Vietnam: Long An farmers abandoned sugarcane cultivation in favor of fruits

In recent years, farmers in Ben Luc district, the largest sugarcane material area of Long An province, have abandoned sugarcane cultivation to switch to growing lemons and dragon fruit... The first step shows that new crops on sugarcane land are promoting effectively. Ms. Nguyen Thi Buoi (Thanh Hoa commune), a household that grows nearly 3 hectares of sugarcane, said that because she was so fed up with sugarcane, in 2017, she switched to growing lemons. With 2.5ha of lemons, she earns a profit of 150-180 million dong each year. "In the past, when I planted sugarcane, I had to owe money for fertilizers and wages every year. Now growing lemons, although I don't get rich, but lemon trees give me enough income to live on and pay my debts," said Ms. Buoi. In its heyday, in 1998 and 1999, Ben Luc district had 14,000 hectares of sugarcane. But when 2 sugar factories in the province closed, the output of sugarcane was blocked. Sugarcane farmers are constantly losing money because the ...