Dak Nong: Pepper farmers, enterprises urged to team up
Pepper growers and enterprises in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong were urged to link up to improve quality, value and competitiveness as well as form a sustainable value chain of peppercorns.
At a forum on developing a sustainable pepper value chain in Gia Nghia town in Dak Nong on November 24, Professor Nguyen Lan Hung said that the cooperation between enterprises and farmers is extremely important to boosting the output of peppercorns and enhancing the quality of the product.
Farmers and enterprises were also told to grow pepper according to a clean cultivation process from selecting seedlings, using organic fertilisers or biotic products, and applying disease-curing techniques.
In recent years, peppercorn has become an important agri-product of Dak Nong due to its high profit and great potentials for export.
Dak Nong’s pepper cultivation area has grown to 27,000 hectares, the largest in the country, with over 14,000 hectares being commercial pepper area.
However, a majority of the pepper area in Dak Nong was planted without planning and a standard technical process, leading to a significant amount of pepper trees dying of diseases or producing low-quality peppercorns.