Binh Thuan is the province under South - East region of Vietnam. Agriculture plays an important role in Binh Thuan economic development in general and rural development in particular. In 2005, agriculture accounted for over 39% of provincial GDP.
Within Binh Thuan agriculture sector structure, cultivation sector contributes the highest economic value (80% of gross agricultural production value, 2005). Multi-year crops includes industrial multi-year crops (such as rubber, pepper, cashew nut…etc) and fruit trees are plants which playing the decisive role in contribution to the development of Binh Thuan agriculture in recent years.
Among cultivated multi-year crops in Binh Thuan, the planted areas of dragon fruit[1] was lower than that of cashew[2] and rubber[3]. However, but in practice socio - economic activities linked with dragon fruit development has reflected manifested obviously the socio - economic changes as well as agriculture and rural development of Binh Thuan province currently.
Figure 1: GDP Structure of Binh Thuan province, 2001-2005 (million VND)
Source: Yearbook of Binh Thuan, 2005
Dragon fruit is planted mainly in Ham Thuan Nam district, accounting 63.5% of the total area. In this district, people only need to know the number of backbones which each household gets; it is possible to evaluate economic development standard or the rich/poor situation of households. 100 backbones are equivalent to the area of around 1 pole (500m2); 1 hectare of arable land can plant 1000 backbones and more. For a backbone of dragon fruit, if it is cared carefully, the income from VND 150,000- 200,000 per year. After deducting expenses, the net income of each backbone is around VND 100,000-150,000 per year. Hence, if planting 1 hectare of dragon fruit, each household can earn VND 100-150 millions per year. According to the our survey results in March 2007, planting most of the households own the area of planting dragon ranging from 1 hectare to nearly 2 hectare. The households own more than 5 hectares of planting areas (or over 25,000 m2) has not much.
Figure 3: Allocated of dragon fruit plant areas in Binh Thuan
| Area for product | Productivity | Output |
Total | 4,880 | 198.4 | 96,806 |
Phan Thiet | 230 | 64.6 | 1,485 |
Tuy Phong | 16 | 162.5 | 260 |
Bac Binh | 230 | 150 | 3,450 |
Ham Thuan Bac | 1,172 | 154.2 | 18.074 |
Ham Thuan Nam | 3,097 | 232.4 | 71,968 |
Tanh Linh | 7 | 180 | 126 |
Duc Linh | - | - | - |
Ham Tan | 128 | 222 | 1,443 |
Phu Quy | - | - | - |
Source: Yearbook of Binh Thuan, 2005
Normally, dragon fruit can be sold for money in the year 3 since starting cultivation. In the first two years, the farmers must pay a lot for investing than that of the third year. This is explanatory that capital loan is popular for most of dragon fruit planters. On the other hand, large planting area of dragon fruit doesn’t ensure high income level for households. Despite that, the planting area of dragon fruit really is a good sign to assess the real situation as well as the possibility to increase income of households.
[2] 25,216 hectares, 2005
[3] 12,515 hectares, 2005