Tan Uyen district in Binh Duong province, the chief town of cashews, has become gloomy these days. Farmers in the district are chopping down cashew trees and preparing to grow rubber. It seems the golden age of the cashew plant is over.
In Hoi Nghia commune in Tan Uyen district, where all houses and all people previously grew cashew trees, there are only several plants left. However, these will also be chopped down in some days.
La Van Muc, a farmer in Hoi Nghia commune, showed us his 6,000 sq m cashew garden. “I have to chop down all the cashew plants because they cannot bring money.”
Muc said that he is planning to grow rubber as rubber is getting more valuable in the market. Meanwhile, he could only get VND7,000 for one kilogramme of cashews.
Muc and many others farmers in the southern region have decided to give up growing cashew plants, which once helped sustain their lives.
Le Van Long in hamlet 3 of the same commune has also chopped down 300 cashew trees on the area of 1.6 ha, and plans to grow rubber. Long sold the cashew plants as wood for VND70,000/plant.
The road to Tan Uyen district is now littered with cashew wood from the chopped down plants. Nguyen Van Nguyen, a staff of the Hoi Nghia commune People’s Committee, said that the commune once had 200 ha of cashew plants.
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