Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan (Hung Nghia hamlet, Hung Loc commune, Thong Nhat district) feeds weaver ants. Photo: Nhan An This environmentally friendly agricultural model is gradually being applied in Dong Nai. * Persevere with the new direction Mr. Dang Van Chuc (Hung Nghia hamlet, Hung Loc commune, Thong Nhat district) has more than 5 hectares of agricultural land with many different crops such as dragon fruit, cashew, banana… Around 2017, Mr. Chuc invested in planting 5 lemon pole, in the garden there are a few pomelo trees. Due to being busy with many jobs, Mr. Chuc did not have time to take care of and spray this citrus garden. During a visit to the garden, Mr. Chuc discovered that pomelo trees in the garden had many nesting weaver ants. Surprisingly, these plants were free from pests and diseases. So, he called some farmers in H.Cho Lach (Ben Tre province) to inquire. “The guys in Cho Lach say weaver ants are good for citrus. Then they showed me how to raise ants, multiply the swarm all over the garden. The way to raise is very simple, just hang chicken intestines, duck intestines on the tree and weaver ants come back at an extremely fast speed “- Mr. Mr. Dang Van Chuc (Hung Nghia hamlet, Hung Loc commune, Thong Nhat district) said: “I follow nature, do not use chemicals, but the garden always has fruit, I sell it every month. In total, I find the effect is not inferior, sometimes even better than using chemicals to take care of the tree. With the same price as last year, from the beginning of the year until Tet I sold for from 35,000 VND per kilogram of pomelo, no other garden in this area can sell for as high as my garden. The reason for the sale is because I don’t use chemicals, so people prefer grapefruit from my garden.” Like many other farmers, in the past, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan’s family (with living in Hung Nghia hamlet, Hung Loc commune) had to spend tens of millions of dong a year to buy pesticides, spray chemical fertilizers, and fertilize a large pomelo garden. 1 ha. That is not to mention the fear of affecting health, the environment and agricultural products that are not guaranteed to be food safe. In 2018, he started tinkering with how to do clean agriculture instead of using chemical drugs that are both toxic and expensive. Mr. Tuan said: “I have researched online, I know that beneficial organisms must be used to destroy harmful ones. In particular, the weaver ant is a very suitable species to destroy harmful pests and protect citrus trees. At that time, there was a nest of weaver ants in my field, but only a few “flare” had. Later, I caught more ants outside the house and brought them to the field to raise.” When he started raising weaver ants, Mr. Tuan received many words from his relatives and neighbors. Despite all the objections, he was determined to do it. However, his perseverance and efforts paid off. The ants gradually adapted to his care and became more and more prolific. Currently, the ants have covered and effectively protected the pomelo garden. Talking about the work of raising weaver ants, Mr. Tuan said: “Weaver ants are easy to raise, and do not take much time, effort and care costs. However, if you don’t know how to take care of it, the ants will leave or die. If it has been determined to raise ants to protect crops, it is not allowed to spray pesticides anymore. Because if you do, the ants will die or leave.” This is also the challenge of farmers who want to apply the weaver ant farming model to protect citrus orchards. According to Mr. Chuc, it takes 1 year for gardeners to have enough time to “build up” ants for the garden. Meanwhile, farmers will certainly be very impatient when their crops are attacked by pests and diseases, so they will use pesticides to make the ants leave. So far, many farmers have not dared to take the risk to apply this model. * Double effect Persevering with the new direction for the past 3 years, both Mr. Chuc and Mr. Tuan have achieved initial successes. Yellow ants nest on pomelo trees. This is a natural enemy of pests that damage citrus trees such as bugs, mealybugs, worms, etc. Weaver ants can kill harmful pests on citrus orchards such as: bugs, aphids, charm worms, mealybugs, stink ants. Therefore, lemon trees and grapefruit trees with weaver ants are almost 100% free of insects. Thus, farmers do not have to use pesticides, do not spend time spraying. This brings many benefits: good for health, balancing the ecosystem, protecting the