Farmers stricken as pepper trees die before harvest

The farmers in Dak Nong Province will have to bear huge losses as thousands of pepper trees suddenly died because of disease just before they were harvested.

Farmers have to destroy most of the trees because of disease

The strange phenomenon has been recorded in Dak Song, Dak Mil and Krong No districts, where a large amount of pepper trees are grown. The trees were close to harvest time and the pepper prices are increasing, however, farmers have to destroy most of the trees because of disease.

About 500 out of 2,000 pepper trees of Pham Huu Duc, a farmer in Dak Mil District, have died. According to Duc, he noticed the disease two months ago as the leaves turned yellow and fell down. Later, he noticed that the roots were rotten before the tree died one month later.

"Two to three trees die each day. We tried to save them but it spreads really fast. Now a fourth of my garden is infected and the disease is still spreading," he said.

The pepper garden of Pham Phu Nam in Dak Song District is also dying. Nam said a group of tree often die at the same time. He expected to harvest four tonnes of pepper but it looked like he might only get two tonnes. Pepper is being sold at VND120,000 (USD6) to VND125,000 per kilo so he would lose VND300m in profits. In addition, they have spent a lot of time and effort to take care of those trees. Each pepper tree worth about VND3m. As of now, he may have lost a billion of VND.

"400 trees have died. It's most heart-breaking to see the young trees die," he said.

Do Thi Mung said her garden only had 100 trees left but they are looking sick. Mung said she was unable to react as the trees died within a few days. She is planning on growing coffee beans instead.

Dying pepper trees

Pham Thanh Trinh, chairman of Thuan An Commune Farmers Association, said they had 265 hectares of pepper trees, 100 hectares more than 2015. Currently, each household lost 100 to 200 trees, the commune has lost 3,000 trees.

The provincial Plant Protection Department suspected that the trees might be killed by the quick wilt and slow wilt diseases. There is nothing they can do about these diseases. Farmers are advised to dig a ditch around the sick trees to isolate them.

Dak Nong has the biggest pepper area in Vietnam with 27,527 hectares that produce 31,000 tonnes of pepper annually. The pepper trees are a major source of incomes for local households. However, the rampant growing of pepper recently is leading to oversupply and uncontrollable diseases.