The Mekong Delta is a low lying region crisscrossed by wide rivers and muddy streams. This is the region of the famous boat people, a community of nomads who spend much of the year on their brightly painted, flat bottomed fishing boats trolling the river for fish, wild vegetables and jobs.
It seems strange that durian, which generally grows best in the hills and highlands, would find its home among the rice fields and flood plains of the Mekong Delta. Yet according to statistics from the Southern Fruit Research Institute (SOFRI), 92% of the durian produced in Vietnam is grown here. I wanted to see if durian really can grow in such conditions, so Rob and I took a bus to My Tho, the tourist gateway to the Delta.
There we interviewed the director of SOFRI, Mr. Nguyen Minh Chau. Mr. Nguyen was a rice expert when, in 1994, he was asked to set up a research institute for fruit. The government hoped that encouraging farmers to grow crops fetching a high price, like durian, would ease the rampant poverty that afflicted the region.
Mr. Nguyen switched camps and is now a leading proponent of fruit production in the Mekong Delta. He told us that for poor farming families, a single hectare of durian can bring in almost 10 times the profit of one hectare of rice. But while switching paddies to orchards may be beneficial to the individual farmer, the government has competing concerns. To his disappointment, three years ago the government discontinued fruit incentive programs and asked rice farmers to continue growing rice, citing food security concerns while continuing to export vast quantities of rice.
This year Vietnam surpassed Thailand as the number one exporter of rice in the world. The Mekong Delta plays a pivotal role in this title, contributing over 50 percent of the 39 million tonnes of rice produced in 2009. The warm, wet climate and seasonal flooding, when monsoon rains submerge large areas of the agricultural zone, is perfect for growing rice. It’s not for durian.
Durian trees don’t like to get their toes wet. They flourish in mountainous regions with good soil drainage and dry weather. The tree is especially susceptible to root rot and fungus, and doesn’t tolerate flooding.
That’s why when Nonthaburi province in Thailand was flooded last November, only 7 of 470 hectares, or about 1.5 percent, survived the calamity.
Not surprisingly, durian orchards have experienced some problems. In the early 2000’s, epidemic root rot struck the durian orchards. Phytophtera is a soil born fungus that grows well in hot, moist soils like that of the Mekong Delta. In tandem with other concerned durian producing countries, SOFRI developed methods for combating the fungus, including injecting the tree trunks with phosphoric acid and using rot-resistant root stocks. Mr. Nguyen recommends farmers plant their trees on mounds and keep water levels in irrigation canals low, to facilitate better drainage.
I wanted to see these techniques in action, so we took a daytrip to Cho Lach, the dominant fruit-growing district in the region. I read about Cho Lach in a news article about Mr. Van Hoa, a farmer in the area who 30 years ago discovered one of the most popular durian varieties in Vietnam. I thought visiting Mr. Hoa would be a good way to visit a lowlands durian orchard and learn a little more about Vietnam’s durian varieties. I couldn’t find his contact information, but Mr. Nguyen suggested we simply go to Cho Lach and ask around. “Everybody knows him,” he said.
I wanted to see these techniques in action, so we took a daytrip to Cho Lach, the dominant fruit-growing district in the region. I read about Cho Lach in a news article about Mr. Van Hoa, a farmer in the area who 30 years ago discovered one of the most popular durian varieties in Vietnam. I thought visiting Mr. Hoa would be a good way to visit a lowlands durian orchard and learn a little more about Vietnam’s durian varieties. I couldn’t find his contact information, but Mr. Nguyen suggested we simply go to Cho Lach and ask around. “Everybody knows him,” he said.
With barely one word of Vietnamese between us, asking around wasn’t going to be easy. It’s not that I haven’t tried to learn the language; I simply can’t make the right sounds. I haven’t even managed to master “thank you.” Luckily for us, while wandering the streets of Cho Lach Town, we met Mr. Nguyen Phong Jung, an elderly man who taught English to the South Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War. It turned out that he and the first Mr. Nguyen had attended high school together.
Together we hired some motorbikes and took off down a dirt trail to Mr. Van Hoa’s house. A brilliant shade of blue, the large two story house loomed above the roofs of his neighbors. “He used to be a poor man,” our guide informed us, “but now he very very rich from the durian.” Mr. Van Hoa was not at home, but his wife allowed us to look around their 2 hectare farm and take some pictures.
The durian trees were planted in rows along a long canal crossed with narrow bridges. Shady and serene, the orchard felt more like a Japanese tea garden than a producing farm. In fact, Mr. Van doesn’t do as much with the fruit as he used to. He mostly deals in baby trees, spreading his famous variety throughout Vietnam.
All of southern Vietnam is suitable for growing durians. When the line between north and south was drawn at Hue, it might as well have been between those who grow durian and those who can’t. Rob and I don’t have time to visit everywhere, but I do want to get a taste of Vietnam’s highland durian. Tonight we’re headed to Dak Mil, a district in the Central Highlands.
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