Indigenous microorganisms advance circular agriculture

The application of probiotics and wine yeast in agriculture has been practiced for many years. From several pilot models, the use of indigenous microorganisms (IMOs) has gradually become a familiar practice among farmers and residents in Dong Nai City.

Nguyen Van Hue, a farmer from Binh Loc Ward, introduces his home-based IMO fermentation area where organic fertilizer is produced.

Farmers utilize household organic waste and agricultural by-products as raw materials to produce organic fertilizer and biological products for pest and disease control.

Replicating effective models

Nguyen Van Hue is among the pioneering farmers applying the IMO model to produce organic fertilizer for clean agriculture in Binh Loc Ward. As a result, his orchard, covering more than 2 hectares and planted with various fruit trees, has remained lush, achieved high productivity, and produced high-quality fruit, leading to its selection as a local eco-tourism destination.

Introducing his fruit-laden orchard, Hue said his nearly 2-hectare jackfruit farm produces around 60 tons of fruit annually. The variety is used for dried jackfruit production. To increase income instead of selling the fresh fruit, he separates the edible jackfruit bulbs and supplies them to local dried-jackfruit processors. All jackfruit peels, cores, seeds, leaves, and grass from the orchard are composted to produce organic fertilizer for the trees.

Hue has built a cement tank to hold discarded waste and by-products left after jackfruit segments are harvested. The materials are sprayed with homemade IMOs and composted for about two months until they fully decompose, becoming a source of high-quality organic fertilizer for the orchard. One benefit of this model, Hue said, is that farmers can produce their own IMOs using rice bran, molasses, soybean powder, rice wine yeast, digestive enzymes, or yogurt. The resulting solution has a pleasant smell. Therefore, using IMOs for composting poses no risk of environmental pollution. Instead, it allows farmers to make effective use of organic waste and agricultural by-products that would otherwise be discarded and cause pollution, turning them into valuable materials for producing high-quality fertilizer for crops.

Also being among the pioneering farmers in the locality applying IMOs to produce organic fertilizer for export-oriented organic farming, Tran Van Ban of Long Khanh Ward said, "Utilizing agricultural by-products to produce fertilizer for crop cultivation under organic standards is a low-cost, clean farming solution that farmers can easily apply. In addition to using grass clippings from the orchard and discarded young pomelos for composting, I utilize all types of organic waste and agricultural by-products available locally. Recently, the area under durian cultivation has increased rapidly, and many frozen durian pulp processing facilities have discarded large quantities of durian husks into the environment. I only pay to transport the waste, spray it with my homemade IMO solution, and compost it for about three months to produce organic fertilizer. Livestock waste also decomposes quickly when treated with this microbial solution, and crops absorb nutrients more effectively."

Reducing agricultural production costs

Since early 2025, prices of agricultural inputs, particularly commonly used fertilizers such as urea, potash, and NPK, have continued to rise. The sharp increase in fertilizer prices has become one of the major challenges facing the agricultural sector. Farmers have encountered numerous difficulties as profits have been significantly affected, with some even incurring losses due to higher production costs than in previous years. Consequently, the use of IMOs to produce organic fertilizer has attracted increasing interest and adoption among farmers.

Discussing how the solution helps reduce production costs by enabling farmers to make their own organic fertilizer, Hue said that before adopting the microbial solution, he spent hundreds of millions of VND on various fertilizers for his orchard of more than 2 hectares. Since adopting the solution, he has spent only a few million VND on materials for producing IMOs.

The use of self-produced organic fertilizer has made the soil in the orchard increasingly fertile. The crops have also grown more vigorously, resulting in fewer outbreaks of pests and diseases and making them easier to control.

Sharing this view, Ban said that with fertilizer prices continuing to rise, producing organic fertilizer on-site enables farmers to substantially reduce cultivation costs. More importantly, it provides a low-cost farming solution that produces high-quality agricultural products meeting export standards for demanding markets. The health of the soil, crops, and farmers who work the land is also protected because chemical fertilizers and pesticides are no longer used indiscriminately as they were in the past.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment, the use of beneficial IMO microorganisms and wine yeast to produce organic fertilizer and plant protection products, as well as to process household waste at the source into organic fertilizer for crop production, continues to be expanded. To date, farmers have applied these solutions to more than 1,000 hectares of fruit trees and vegetables.

Using IMOs to produce organic fertilizer helps farmers adopt organic-oriented farming practices and produce safe agricultural products. The solution also keeps orchards green and clean, attracting visitors to the orchards to enjoy delicious specialties. Farming families living in the orchards also have better health protection and no longer need to worry about living in an environment polluted by chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as they did in the past.

By Binh Nguyen – Translated by Minh Hong, Minho