The death of over 1,000 ha of cassava plants has affected hundreds of farmers in southern Dong Nai Province.
The death of over 1,000 ha of cassava plants has affected hundreds of farmers in southern
Tran Thi Thu Sau of Dong Nai Provinces Vinh Cuu District painfully said that due to the plants high profits and low spendings, her family had cut 4 ha of cashew to grow cassava.
However, since May, her familys crop of cassava plants had been dying.
"My family is now 15 million (VND) in debt. We have to sell an ox to pay it back", she said.
According to Nguyen Cong Luat, chief of Vinh Cuu Districts Economic Office,
Cassava plants had previously brought high profits to farmers, earning them VND25 million (US$1,347) per crop. Many farmers, like Tran Thi Thu Saus family, abandoned other crops to reap the rewards of cassava plants.
"1,200 ha of cassava have died in this crop," Luat said. He added that Vinh Cuu District co-operated with the Dong Nai Plant Protection Department to find the causes of the plants death. But the answer remained elusive.
Farmers in Vinh Cuu District think that the cassavas have died because the old variety of the plant has degraded. Moreover, they say that cassava was planted on soil that lost many of its nutrients, and that insects and rain have affected the current crops.
Farmers in the districts of Xuan Loc and Long Thanh, however, have a different theory. They think that Vedagro fertilizer manufactured by Vedan Viet Nam Enterprise Corp. Ltd eliminated nutrients in the soil, causing the cassava plants to die.
Tran Anh Tuan, chairman of Xuan Loc District, said that the district had been testing Vedagro fertilizer to determine whether it had had any effect.
(Source: VNS)
