While the people of Ke Go hill (Cam Xuyen - Ha Tinh) only know how to grow acacia, Mr. Pham Cong Dinh in My Dong village, Cam My commune made a bold decision - to destroy the entire acacia garden to grow wild sim trees. This somewhat "crazy" choice brought unexpected economic efficiency.

Among the immense acacia forests of the people of My Dong village, Cam My commune (Cam Xuyen) is a 10-hectare rose myrtle garden (of which 2 hectares have been harvested and 8 hectares were just planted in early 2023) of Mr. Pham Cong Dinh.

The rainy season is coming, while acacia growers are worried about storms breaking their trees, Mr. Dinh is very reassured because sim is a low shrub. At this time, every day, his sim garden has 10-15 workers harvesting ripe sim, on peak days he can harvest more than 300 kg of ripe sim/day. This is the third year that the sim tree has produced sweet fruit, so the yield is relatively high.

Mr. Pham Cong Dinh shared: “ In 2016, by chance through an article, I learned about Mr. Nhan’s model of growing sim to harvest fruit in Quang Tien commune, Quang Trach district, Quang Binh province. While acacia trees only yield a harvest once every 5 years, the economic efficiency is not high, sim trees yield a harvest every year and the market demand is large. With the intention to nurture, I drove my motorbike to Mr. Nhan’s house to visit and learn from his experience .”

After studying the actual model in Quang Binh province, Mr. Dinh became more determined to switch from growing acacia to growing sim. Initially, he destroyed the 1-year-old acacia garden to grow sim on an area of ​​about 2 hectares.

“ Sim is a wild plant that used to be local, so when planted on hilly land, it is very suitable and grows quickly. In particular, this plant loves light, can withstand harsh weather conditions, and can grow and develop even on barren land. After planting, my family mainly focused on weeding and fertilizing, so the tree grew quickly and bore fruit. Sim flowers around April - May and ripens around July, the harvest period lasts for 3 months. However, when destroying the acacia garden, everyone said I was a "crazy guy " - Mr. Pham Cong Dinh shared.

In Mr. Dinh's 2 hectares of long-grown sim trees, there are about 4,000 trees. In the first year (2021), when the sim trees ripened, Mr. Dinh harvested about 1 ton, and the next year, more than 3 tons. This year, Mr. Dinh's family has harvested more than 4 tons of ripe sim trees. With a selling price of 30 million VND/ton, his family earned more than 120 million VND. Compared to growing acacia, growing sim trees is 10 times more profitable (1 hectare of acacia trees after 5 years yields about 60 million VND).

After harvesting, Mr. Dinh sells the ripe sim to sim wine factories in Ha Tinh. Not only supplying to the market in the province, almost every day, Mr. Dinh's family also packs the sim and sends it by car to customers from other provinces such as Nghe An, Hanoi, Hai Phong... In particular, Mr. Dinh also dries the sim and vacuum-packs it to send to customers abroad.

Ms. Nguyen Ha Giang (in Cam Nhuong commune, Cam Xuyen district) said: " People's demand for sim soaked in wine is very high, so I connected with Mr. Dinh's farm to buy sim, supplying it to the market. I also brought some acquaintances who like to experience picking sim to Mr. Dinh's farm to visit and experience. In the long term, the farm will develop a model for tourists to visit, the experience of picking sim will be more effective ".

In addition to the sim tree, Mr. Dinh also intercrops with the So tree - a specialty tree grown in many mountainous areas in the North to harvest the fruit for oil. In the next 2 years, when the newly planted 8 hectares of sim trees are ready for harvest, Mr. Dinh will earn hundreds of millions of VND each year from this tree.

Mr. Pham Cong Dinh is a pioneer in switching from growing acacia to sim for fruit. His bold decision has inspired local people to convert ineffective tree growing areas to growing sim to develop the economy and increase income. As a dancer of the Ha Tinh Dance and Drama Troupe, he also regularly participates in movements, especially local cultural and artistic activities.

Mr. Phan Van Tri

Secretary of Cam My Commune Youth Union

Phan Tram - Huong Thanh