The price of dragonfruit in the central province of Binh Thuan, thecountry's largest dragon fruit cultivation area, has fallensignificantly over the past 10 days as disease has hit some crops. Thefruit is also competing with other kinds of fruit that are now in theirpeak harvest season.
Traders are buying dragonfruit for2,000-4,000 VND (0.09 - 0.19 USD) a kilo, Pham Huu Thu, head of theprovince's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development's PlantCultivation Division, said.
At this price, farmers are taking a loss of about 2,000 VND a kilo, he said.
Farmer Pham Ngoc Son, who has recently harvested 100 kilos of dragonfruit with poor quality in Phan Thiet City's Tien Loi Commune, saidrainfall over the past week had had caused fungi on the plants,resulting in a decline in quality.
In Ham Thuan Nam District's Ham My Commune, traders buy low-quality dragonfruit at a price of 1,500-2,500 VND a kilo.
Tran Minh Tien, head of the province's Sub-department of PlantProtection, said in Ham Thuan Nam , Ham Thuan Bac and Bac Binhdistricts, many areas of dragonfruit have been infected with anthracnoseand white-spot diseases.
These fungal diseases normally occurin the rainy season and farmers were instructed to use medicines tospray on infected plants, he said.
"But this year there were too many rains, so the spraying was not effective, causing disease outbreaks," he said.
Of 4,000ha of disease-infected dragonfruit in the province, 70 percentof them had anthracnose disease and the rest white-spot disease, hesaid.
Many dragonfruit orchard owners said these diseasesusually occur in orchards that do not follow global or Vietnamese GoodAgriculture Practice (GAP) standards.
Binh Thuan had more than 7,000ha of dragonfruit planted under these standards last year.
The province has about 21,000ha of dragon fruit, which is 71 percentof the total cultivation area in the country. Binh Thuan has an annualoutput of more than 400,000 tonnes.-VNA
Traders are buying dragonfruit for2,000-4,000 VND (0.09 - 0.19 USD) a kilo, Pham Huu Thu, head of theprovince's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development's PlantCultivation Division, said.
At this price, farmers are taking a loss of about 2,000 VND a kilo, he said.
Farmer Pham Ngoc Son, who has recently harvested 100 kilos of dragonfruit with poor quality in Phan Thiet City's Tien Loi Commune, saidrainfall over the past week had had caused fungi on the plants,resulting in a decline in quality.
In Ham Thuan Nam District's Ham My Commune, traders buy low-quality dragonfruit at a price of 1,500-2,500 VND a kilo.
Tran Minh Tien, head of the province's Sub-department of PlantProtection, said in Ham Thuan Nam , Ham Thuan Bac and Bac Binhdistricts, many areas of dragonfruit have been infected with anthracnoseand white-spot diseases.
These fungal diseases normally occurin the rainy season and farmers were instructed to use medicines tospray on infected plants, he said.
"But this year there were too many rains, so the spraying was not effective, causing disease outbreaks," he said.
Of 4,000ha of disease-infected dragonfruit in the province, 70 percentof them had anthracnose disease and the rest white-spot disease, hesaid.
Many dragonfruit orchard owners said these diseasesusually occur in orchards that do not follow global or Vietnamese GoodAgriculture Practice (GAP) standards.
Binh Thuan had more than 7,000ha of dragonfruit planted under these standards last year.
The province has about 21,000ha of dragon fruit, which is 71 percentof the total cultivation area in the country. Binh Thuan has an annualoutput of more than 400,000 tonnes.-VNA
