On the afternoon of July 13th, leaders of Bac Ha commune inspected the model of growing yellow passion fruit in Co De Chai and Hoang Thu Pho villages to assess the effectiveness of the project to develop yellow passion fruit production under Project 2 of the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in 2025, and to determine the direction for expanding the raw material area in the future.
Inspection revealed that the yellow passion fruit plants are growing well and developing appropriately to the local climate and soil conditions, opening up a direction for restructuring crop patterns with high economic value in the area.
The model was implemented on a scale of 39.12 hectares, attracting 27 poor, near-poor, and newly-escaped-poverty households to participate. The total implementation cost was over 4.13 billion VND. According to the project, yellow passion fruit plants begin to yield fruit after about 6-8 months; from the second year onwards, they achieve a stable yield of about 39 tons/ha/2-year cycle, bringing in a profit after deducting costs of over 80 million VND/ha/year.
At the inspection points, the working group directly surveyed the planted area, assessed the growth of the plants, the care and pest control work; and also discussed with the households about the implementation process of the model, the initial effectiveness as well as the advantages and difficulties in production.
A key feature of the model is its integrated production-to-consumption chain. Highlands Gia Lai Co., Ltd. provides seedlings, transfers technical processes, and guarantees the purchase of the produce from the farmers. Currently, the company buys passion fruit according to quality grades, with grade 1 priced at approximately 45,000 VND/kg, grade 2 at 35,000 VND/kg, grade 3 at 25,000 VND/kg, and small fruits at 10,000 VND/kg, contributing to a stable market and giving farmers confidence to invest in production development.
At the end of the inspection, the commune leaders requested that specialized agencies continue to closely monitor the situation, guide people to properly implement technical procedures, strengthen monitoring and pest control, and ensure product yield and quality; closely coordinate with businesses to maintain consumption linkages, gradually expand the area for growing yellow passion fruit according to the plan, build concentrated raw material areas associated with the development of commercial agriculture , contributing to increasing people's income and effectively implementing the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in the area.