Mr. Tran Tan Duc - Head of the Homeland Potato Cooperative (Quang Lap Commune, Don Duong District, Lam Dong Province) has been involved with potatoes since 2011. Mr. Duc currently has 2.2 hectares specializing in growing potatoes. In the highest yield crop, his family harvested more than 50 tons of potatoes/ha, bringing in revenue from 600 million to 1 billion VND. Mr. Duc is the pioneer in cooperating with businesses to grow potatoes.

Record breaking, yield reached 52 tons/ha

In the early days of bringing potatoes to grow on the highlands, he encountered many difficulties and challenges because he did not have much experience, especially when potatoes were still quite new in Quang Lap.

There are years when the rains are early and the cold lasts for a long time, causing the potatoes to produce many small tubers, and the plants are not strong enough to grow them, so the commercial tubers are not up to standard, and the quality of the potatoes is not consistent. Many diseases such as late blight, tuber scab, and green wilt have been a nightmare for farmers for many years. The potato tubers lie underground, and monitoring, observing, and predicting the process of tuber formation and development almost depends on the farmers' experience. Only when harvesting can farmers see the results after a long time of investment, which also means a high risk rate.

As a pioneer in growing commercial potatoes, Mr. Duc is also a farmer who boldly chose to cooperate with businesses. According to him, to develop sustainable potato crops and stabilize output, it is very important to have businesses accompany and sign a purchase price commitment right from the beginning of the season to avoid the refrain "good harvest, low price, good price, bad harvest".

Before cooperating with Orion Company, Mr. Duc had 10 years of cooperation with an agricultural enterprise and was one of the typical farmers associated with this enterprise. During that time, he participated in many potato growing seminars, learned and shared experiences from many other farmers.

In 2022, he officially cooperated with Orion because he realized that Orion had many outstanding investments. Accordingly, he was one of the first farmers to boldly test the Bliss potato variety. In the first crop, his family achieved a yield of 50 tons/ha - the highest since his Cooperative Group planted potatoes.

Mr. Duc commented: "Bliss potato variety is a short-term variety, growing time is from 90-100 days, if well cared for, purebred source will give a very high rate of commercial tubers, bringing high economic efficiency".

According to Mr. Duc, growing potatoes depends on many factors such as varieties, experience, climate, soil quality, etc., in which the soil needs to ensure a suitable pH level, soil moisture plays a very important role, deciding more than 50% of the success of the crop. In the following crops, there were years when Mr. Duc broke his own record, achieving a yield of 52 tons/ha and was the only household in Don Duong district to achieve such a high yield.

Together with Orion, develop sustainable potato growing areas

Sharing the story of cooperation with enterprises, Mr. Duc affirmed that this connection brings many benefits to farmers. Orion has many support programs for associated households such as fertilizer support, each hectare of farmers is supported up to 8.8 million VND, technical support... Every year, the company provides seeds, technical guidance and implements product consumption. Farmers only need to focus on production so they are very confident when investing.

The potato harvest in early 2025, due to some unfavorable factors, the yield was not as high as previous years but the profit remained stable. In addition to potatoes, his family still had time to grow other vegetables...

“In terms of economics, potatoes are still the main crop that helps people stabilize their lives,” Mr. Duc shared.

With his success in potato production, Mr. Tran Tan Duc was elected as the Head of the Homeland Potato Cooperative in association with Orion in Quang Loi village, Quang Lap commune, Don Duong district. In addition to specializing in potato cultivation with the people, he also proactively shared his experience to help people increase productivity, develop growing areas, and make potatoes a poverty-reducing crop in Don Duong.

Initiated in 2007, "Homeland Potato" is a project by Orion in cooperation with farmers and local authorities to develop sustainable potato resources in Vietnam. Through the form of linking production and product consumption, Orion not only contributes to creating jobs, increasing income and improving the quality of life for people but also contributes to minimizing environmental damage through green agricultural plans.

The "Homeland Potato" project has contributed to creating more than 50,000 tons of fresh potatoes each year used as raw materials for Orion's O'Star and Swing snack products - the number 1 snack in Vietnam. O'star and Swing are the two main products using fresh potatoes from the "Homeland Potato" program.

Developing sustainable potato sources in Vietnam to serve the production of O'Star and Swing fresh potato snacks is a project that Orion has been implementing since 2007. Through signing contracts with farmers, Orion supports the development of potato production, creating jobs and significantly improving income.

Source: https://nongnghiep.vn/nguoi-trong-khoai-tay-dat-nang-suat-cao-nhat-huyen-don-duong-d745156.html