environment, reducing investment costs. In particular, by growing naturally, without using chemicals, without being harmed by pests and diseases, citrus trees protected by weaver ants will produce large, succulent fruits. “People who make pomelos are afraid of the worm drawing charms, but the yellow ants can kill them all. Mealybugs are also a favorite of weaver ants. If we keep weaver ants in the garden, the quality of the fruit is number one,” said Mr. Chuc confidently. Mr. Dang Van Chuc (left) and Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan by Mr. Chuc’s fruit-laden lemon garden According to Mr. Chuc, raising weaver ants in the garden has only one drawback. That is when harvesting will be a bit extreme because if you are not careful, you will be bitten by ants immediately. Mr. Chuc said that without using pesticides, farmers still have many other ways to handle the plants to flower and bear fruit as they like. For example: adjust the dose of irrigation water, fertilizer … depending on the experience of each person. As for the 5 sao of lemon in Mr. Chuc’s house, thanks to the application of the weaver ant farming model to protect the plants, this orchard can be harvested all year round with an income of about 7-8 million VND/month, minus the cost of only about 10%. Sharing the experience of raising weaver ants, Mr. Tuan said that the rainy season is the season when the pests, bugs, aphids in the garden thrive, the ants have food available, so farmers do not need to give more food. In the hot and dry season, when the amount of food is exhausted, the gardener must provide more “bait” for ants, usually: chicken intestines, duck intestines, dried fish. Feed once a week or a fortnight. This is enough for the colony of weaver ants to reproduce and develop normally. In addition to raising weaver ants, Mr. Tuan also uses IMO yeast to make bio-fertilizers for plants. Accordingly, he took advantage of all kinds of household waste such as garbage, leftovers, etc. to make compost, then mixed with water to irrigate crops. This approach has helped him both reduce costs, and help the pomelo garden to be green, produce a lot of fruit and ensure quality.

According to the planting experience of households in Phuoc Vinh commune, Ninh Phuoc district, custard-apple is quite well adapted to sandy soil as well as hot and dry local climate. Plants are easy to care for, resistant to many types of pests and diseases, cost less to buy fertilizers and fertilizers. After nearly three years of care, custard-apple harvested the first fruit, the average weight per fruit from six ounces to more than 1 kg. When ripe, fruit is very fragrant, sweet taste, chewy flesh, few seeds, less cracking when ripe, so it is easy to harvest and transport. Trees are propagated by grafting method. During the care process, it is necessary to provide enough water to irrigate the plants, especially in the dry season, to prevent weeds, mealybugs and thrips. In order for the tree to produce beautiful fruit and to limit pests and diseases, growers need to carry fruit since the fruit is as big as a chicken egg, and at the same time use a support tree so that the custard-apple tree will not break its branches when the fruit is large. The initial investment cost (including seeds, fertilizers, plant protection products) to plant a sao of custard-apple is about 10 million VND, about 80 to 100 trees / pole. Usually three years after planting, the Queen soursop gives fruit, the time from flowering to fruit harvest is about 5 months. Each tree gives harvest from 30 to 40 kg / crop and increases gradually as the tree grows. After harvesting is complete, it is necessary to prune, create canopy, fertilize and supplement nutrients so that the plants begin to flower for the next season. Queen custard apple has a purchase price of two to three times higher than that of our custard apple, about 60 to 70 thousand dong / kg; On holidays, Tet the selling price is higher. It is known that Ninh Thuan currently has nearly 18 hectares of new varieties of custard apple and more than 341 hectares of custard apple. In order to improve the production efficiency for the people, the Provincial Agricultural Extension Center is implementing seedling support programs, training on intensive farming techniques of Empress Soursop in the direction of VietGAP, guiding techniques for watering. saving, pollinating flowers, ways for plants to flower off-season, fruit wrapping techniques, preserving fruit after harvest to provide quality products to the market.