Farmer Hoang Van Chon is next to a pond larger than 1 hectare being dug to store 140,000 cubic meters of water – Photo: TAN LUC
In the midst of a harsh drought, with trees wilting, farmers in the Central Highlands are looking for ways to get water and prevent drought for their durians.
In Ia Krieng commune, Duc Co district (Gia Lai), Mr. Hoang Van Chon (51 years old – often called 9 Chon) spent 8 billion VND digging a pond, installing pipes, and setting up a pumping station to bring water from 10km away to save the garden. Hundred billion durian is bearing fruit.
In the context of many coffee and durian gardens drying out, Mr. Chon’s nearly 100ha durian garden is still lush and green. Many durian areas in mature gardens are producing luxuriant fruit, promising a bumper crop in more than a month.
With many years of experience working with durian trees from the Southwest to the Central Highlands provinces, Mr. Chon decided to return to Duc Co to buy land to start a business.
Hearing Mr. Chon buy land to grow durian in a dry area, local people were initially skeptical. But now after 6 years of cultivation, dozens of hectares of durian have begun to be harvested with surprising results.
Farmers in the Central Highlands are doing everything from digging ponds and drilling wells to find water to save their crops – Photo: TAN LUC
Mr. Chon’s durian garden is in the fruiting season and needs enough water – Photo: TAN LUC
Mr. Chon explains that durian grown in sunny, high-temperature areas will have high sugar content, dry rice, and be sweeter. But the key to success is to provide water continuously because just cutting off water for a few days will cause the plant’s tops to dry out and die.
Therefore, in the durian garden, many ponds and lakes are arranged to store water for irrigation purposes.
This year’s dry season is longer and harsher than usual. The water reserve is not guaranteed, Mr. Chon invested 2 billion VND to pull strings and set up 4 pumping stations to transfer water more than 10km from the Ia Mor irrigation branch in Chu Prong district to the garden.
In the durian garden, this farmer dug many canvas-lined ponds to store water – Photo: TAN LUC
To reserve water sources, this farmer spent 6 billion VND to dig 2 large reservoirs to store more than 240,000 m3.
According to Mr. Chon, these two lakes and existing lakes will ensure a capacity of 400,000 m3 water, enough to meet nearly 100 hectares of land to grow durian trees to survive the drought this year and in the coming years.
To limit water loss, the entire garden is installed with an economical irrigation system to each durian root.
Durian prices are high, farmers make profits despite large investments
Mr. Hoang Van Chon said durian needs a lot of water, mature trees in the fruit-bearing stage need up to 400 liters of water per day. Without water, durian fruit will not reach size, ripen prematurely, and productivity and quality will decrease.
Mr. Chon estimates that with the current price of buying durian at about 100,000 VND/kg, if farmers fertilize well, they will still make a “huge” profit, even though the cost of finding water for irrigation is very high.
