Tropentag, October 5 - 7, 2004 in Berlin "Rural Poverty Reduction through Research for Development and Transformation"

Potential of Native Leafy Vegetables Production in North-Vietnam

¹Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Germany
²Agricultural University Hanoi, Agricultural Economics, Vietnam

Abstract

The consumption of vegetables in Vietnam increased in the past decade and nowadays, for example, each person in Hanoi (adult and children) consumes about 37 - 50 kg of vegetables per year. It is nevertheless much fewer than in other countries in the world (e.g. Germany 81 kg per capita). Vegetable production of the whole country have to reach 11.59 million tons till the year 2010 to improve per capita vegetable consumption to 90 – 100 kg per annum with 35% of leaf vegetable, 40% of fruit vegetable, 15% of spice vegetable and 10% tuber vegetable. The Red River Delta (RRD), one of the seven ecological regions of Vietnam, includes 9 provinces Ha Noi, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Hai Phong, Thai Binh, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh and Ha Tay with 671,800 ha agricultural land, 2.643 million farm households and 10.596 millions farmers. The average of cultivated land per household is 0.25 – 0.3 ha. RRD is the largest vegetable producing zone of Vietnam with a climate suitable to many kinds of leafy vegetables. Vegetable output was 1.658 million tons (1999), accounting for 31.6% of that of the country's production. In winter season, each household grew two to eight kinds of vegetable (cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower, and so on). The other months with high temperatures are suitable for leaf vegetables with tropical origin; especially June, July and August (28.0 to 30.7 °C) are suitable for growing of vegetables like Water spinach, Malabar spinach, Sauropus, leafy cabbages (Mild Greens), Amaranth etc. The nutritional value of these leafy vegetables is very high due to the high content of protein, iron, calcium, vitamins C, and A (carotene). Currently these leaf vegetables are cultivated in small household gardens. For saturation of the market demand new technologies for field production of leaf vegetables in a large scale are to develop. Very important is the introduction of cultivation methods for clean vegetables with low residues of pesticides and nitrate content.

Keywords: Cultivation technologies, leafy vegetables, Vietnam

Contact Address: Michael Böhme, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Lentzeallee 75, 14195 Berlin, Germany, e-mail: michael.boehmerz.hu-berlin.de