VietNamNet Bridge – Thanks to pitaya trees, thousands of households in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam have had money to build big houses and buy cars…
Mr. Phan Van Nguyen, 50, in Cho Gao district, Tien Giang province is an example. Nguyen said his family had planted rice for three generations but they could not get rich with rice. He was among the pioneers who planted pitaya trees in Cho Gao district. After learning experience from pitaya farmers in other provinces, Nguyen decided to devote his two hectares of rice fields to pitaya in 1992.

Nguyen still remembered his first pitaya season. His field was covered in red color. He earned a profit of tens of millions of dong that year, which was huge to a farmer’s household at that time. After that, his neighbors began planting pitaya, learning experience from Nguyen.

Pitaya trees can live for over ten of years. They yield fruits continuously. The fruits are ripening averaging 10-15 days. Nguyen said that at the beginning, the trees only yielded from April to October. He has to then warm the trees to urge them to yield fruits in the time from November to March.

Since pitaya fruits are exported, the lives of thousands of poor families in Tien Giang have changed. Mr. Nguyen now has two big houses, a car and can afford his children to study.
Mr. Huynh Van Tay in Chau Thanh district, Long An province, is another example. Tay says that he has 1.2 hectares, planting 1,900 pitaya trees. He harvests from 18-20 tons of fruits per each hectare annually, earning VND90-100 million ($4,500-5,000) of profit.

Export of Vietnamese blue dragon has faced many difficulties recently, owing to strict standards on “safe fruits”. To improve the quality of pitaya for export, Tay has applied the method of planting ‘clean’ pitaya under VietGap standards. The first batch of fruits will be exported to the US in late February.

According to Tay, using the new method, he commits to use only organic fertilizer imported from the US, not chemical fertilizer or pesticide.

“I’m very nervous. I only wish that our fruits will meet standards. The USA is a picky market, so if my fruits are accepted there, the opportunity to export to other countries is great,” Tay said.

Phan Huu That, Chairman of the Farmers’ Association of Duong Xuan Hoi commune, in Chau Thanh district, Long An province, said that pitaya trees have become the tree to “eliminate hunger, reducing poverty” in Chau Thanh. At present, up to a half of families (around 530 families) in Duong Xuan Hoi commune, plant pitaya on 250 hectares.

“Compared to rice, pitaya brings about profit of 3-4 times higher. Our commune plans to devote 95 percent of cultivated land to pitaya trees by 2015,” That said.

Mr. Phan Van Nguyen at a workshop on planting pitaya trees by new methods.

Pitaya gardens in Chau Thanh district, Long An province:



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