Lands for Lychee trees

(Nguồn: Vietnamtorism)

The first lychee tree planted in Hai Duong by Hoang Van Com, a farmer from Thanh Ha District, from a strain in another region, nearly 150 years ago, is now called the "ancestral lychee" by Thanh Ha people. At present, lychee ranks first among the fruits in Vietnam.

Although growing in Thanh Ha for years and shading most of the district's gardens and roads, in the past lychee was seen as an inferior tree to food plants such as rice, maize, potatoes and beans. The farmers practised lychee growing less than livestock-breeding of poultry and cattle, and also some sidelines such as mat weaving, basket weaving, carpentry, etc.

But now the lychee ranks first among other trees planted in Hai Duong. Lychee has become the most economic crop and grows throughout the district of Thanh Ha.

People from Thanh Ha, when moving to settle in other places, like Chi Linh District of Hai Duong Province and Luc Ngan District of Bac Giang Province, brought with them lychee trees. They grew lychee on the bare hills and helped re-green the hills quickly. Hence, Chi Linh and Luc Ngan Districts are now also good land for lychee, in addition to Thanh Ha

When economic conditions were opened up, people throughout Hai Duong Province, and many others from the south, rushed to Thanh Ha to buy lychee. Some just bought several kilograms of fruit for their families and friends as gifts, but many others purchased many tons of fruit at a time for later resale. The following years, more people came to Thanh Ha to purchase the fruit, making the area more bustling than usual. Thanh Ha farmers pulled up other kinds of trees and grew more lychee, along the dyke embankments, in the gardens andmany fields. This happened in the first decade of 1990.  

However, the question of whether to grow lychee instead of other food plants was carefully considered by the local farmers. A worry of hunger due to the shortage of rice still haunted them, although lychee brought them an income 5-6 times higher than rice. At that time, the Government encouraged the farmers to change from the growing of traditional plants to growing those with more economic value, but it also reminded them of securing "food sufficiency".  

Things have changed remarkably in recent five years. Seeing the national rice output of more than 30 million tons per year, that not only secured the domestic demand, but also allowed export, Thanh Ha farmers decided to shift the old cultivation to the new one. Growing orchard trees developed fast. In 1997, the area for orchard growing, particularly lychee, was 1,385 hectares. In 2000 the number increased to 5,200 ha and the fruits brought in VND 176 billion (present exchange rate: VND 15,000 = USD 1).

By mid-2001, there were 6,500 ha of fruit trees. One of Thanh Ha's targets for 2005-2010 is to grow orchard trees along the river banks in the Red River Delta, building up an ecological tourist quarter. The income from fruits, particularly lychee, will be the main source of income for Thanh Ha farmers.  

Chi Linh is a mountainous district with its own attraction. It has 12,776 ha of hills very suitable for growing fruit trees in the farms, with each farm of 5-6 ha large. At present, there are 182 farms with perennial trees, most of which are lychee. Some farms are as big as 15 ha in area.

We visited Mr. Tong Duc Quang's family in Cong Hoa Village. His orchard was built in 1995. At present, on 8 ha of land, he has 15,000 lychee trees, as well as other kinds of trees such as persimmon and custard-apple. He invested VND 600 million in the farm.  

One hundred and eighty-two farms in Chi Linh District, with a total investment of more than VND 7 billion have become typical models for the farmers in other localities to follow, especially those in the hinterland. Developing the farm economy by growing orchard trees will help re-green

the bare hills, stabilize the local economy and provide jobs to the labourers. In this undertaking, the Hai Duong lychee has contributed a worthy part and it makes the region famous nationwide for its special fruit.