Becoming Billionaires Thanks to Bananas

All over fields of Nam Mau village, from every corner green fields of bananas can be seen. Here bananas are being harvested, there bananas are going to flower. In another fields, bananas have been newly cultivated and will be harvest only at the end of this year. 99 percent of land of Nam Mau village, Tu Dan commune, Khoai Chau district have been converted to cultivate red Cavendish bananas, which is an economic breakthrough of people there. Formerly, each perch of land growing vegetables, arrowroot, galangal brought farmers an income of about VND 1 million, red Cavendish bananas currently help farmers earn an income of VND 4-5 million a perch annually. Each hectare of red Cavendish bananas brings a profit of VND 200-300 million a year, 4 times higher compared to growing rice. Mr Le Dinh Thao, Vice President of People’s Committee of Tu Dan commune said that: “Previously, people of the commune cultivate various types of plants but their productivities and effectiveness are low. Since the people took loans from banks and started to grow red Cavendish bananas, their incomes have significantly increased, and till now there are hamlets where 99 percent of cultivating land is used to grow the bananas. Thanks to the red Cavendish bananas, although most of people in the commune are farmers, there is not any poor household”.

 

In Nam Mau village, there are many households that have got rich thanks to the productive type of bananas, they have built VND-billion-worth houses and turned the village into a prosperous one. Banana field owners such as Ngo Van Dan, Tran Van Si, Ngo Van Cong are owning generally over 10 Vietnamese acres, earning over VND1 billion a year. Ms Ngo Thi Thuy shared that: “Having grown bananas from the first days, only when starting to cultivate red Cavendish bananas our family can earn the highest economic profits. Not only growing bananas in our own land, we also hire more land of neighbouring commune, till now we are possessing nearly 14 Vietnamese acres of the bananas”.

 

Learning after Tu Dan commune, especially after Nam Mau village, several villages of other communes of Khoai Chau district such as Dai Tap, Dong Ket… have also gathered land, took loans to invest into red Cavendish bananas, and the plant has also become their main income source. In addition, farmers can also plant short term vegetables among bananas to increase their income, without affecting the productivity of the bananas.

 

The consumption of red Cavendish bananas of Tu Dan village is considerably easy. In the harvest season, numerous types of vehicles go to this village and other localities to buy bananas for the export purposes. Ripen bunches of bananas look identical, every banana are full and good-looking. Mr Doan Van Vinh, an experienced bananas trader shared that, red Cavendish bananas of Khoai Chau district, especial of Nam Mau village always have the highest quality: bunches are nice, bananas are evenly full, soft and sweet, winning consumers’ tastes. Not only Mr Vinh, but also many other traders in the province and in Hanoi, Hai Duong… are familiar with the red Cavendish bananas of Nam Mau village. At appointed times every year, they directly go to the banana fields to gather the fruit, or order earlier, farmers nowadays do not have to transport bananas in their own vehicles to sell bananas as in the early days. There has not been a year that red Cavendish bananas disappointed the farmers, and prices of the bananas have gradually gone up. In the 6 first months of 2011, this banana type was sold at higher and higher prices, because they are preferred in many markets, namely China, Russia…

 

Looking at the immense banana fields, and high-rise buildings in the bank of Red river, few people know that it is the banana tree that has brought a prosperous economic life to the people there, and they can feel assured when living with the profession. Several banana field owners hope to propagate this type of banana to open farms in neighbouring provinces, which will not only help farmers there to develop the economy, enrich their homeland, but also bring investor higher profits.

 

And in Nam Mau village, thanks to the will and creativity of Mr Cong, nowadays people there can make broad and bright smiles because of prosperous, developing lives.