VietNamNet Bridge – Three students of the HCM City Architecture University Dao Y Kha, Cao Dang Khoa and Ton That Phu Tri have created a “biological wastebasket” for farmers, helping them make the most of the pitaya plants waste to protect the environment.

Binh Thuan province is considered the “pitaya metropolis” with 19,000 hectares of the pitaya growing area which provides 130,000 tons of fruit every year, including 30,000 tons for export.

Pitaya trees, which can bring high economic value, are the main source of income of local people.

In order to get high average yield, the orchards need to be always clean, while waste needs to be cleared. However, the majority of farmers do not understand this.

Dang Khoa, one of the three inventors, said most farmers keep the habit of throwing the plants to the orchards after the harvesting, which would get decayed and turn into a kind of fertilizer.

However, it is unhygienic to do so, because the plants give terrible smell during the decomposition process. It is more dangerous that the germs latent in the plants, after the decomposition, would turn into fertilizer, absorb into the earth and then would be transmitted back to the plants.

The three university students decided that they need to help settle the problems.

They then found out that farmers in Ham Thuan Bac district of Binh Thuan province breed worms which can be used as the poultry feed. And they have also found out that worms can be a good fertilizer for plants.

Therefore, the three young men decided to create a “biological wastebasket” which allows to both breed worms and treat the waste dragon fruit plants. The waste plants and weed would be used to feed worms.

The “biological wastebasket” has the rectangle shape, comprising of two 1,2m x 40cm layers with the height of 1.2 meters, capable to contain 200 kilos of organic waste.

There are several wooden trays inside with the tilt of 15 degrees, and some steel nets through which worms can move here and there between the two baskets, lighting system and perforated aluminum sheet.

The organic mixture of plants, weed, pitaya trunks cut into small pieces and put for 3-4-day decomposition, and mass of living worms would be put into the basket. The mixture needs to be into the basket once every one week, after the feed has been eaten by the worms.

The biological wastebasket would need 100 kilos of organic waste a month on average.

It is estimated that farmers can make a profit of VND5 million for every biological wastebasket. The worms to be fed with waste pitaya plants can be dried to turn into the feed for poultries. The worm shit which has high nutrition concentration would be used to feed the pitaya plants.

The biological wastebasket has been used in on a trial basis at Ngoc Binh’s orchard, head of the group of farmers who grow dragon fruits in accordance with VietGAP standards in Ham Thuan Bac district.

Scientists believe that the model can be applied in a large scale, especially the suburbs of HCM City including Hoc Mon and Cu Chi districts, where people grow vegetables, or Long An and Tien Giang, the localities with the biggest dragon fruits growing areas in the south.

K. Chi