Quảng Ngãi farmers go organic

QUẢNG NGÃI — Farmers in central Quảng Ngãi Province have come up with many ideas to protect their vegetable gardens from insects without using pesticides. 

These measures are much cheaper, more eco-friendly and healthy for farmers.

Đức Lợi Commune in Mộ Đức District supplies a large amount of vegetable for the province and surrounding localities.

In the past few years, many farmers have moved to organic farming due to the increasing demand for organic produce.

However, the use of probiotics to replace pesticides is quite costly, leading to expensive vegetable.

To deal with the issue, some farmers in the commune have started producing their own insecticides to protect their vegetables.

Phạm Thị Dung, a farmer in An Mô Village in Đức Lợi Commune, has a 1,000 square-metre vegetable garden. She said she didn’t use pesticides in her garden as she has another way of protecting her crops by letting the cosmos flower do the job.

“Insects are attracted to the cosmos flowers, so I plant them next to the vegetables to protect my crops,” she told Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper.

Other flowers, such as cockscomb or midday flower are also planted in the garden. The flowers can help reduce 70 per cent of the amount of probiotics she had previously used for her garden.   

Dung now harvests more than a tonne of vegetables monthly, bringing her more than VNĐ8 million ($346) every month.

Lê Thị Thu Lan, another farmer in the village, applies the same method to her small vegetable garden on the area of 250 square metres.

A sticky trap is hanged on the squash vine to trap the insect. 

Farmers have also produced homemade insecticides to target insects.

Lê Văn Tuyến, director of Đức Lợi Commune’s Vegetable Cooperative, said he mixed probiotics with pineapple juice and water as a substance to protect his cucumber, luffa and bitter melon crops.

Tuyến poured the substance into plastic bottles and hung them on vines to attract insects.

“We all feel secure when we use eco-friendly methods for our garden. Our living environment, our health as well as consumers’ health are all protected,” he said.

Farmer Huỳnh Tiến Dũng soaks garlic, ginger and chilly in alcohol to get the extract and spray it on his vegetable garden.

Farmer Huỳnh Tiến Dũng has another recipe. He soaks garlic, ginger and chilli in alcohol to get the extract and sprays it on his vegetable garden.

He also designs a sticky trap and hangs it on the vines to trap insects. 

This method, together with weeding, digging soil and picking up worms on leaves, has saved him a lot of money and protected his crops.

Tuyến said each farmer could earn about VNĐ7 million ($303) per sào (360 square metres) per month, giving them a stable income.

The communal People’s Committee said it would help find buyers for organic vegetables and provide seedlings and fertiliser to encourage local farmers to expand