Hoang Luong expands cultivation area of VietGAP water dropwort

For long time, growing the water dropwort has been considered as the main orientation to develop the economy of Hoang Luong commune, Hiep Hoa district (Bac Giang province). This season, thanks to proficiency in technique, the local farmers have created quality products and bumper harvest. 

The farmers in Thanh Lam village quickly harvest the water dropwort. 

“Sweet” season of water dropwort

Recently, the way to the center of Hoang Luong commune has bustled with the carriages in and out to transport the water dropwort to everywhere. The small trucks and motorbikes stopped along side the road to load the products. On the green field of water dropwort, the farmers quickly harvest the vegetable to timely supply the products to the tradesmen.

Their faces cannot hire the happiness at the sharply increase price. Nguyen Thi Lam Binh in Thanh Lam village, Hoang Luong commune said: “Each crop, my family grows 7 sao (old measure unit each is equal to 360 square meters) of water dropwort” which helps us make a good living. However, this season it enjoys best price of 20 – 25,000 VND (1 USD) per kilogram. The harvested products are immediately consumed at the field, hence we do not have to bring them to sell at the markets”.

Binh’s family earned over 200 million VND (8,622 USD) after selling 10 tonnes of water dropwort right at the field.

Similarly to Binh’s family, hundreds of water dropwart farming households in Hoang Luong commune are enjoying a “sweet” season. Some earned billions of VND.

Besides, it helps create jobs to many laborers in the commune and adjacent areas with average salary of few hundreds of thousand VND per day for harvesting, washing and weighting the vegetables.

As a concentrated cultivation area, now Hoang Luong commune has over 180 hectare growing the water dropwort in the villages of Thanh lam, Dai Thanh and Thanh Luong. According to Nguyen Van Hai, Chairman of the Farmers’ Association in Hoang Luong commune, the commune now has more than 600 out of 1,000 households granted the title of good production farmer at all levels, most of whom intensively cultivate the water dropwort.

Expanding VietGAP cultivation area

Defining the water dropwort is the key product in developing the local economy, recently Hoang Luong has developed VietGAP model to replace the traditional cultivation method, hence building its own flavor such as sweet taste and crunchy.

It took long time to change the cultivation method from tradition to clean product. To help the farmers access and get familiar to the new way, the in charge staff in the commune has for years accelerated the communication, instruction and accompanied the locals in implementation right at the fields.

Hoang Luong  commune, cultivation area, VietGAP water dropwort, Bac Giang province, quality products, bumper harvest, local economic development

The commune now has more than 600 out of 1,000 households granted the title of good production farmer at all levels, most of whom intensively cultivate the water dropwort.

Nguyen Van Hai, Chairman of the Farmers’ Association in Hoang Luong commune.

Now, the local farmers get used to new production way to follow the strict production procedure from the stage of selecting the variety, making the field, packing the products and introducing to the markets.

Currently, Hoang Luong commune has 120 out of 180 hectare of water dropwort cultivation under VietGAp procedure. Hoang Luong water dropwort was granted with “Geological Identification” by the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, Ministry of Science and Technology.

Apart from the popular markets, the vegetables have been sold at various markets, supermarkets in many big provinces and cities across the nation. Particularly, it has been exported to the Republic of Korea.

To support the locality to develop the scale, area and enhance the product quality, the Plant Production and Protection Division (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) has provided the assistance in technology, science, cost of production under VietGAP.

Particularly in 2019, the Division supported 14 million VND per hectare per two crop on the total area of 20 hectares. Additionally, the canal infrastructure was built to ensure the convenient irrigation.

According to Hoang Tien Hung, Head of the Division of Agriculture and Rural Development in Hiep Hoa district, Hoang Luong water dropwort is one of the typical rural product of the district with high economic value.

In the upcoming time, the locality will pay special attention to improving the product quality, expanding the cultivation area under VietGAP procedure so that Hoang Luong water dropwort can reach to further markets and actually become key crop in local economic development.