Ba kich is now the key herb of Ba Che district

If you search for ‘nuoi cay mo ba kich o Quang Ninh’ (growing Indian mulberry with tissue culture method in Quang Ninh province), many images can be found of Le Cong Tiem, chair of Toan Dan Cooperative in Ba Che district of Quang Ninh province, dubbed as the ‘precious herb King’.

Ba kich is now the key herb of Ba Che district. However, in the past, it was once in danger of elimination. The situation was so serious that ba kich was added to the list of species for special protection stipulated by the government’s Decree No 48 in 2002.

The Ba Che district authorities then decided to develop a herb growing area to conserve the precious herb and help farmers improve their income.

However, the methods to grow ba kich did not bring high efficiency. 

The local authorities decided that Ba Che would have 1,500 hectares of ba kich by 2020.

Tiem contacted plant tissue culture centers for seedlings and grew them on a trial basis. However, the effort failed.

In 2012, the Biotechnology Institute won the bid to provide Toan Dan Cooperative with ba kich seedlings developed with tissue culture.

Dr Huong, together with her workers, then selected plants, analyzed, and conducted morphology identification and molecular biology. 

After Huong confirmed that it was a standard ba kich plant, she decided to do in vitro multiplication in the laboratory and then grow them on a trial basis at the Biological Experiment Garden. 

After eight months of research and experiment, she succeeded in optimizing the root system and developing the process of breeding and planting ba kich.

“I am proud to be the first person in Vietnam who can optimize the root system, making the root stronger by many times compared with plants raised with other methods,” Huong said.

Tiem praised the outstanding features of the plants provided by the biology institute.

“The plant is straight, hard and has strong roots. No one else can do this,” Tiem said.

However, generating standard seedlings was not the last task Huong and her co-workers did. She spent time with local farmers and showed them how ba kich should be grown.

Local farmers had experience growing forestry trees, but ba kich has a small size. One needs to be very careful when bringing ba kich plants from a sterile laboratory to a natural environment.

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