“Those difficulties, failures are tuition fees to be paid, even though they are high, they will not be wasted. Because the knowledge and experience I have accumulated over the past few years will help those who follow.", shared by road and bridge engineer Bui Thai Son, born in 1982, owner of Nature farm, in Thanh Luong commune, Binh Long town, Binh Phuoc, the main character of our story today.

What I respect most about him is "determination to not back down" in the face of difficulties. And behind that determination, is a bigger goal: Sharing experiences and helping farmers convert, cultivate organically right in their garden.

Challenges followed by challenges

"I heard that you studied at the University of Civil Engineering, with a degree in road and bridge engineering, so why are you working in agriculture?", I started the conversation.

Son said: “I studied bridges and roads, but I was more interested in conducting businesses, so I learned more about business administration. When I went to visit the family's liquidated rubber garden, I saw many models of fruit trees around, so after consulting with some gardens, I went home and tried to replicate them. At first, I had no experience, the entire rubber area of ​​the family was 30-40ha, I invested in all of it. But here, every day, when I see with my own eyes that the gardeners spray pesticides, apply chemical fertilizers widely, and then when they harvest, they sell to markets but do not dare to eat their own products, which I think is not fine. So I started researching and changing the farming process, first to ensure our health, then the community's."

"As an amateur, making such a big investment, is there a risk?", I asked. Son mused: “Because of the large area, the investment costs are very high. After a period of pursuit, financial resources gradually dried up while I was not prepared in terms of management of resources, product output, etc., so I had to narrow the area down to 5 hectares to reduce costs.

"So is this 5ha successful?", I continued. Son shook his head: “Up to this point, the biggest achievement is that I have accumulated a lot of experience and knowledge on organic farming, but the farm has not been successful. Because success must be based on product quality, productivity, stable output and high profit. Currently, the farm's products including oranges, guava, pomelo, banana, papaya, longan ... are of high quality, but the packaging is not good, yield and output are also precarious.

Nature Farm's clean fruit products have been sold by many organic stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai and Binh Duong, known and favoured by consumers. However, the profit is not significant.

“After over 5 years with marginal profit, did you find out what the cause is? Is it because you lack something, such as professional knowledge?”, I asked. “I have relatively grasped the knowledge to implement an organic farming process, and I understood the characteristics of the plants I planted. Regarding the cause of the lack of profits, one of them is the problem of unstable output. Because I cultivate according to nature, the plants grow naturally without any intervention, so the harvest season is also fixed. When it comes to the harvest, the output is abundant and unstable, so consumption is not sufficient. By the end of the harvest, output is too little, not enough for consumption. Or sometimes the crops are affected by weather, drought, so production also decreases, there is not enough source of goods to supply for new partners. When there are goods available, I have to find new partners, which takes time. Another difficulty is that because I live far away (Saigon), the farm employs 100% of the workers. I'm not present often, so that's also a reason why the model has not been effective," Son replied.

Happy to see the green Nature farm

Although it has not yet brought the desired profit, but this is not the end. Because from a barren land, now it is increasingly rich in nutrients, porous, with many insects and microorganisms living in the soil. This is evident in healthy plants, overgrown grass. And from a piece of land full of chemical residues, it is now completely clean. The crops are grown completely organically, without the use of any fertilizers or pesticides. "Now looking at the green of the farm, I feel very happy", Son said proudly.

"Working for a long time without profit, do you feel discouraged, wanting to give up?", I asked. "No. I'm a farmer, I've tinkered with it myself from zero, it's okay if I haven't been successful yet. The important thing is that in the process of doing, I draw lessons from experience", Son shared.

“What are the lessons you've learned?” I asked. Son summarized: “I have learned a lot from my experience. That is, if I decide to do another model from scratch, I will not have to learn from experience anymore, but will succeed immediately.

The lessons learned are many, I can talk about them all day. For example, the land problem. To be organic, you must first make the soil better. Even without using chemical fertilizers, if the soil is bad, how will the plants grow? This farm was originally a gravel land, barren soil mixed with many small pebbles, very bad. Not to mention that before planting rubber, the nutrients were exhausted. Yet, as soon as the rubber trees were cut off, fruit trees and vegetables were immediately planted, with no fertilizer, so most of the crops were meager.

Therefore, organic farming should not be done on too bad soil. In case there is no other option, the soil must first be improved by planting biomass crops, in order to protect the soil, prevent erosion and create nutrients for the soil. However, plants for the purpose of soil improvement must also be multi-purpose, fast-growing, high-volume, easy-to-use plants with strong roots to break down solid soil and exploit nutrients from deep in the ground as well as easy to control.

Another important experience is that to grow organic fruit trees, we must carefully study the selection of plants. Because fruit trees have a long growth period, if planted incorrectly, it will take a few years to correct the mistake, fruit trees cannot be uprooted and re-planted immediately like vegetables. And each mistake will be very costly and takes a lot of time.

In addition, these lessons apply to any job, when first starting out, you should do less, slow down, to gain experience and minimize risks, damage if ineffective.

Particularly for plants, workers must have knowledge, otherwise it will be difficult to succeed. For example, fruit trees such as grapefruit, guava, when fruiting, monitor the tree's strength and age to remove some fruit. Leaving only the right amount of fruit for the plants to grow. And if the fruit is abundant and left without treatment, the tree will not have enough nutrients to nourish them all, and the fruits will not be able to develop and will be of poor quality.

Son said, in chemical farming, we only need to periodically fertilize, if there's something missing, you can use preparations to stimulate plant growth. As for organic farming, on the contrary, we have to depend on the tree, fertilizing must also be applied in the right doses, at the right time. Especially the problem of pests and diseases, chemical farming is simple, if you see pests and diseases, spray them, but organically speaking, we can't use chemicals, but research how to make the plants less damaged by pests, but there are often times that before I could think of a solution to deal with the pests, the damage was already done. Even pest treatment for organic dragon fruit is not as thorough as it is in chemical farming.

I am planning a pilot project on renovating coffee gardens in the Central Highlands following organic processes. We will convince farmers to cut the coffee tree down to about 5 feet, then plant a new fruit tree like durian in the gap, then take care of it completely organically. In the first 2 years, the harvested coffee will be purchased by sponsors at a 30% higher price to compensate for the lost yield. Thus, people will not have a reduction in income, but they can also have clean land, clean coffee and organic quality. A few years later, the original cut coffee would also grow new branches, and ready to be harvested. After that, farmers can continue to have increased income from intercropping fruit trees. If the model is successful, it will be very beneficial for farmers.

Bui Thai Son

Translated by Nguyen Hai Long