Fate with Hoang Kim breast milk

In 2018, the coffee garden of Mr. Nguyen Van Huong’s family (resident in Village 4, So Pai Township, Kbang District, Gia Lai) showed a significant decline in productivity. Discussing with his wife, he agreed to limit investment in this low-income old coffee garden in order to find a new, more efficient crop for the area of ​​more than 3 hectares of degraded coffee.

Accordingly, he and his wife went to the Central Highlands Agro-Forestry Science Institute (WASI) in Dak Lak to find and buy durian varieties for cover crops in the old coffee garden. So far, 200 of a total of 370 durian trees have been harvested with a stable income.

It is not possible to “bet” with durian monoculture when looking for more suitable plants after completely abandoned coffee gardens. In his free time, Mr. Huong turns on his cell phone and learns more effective models. Destiny came when he found and read a series of articles on Hoang Kim’s milkweed (also known as golden milkweed), which was appropriate for the same land and climate as in So Pai country of Kbang district.

In early 2019, Mr. Huong went to WASI Institute again to buy 100 seedlings of Hoang Kim’s milkweed to plant in 5 old coffee poles.

Huong and his wife strictly followed the instructions of the WASI Institute’s engineers: before sowing, the soil must be treated to remove fungi and pests, then fertilized with manure and supplemented with nutrients so that the plants can grow and develop well. Hoang Kim’s mother’s milk is planted by him at a distance of 7m/tree. Between rows of milkweed trees, he planted seedless guava, orange, and lemon trees to both provide shade and increase land-use efficiency. Mr. Huong said: Hoang Kim breast milk is easy to grow and does not require high techniques. This is a water-loving plant that needs high humidity. From planting to fruiting about 16-18 months.

initial success

On average, breast milk is harvested 3 times a year, each phase lasting almost 1 month. The fruit of Hoang Kim’s mother’s milk is green young, light yellow when ripe, very beautiful, with an average weight of 3 – 4 fruits / kg, especially for fruits weighing up to 0.5 kg. Hoang Kim breast milk has only 1-2 small seeds. Mr. Huong said, “Hoang Kim breast milk is golden yellow when ripe, cut out to eat, crispy, sweet and very fragrant, especially there is no white latex like other breast milk, so it is highly appreciated by customers and preferred by the market preferred”.

On average, Hoang Kim’s 100 milkweed trees in Huong produce more than 3 tons of fruit per year. Wherever the family collects, traders buy them all at the price of VND 60,000/kg. During the harvesting process, the mother’s milk is crushed, damaged, Mr. Huong takes the seeds and sells them for VND 3,000/seed.

Hoang Kim Dairy Garden with 100 trees has brought the family an income of nearly VND 160 million/year after expenses. “The bigger Hoang Kim’s breast, the higher the yield. Therefore, next time I will focus on the care and prevention of pests and diseases, so that the garden can grow and develop better. I will also raise seedlings to sell in the market and willing to share my experience with those who need to grow Hoang Kim milkweed,” said Mr. Huong.

According to Mr. Huong, when the entire coffee garden is completely old, he will switch to cultivating durian, hoang kim milkweed, as well as some other suitable crops that will bring high economic value…

Seeing that Mr. Huong’s family’s garden was very effective, many households in the community came to learn and learn from experiences. At present, 2 households have invested in planting more than 200 Hoang Kim milkweed trees in an area of ​​nearly 1 hectare.

Mr. Pham Van Hau (Village 2, So Pai Parish) has a relatively large local medicinal herb garden. Seeing that the Hoang Kim family’s Hoang Kim model led to high economic efficiency, Mr. Hau immediately came to learn from his experience and then laid an area for planting 120 Hoang Kim spurge trees free.

Mr. Hau shared: “In early October 2022, I planted 120 Hoang Kim milkweed trees, of which 80 were viable plants grown from seed and 40 were grafted trees. Through monitoring, I see that the seedlings grown from seed grow and develop better than grafted plants. Hopefully this model will be successful.”

Covering an area of ​​more than 3 hectares, he grows not only guava, Hoang Kim mother’s milk, durian … but also passion fruit, under the canopy of pineapple and other short-term crops such as peanut pumpkin, vegetables and tubers, lush … “Take advantage the short to grow the long, use the vacant land, use fertilizer and water to irrigate fruit trees to generate additional income,” Mr. Huong shared.

“As part of the implementation of the policy of restructuring the agricultural sector, over the years the municipality has promoted propaganda for the people to adapt the structure of crops to family and local conditions. The community also mobilized Mr. Huong’s family to share experiences with people to replicate the model while monitoring and disseminating it so that households growing Hoang Kim star apple trees focus on growing their gardens organically to cultivate, to improve the quality of life, productivity, quality, increase income. In addition, the commune has advised people not to massively abandon their orchards to the monoculture of Hoang Kim’s mother’s milk, which easily poses risks.”

(Mr. Vo Thanh, Chairman of the People’s Committee of So Pai Township).