Off-season production: Contributing to improving the economic efficiency of fruit trees

– In recent years, people in the province have actively applied technical measures to produce off-season fruit trees, extending the harvest time, helping to increase income and overcome the situation of “good crop, low price”.

Around May to June (lunar calendar) is the time to harvest pineapples for the main season, however, thanks to the application of off-season crop techniques, in Huu Lung district, pineapple areas have been harvested scatteredly from before the Lunar New Year up to now.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu, Ca Trong village, Minh Son commune said that pineapples in the main season often coincide with the harvest season of many fruits, so it is difficult to sell pineapples and they are at low price. Therefore, in the past five years, she has been learning techniques and ways for off-season pineapples to bring about high economic efficiency. Every year, her family grows more than 20,000 pineapple roots, thanks to the off-season crop method, they are harvested scatteredly from before the Lunar New Year to about May (solar calendar), the selling price is from 6,000 VND to 8,000 VND/kg, two to three times higher compared to the main crop production as before. Every year, minus expenses, her family earns about 80 million VND from growing pineapples.

People in Minh Son commune, Huu Lung district harvested pineapples

In 2021, the whole Huu Lung district has about 120 hectares of pineapples grown mainly in Minh Son, Minh Hoa, Nhat Tien, and Ho Son communes. For about five years, in order to improve economic efficiency, pineapple growers in the district have focused on producing off-season pineapples instead of growing the main crop as before.

Mr. Luong Van Binh, Deputy Head of the District Agriculture and Rural Development Division, said that for pineapple trees, when it is off-season production, the economic efficiency increases from 15% to 20% compared to the main crop. In addition, in the district, people also produce off-season custard apple trees, the annual area is about 200 ha, the economic value is twice as high as that of the main crop.

Similarly, in Chi Lang district, the movement of producing off-season custard apples has also developed in recent years. If the time to harvest the main crop of custard apples is from July to mid-August, people now apply techniques to harvest off-season custard apples from September to mid-November (solar calendar). Accordingly, every year, the off-season custard apple area of ​​the district is always maintained at about 200 ha.

Mr. Do Khac Thu, Than Muoi village, Dong Mo township, Chi Lang district said that every year, his family produces about 300 off-season custard apple trees. In terms of care, tending off-season custard apple trees is more complicated than the main crop, but the yield and income are higher and the price of custard apples is stable. The average price of off-season custard apples is from 45,000 VND to 50,000 VND/kg, nearly double that of the main season; larger, more beautiful fruits.

In recent years, the area of ​​fruit trees in the province has been increasingly expanded, currently the province has over 17,000 hectares of fruit trees. In which, people apply off-season fruit tree techniques, focusing mainly on custard apple trees and pineapple trees in Chi Lang, Huu Lung districts with an area of ​​more than 500 hectares.

Mrs. Hoang Thi Ai, Acting Director of the Provincial Sub-Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection said that off-season crops help prolong the harvest time, limiting concentrated harvest at a certain time because it can easily lead to supply exceeding demand and declining prices of agricultural products. However, when farmers apply off-season fruit tree techniques, it is necessary to closely monitor the weather and climate to develop a suitable and specific plan for off-season crops for each type of fruit tree. Applying the off-season crop method should go hand in hand with providing necessary nutrients for plants during the period of off-season crops, to avoid weakening plants.

Producing off-season fruit trees not only gives farmers the opportunity to sell agricultural products at high prices, increasing production efficiency but also meets the requirements of continuously supplying agricultural products to the market. However, for sustainable development, functional sectors need to guide people to implement solutions and technical processes to ensure productivity, product quality and improve production efficiency.

Off-season fruit tree is a measure to actively handle and adjust fruit trees that are out of season earlier or later than the normal harvest time to avoid concentrated harvesting in a short time with large output.