” added Mr. Hoang.
According to Mr. Hoang Ky Hoi, Vice Chairman of Ha Linh Commune People’s Committee, in the past, this area only had a few households growing spontaneously, but realizing that the economic efficiency is high and the soil is suitable, now the whole commune has more than 300 households growing melons. the income per hectare of melons up to more than 400 million dongs.
Every year, hundreds of tons of melons are supplied to the market. Many households carry out the process of planting and caring for melons according to VietGap standards, in order to have clean products to supply to consumers.
“In the past, rice was grown, the land was high, so the flood season ravaged people, causing them to continuously lose crops. After that, people switched to growing melons and saw a remarkable effect. Up to now, the whole commune has more than 70 hectares of land for growing melons.
Previously, many families did not have enough to eat. Now, thanks to growing melons, dozens of households in the commune have escaped poverty, with some families earning hundreds of millions of dong a year. The melons are harvested near Tet, so that the people’s Tet is also fuller”, said Vice Chairman of Ha Linh Commune People’s Committee excitedly.
According to Mr. Hoi, Ha Linh commune currently has 3.8% poor households, 4.6% near-poor households, the average income in 2021 will reach 58 million VND/person/year.
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