Farmers’ lives changes better thanks to growing safe veggie

Farmers in Tan Quy Tay Commune in Binh Chanh District are prosperous due to farming safe vegetables.

Members of Phuoc An Cooperative prepare safe vegetables (Photo: SGGP)

Farmer Le Ngoc Loi in village No.4 was sweating heavily after transporting a large number of vegetables to Phuoc An Cooperative in the sun. He smiled thinking about his family’s future.

His family used to plant rice intermixed with three crops. Despite hard work in the farm, he could not make ends meet therefore he left to work in a factory.

In 2006, he became one of first four participants in Phuoc An Cooperative’s safe vegetable growers with the hope of escaping poverty.

He was supplied a net house, seedlings and fertilizer to grow safe vegetables following the Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP) standards for the Cooperative.

With the 10,000 square meters of vegetable crops, he supplies 250-300 kilograms of various vegetables to the Cooperative. Due to the farm, he is able to repay all of his debts and buy motorbikes and mechanical plows for his family.

Growing safe vegetables changed lives of farmers. Roads have been improved to facilitate vegetable transportation.

Many people had unstable income before joining Phuoc An Cooperative, said Doan Van Chanh, chairman of the Farmer Association in Tan Quy Tay Commune.

An Giang Plant Protection, the market leader in Vietnam in crop protection products, liaised with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Ho Chi Minh City to send engineers to help farmers. The cooperative buys all products to sell 4-5 tons of safe fresh vegetables in market.

The cooperative now has 45 members with 20 hectares of farmland. Each farmer makes VND 30-40 million (US$1,423-1,897) per year with 1,000 square meters of land.

Seeing that Phuoc An Cooperative is successful in safe vegetables model, Tan Quy Tay administrations developed one more to supply two tons of vegetables and give additional employment for local residents.

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