After a long time of growing cassava but with unstable economic efficiency, for nearly a year now, Ms. Dinh Thi Thuy's family (Son Bua commune, Son Tay district, Quang Ngai province) has converted nearly 1,000 m2 of cassava land to grow banana.

This is also the first season that Ms. Thuy has grown this plant in large quantities, so the average weekly output is only about 15 bunches of bananas. After deducting expenses, she earns about 3 million VND/month.

"The first year the profit is low, but from the following year onwards, the profit will be much higher because there is no cost for seeds, and the number of banana trees for harvest is also greater," said Ms. Thuy.

Previously, banana trees were only considered a secondary crop, people grew them to serve the family's food needs. When there was a lot, they were sold retail at markets or to traders at a price ranging from 8,000 - 10,000 VND/bunch.

For a long time, bananas were not given much attention and care by many farmers in Son Tay district because of unstable output. There was even a time when banana prices were so low that no one bought them.

However, from the beginning of 2024 until now, almost all of the moldy bananas here have been purchased by the Son Bua Agricultural, Forestry and Trade Service Cooperative (Son Dung Commune, Son Tay District) to process into products: banana wine, dried bananas, banana vinegar, banana molasses,...

Not only that, bananas are also purchased directly from the garden, so many people convert garden land from growing ineffective crops to growing bananas.

Banana (also known as banana, Siamese banana) is an easy-to-grow plant, requires little capital, care and fertilizer. This plant is usually harvested 9-12 months after planting, each bunch has 5-8 bunches, the harvest time is very fast and the harvest is regular.

Bananas are also easy to propagate, so you can do it yourself. It only costs one time to invest in the seeds, and then you can harvest for many years if you know how to take care of them.

Realizing that Son Tay is a suitable land for banana growing, but the bananas that the people produce have no buyers, Son Bua Agricultural, Forestry and Trade Service Cooperative boldly invested in building a banana processing factory with a total cost of nearly 5 billion VND.

At first, the factory was still in the trial operation phase, so the purchase of raw materials was interrupted. However, now that it has stabilized, the factory has begun to increase its purchases with an average daily output of about 5 tons.

To increase productivity and quality of bananas, this cooperative also makes production plans and guides and disseminates organic agricultural production processes to each banana growing household. At the same time, it links households into groups and cooperatives to organize management.

Not only solving product output for farmers, the dried banana processing factory is also creating jobs for about 10 local workers.

According to Pham Hong Khuyen, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Son Tay district, the district currently has about 100 hectares of bananas distributed in all communes. Having a raw material processing factory on site will open up a development direction for bananas in the locality in the coming time.

“The district has been supporting the Son Bua Agricultural and Forestry Production and Trade Service Cooperative to carry out the documents and procedures for granting 3-star OCOP certification for banana products. At the same time, planning a number of large-scale banana growing areas in Son Bua and Son Lien communes to ensure raw material sources for the factory as well as generate income for the people,” Mr. Khuyen informed.