Official introduces dragon fruit to Dong Bac commune

Everyone in Dong Bac commune knows Secretary of the local Party committee Bui Van Binh. Binh, born in 1962, is the first one who succeeded in growing dragon fruit in the commune.

Leaders of the Dong Bac People’s Committee visit Binh’s dragon fruit farm.

Binh said his family owns over 3,000 square metres of land. Earlier, his family grew rice, but the water shortage forced them to switch to sugarcane and corn. However, the cultivation brought unstable income.

In 2015, Binh heard in the media about a farming model in Suoi Soi, Lac Thuy district invested by Tran Hung from Hanoi. The model combined the cultivation of flower and dragon fruit with tourism. He then came to the site to learn more about the model and brought home dragon saplings in Lac Thuy.

"At first, I tested cultivating both white- and red-flesh dragon fruits on 2,000 square metres. They grew well and, in 2016, I planted 420 more saplings on more than 1,000 square metres.”

Talking about difficulties in their early days planting dragon fruit, Binh’s wife Bui Thi Chau said: With support from relatives and friends, he built 420 concrete columns along with an irrigation system using water from drilled well. Our efforts have paid off, when the plants produced the first fruits in 2016. That year we earned 30 million VND. In 2017, my family harvested about 4-5 tonnes of fruit, gaining 70 million VND. This year is our third year of harvesting dragon fruit, with the average selling price reaching 20-25,000 VND per kg and revenue estimated at over VND100 million./.