Returning to Phu Yen, to My Binh village, Son Thanh commune, Tay Hoa district, many people will be surprised by the green carpets of bitter vegetables covering the pepper garden of Mr. Dinh Van Thuy’s family.
Just tiny leaves on a slender stem, but bitter gourd has strong vitality, they intertwine to create a beautiful natural green carpet covering the beds by the base of pepper.
Sticking with soil bitter vegetables, Mr. Thuy said: “We grow bitter vegetables according to world standards, guided by technical staff of Traphaco. Bitter vegetables are nourished from nature, the soil is moist, clean, and weed-free. A litter of bitter greens ‘intercropped’ on a 2-hectare pepper garden can yield 40-50 tons/year, adding a good income for the family.”
Mr. Thuy’s family in Phu Yen is one of tens of thousands of farmer households in the provinces and cities that are supported by Traphaco’s GreenPlan project with long-term cultivation, collection and purchasing techniques. All growing areas follow the standards of good practice for growing and harvesting medicinal plants according to the standards of the World Health Organization (GACP-WHO).
With the Midland of Phu Tho, endless fields of conifers with fragile purple flowers on immense green leaves are the result of farmers after many years of working with GreenPlan.
In Hai Hau district (Nam Dinh), the households who grow cloves are very skilled to provide international standard varieties of cloves. “Just looking at it as strong, Ding Ling also has its own ‘personality’. This medicinal plant likes to grow in places close to people,” said Huy Van, Deputy General Director of Traphaco.
In the artichoke growing area in Sa Pa (Lao Cai), 200 households here each year harvest nearly 2,000 tons of fresh leaves and are purchased by Traphaco Sa Pa One Member Limited Company with a value of nearly 4.5 billion VND. Participating in the development of medicinal materials with Traphaco, thousands of households, mostly H’mong ethnic people, have stable incomes and jobs.
Vietnam has over 4,000 species of medicinal plants. Traphaco has taken the lead in cooperating with farmers and ethnic minorities to develop a sustainable medicinal plant model. Traphaco currently has 5 GACP-WHO planting areas of more than 36,000 hectares, with more than 20,000 employees, of which over 40% are ethnic minorities.
“With digital transformation in management, each batch of medicinal herbs has a QR code to help us have a record of the origin of medicinal herbs, helping to control quality closely”, said Ms. Dao Thuy Ha, Deputy General Director of Kinh Do. sales and marketing of Traphaco, said.
