A lotus field in Chuyen Ngoai Commune, Duy Tien Town, Ha Nam Province. VNA/VNS Photos Thanh Tuan

In the past five years, the whole area for planting rice in Chuyen Ngoai Commune has been used for lotus as the profit from lotus is five to seven times higher than from rice.

Farmers combine planting lotus with raising shrimp and fish.

A farmer collects lotus pods in Chuyen Ngoai Commune.

Lotus seeds can be used as food in sweetened lotus seeds, salt lotus seed porridge and sweetened lotus porridge.

Lotus seeds have various good effects for health like moderating cholesterol in the blood and treating fatty liver disease.

Local farmers like this young man work early in the morning to avoid the heat.

Nguyen Thi Thu, 38, a local, said her family has 36,000sq.m of lotus. She nurtures lotus seedlings at the end of lunar second month of the year and plants the seedlings in the middle of the fifth lunar month.

“It rained less this year so there are many empty seeds, which affects overall productivity,” she said.

Each harvest season her family may gather up to 100kg of lotus seeds.

Each person can work on up to 40kg of lotus pods a day.

Farmers use knives to separate seeds from lotus pods (sepal of the lotus flower). Each person can work on up to 40kg of lotus pods a day.

Wholesale buyers gather lotus seed on the site to bring to Hanoi and other localities to sell.

A bowl of sweetened lotus seed porridge, a popular kind of snack, which is believed to cool the body off in the summer. VNS Photo Truong Vi

Nguyen Kim Lien, a wholesaler, said 1kg of fresh lotus seeds, after peeling and removing the green sprout in the middle, offers 500 grams of pure seeds.

“To preserve the white seeds, people should cover the seeds with some paper and put in the fridge to use for a long time,” she said.

The green sprout in the middle of the seed has long been used in Eastern medicine to treat loss of sleep, sunstroke and to cool down the body. VNS

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