Hanoi: Promoting rural tourism development from lotus trees

Lotus brings economic value to suburban farmers

Changing the model of growing lotus, combining with tourism development on inefficient rice land is a direction that brings many benefits to farmers in the suburbs of Hanoi. Despite bringing obvious economic benefits, people still want to pay attention to invest in building facilities, be trained in skills to serve tourists as well as promote products to develop this type of tourism. This calendar is more formal and professional.

Lotus ponds "make money"

Easy to grow, well adapted to low-lying areas, for many years, lotus has been chosen by farmers in An Phu commune (My Duc district, Hanoi) as an economic development crop to replace rice.

In the mid-July days, when returning to Duc Duong village (An Phu commune) right in the lotus season, many people were surprised because the lotus covered a low-lying field in the past. Mr. Nguyen Van Chuc (owner of Hanh Chuc lotus pond) said that in the past, people in this land mainly cultivated rice, but the source of income was not high.

Due to difficulties in weather and low rice yield, Mr. Chuc decided to switch to other more effective crops to increase his family's income. Seeing that many places growing lotus bring high economic efficiency, he decided to switch to this plant.

Adjacent to the lotus pond of Mr. Chuc's family, Mrs. Vuong Thi May's family has also successfully converted from the model of growing rice to lotus seeds. In the story about planting lotus on lowland, Mrs. May said: "Growing lotus does not need too much investment, the harvest time of lotus is longer than that of rice. In addition to flowers, growers harvest lotus leaves and seeds, the economic efficiency is higher than that of rice, from which people in the region are excited to convert and replicate the model together.

Up to now, after more than 10 years of model transformation, the lowland area of ​​the village is covered by 200ha of pink lotus. People here grow lotus once a year, starting from February every year and until about May, the lotus plants are harvested.

Not only in My Duc district, coming to Hong Duong commune (Thanh Oai district) in the summer months, it is not difficult to see lotus ponds in full bloom, stretching, and fragrant aroma. Here, Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa (Hoang Trung village) is known by the people as "the lotus king", because he was the first person in the area to grow lotus on a commercial scale.

Pointing to the vast lotus pond, Mr. Hoa confided: “From the model of breeding and growing rice to growing lotus, at first I only cultivated a few acres. After seeing the increasing demand for lotus flowers, lotus seeds, and lotus roots, along with the experience gained in the process of making, my family actively expanded production, up to now to 40 samples.

Mr. Hoa said, with the characteristics of being easy to grow and taking care of, lotus products such as leaves, shoots, bulbs, flowers, seeds... all bring economic benefits and are widely consumed. The time to harvest lotus regularly is from May to October every year, from the time it blooms to the time the lotus dies.

One of the advantages of the lotus growing model is that when it comes to the harvest, traders come to the place to buy. Therefore, farmers do not have to "run and run" to find output compared to other crops. Product prices are also relatively high, lotus flowers are about 3,000 VND/flower, lotus seeds are about 35,000-40,000 VND/kg depending on the time. Each year, with an output of 25 tons of lotus seeds, it will bring his family hundreds of millions of dong in revenue.

Besides the income from lotus, Mr. Hoa also stocked more traditional fish, fish find food from plankton so it doesn't take care, each season he exports tons of high quality fish meat. On the shore, he raised more cows to eat natural grass, cut the grass less, and put cow dung in the lotus fields to make better lotuses and dark flowers. Along with that are a few hundred roots of longan and pomelo.

Contribute to the development of rural tourism

Not only bringing beauty to the countryside, after many years of model transformation, the lotus tree has helped farmers escape poverty and develop the economy. Besides exploiting only agricultural products, being sensitive to the needs of the market, the lagoon owners have turned their lotus into a place to attract visitors to visit, take photos, and promote their brands. Early in the morning is the time when the flowers begin to bloom, the owner of the dress cuts a part of the flowers to sell. The remaining flowers in the dress are for visitors to visit

This type of community-based tourism is developing strongly and meets the needs of tourists who want to experience and explore… On weekends, there are a lot of tourists visiting the lotus fields in Hong Duong commune (district). Thanh Oai), An Phu commune (My Duc district), Dai Thinh commune (Me Linh district)… to take pictures.

To attract guests, the lagoons do not hesitate to invest in electric lighting systems, wooden bridges, and carpets to serve guests. In the area of ​​the lagoon, there are also tables and chairs to serve guests to eat and rest.

Talking about the combination of tourism exploitation on the family's own lotus pond, Mr. Chuc said: "At first, only a few households planted, realized the effect, the households in the village shared their experiences and together replicated the model. image. The lagoon area is large, many people passing by see the vast lotus area, then stop to take pictures. After that, they invited friends and relatives to take pictures in large numbers. Realizing the potential, we combine a number of services, invest in bamboo bridges, shop huts, set up a costume rental area. Up to now, the lotus lagoon has become a familiar place for people to visit, take photos and buy flowers and lotus flowers in the lagoon.

Sharing about the effectiveness and direction of lotus development here in association with tourism, Mr. Bui Van Chuyen, Chairman of An Phu Commune People's Committee said: "Growing lotus can be harvested many times, yield is higher. rice cultivation, creating good income, bringing excitement to people in the area, but now people are still doing it spontaneously. The commune has also submitted and requested to convert 200 hectares to specialize in growing lotus and exploiting tourism services.

The lotus varieties that households are growing are only harvested for about 3 months in a year, in order to create a variety of lotus species, they can be planted and produced all year round, suitable for tourism, we are conducting a project experiment. The project brought some new lotus varieties into cultivation such as: Lotus tuber, lotus flower... A number of district, commune and household officials were trained and visited lotus growing models in Me Linh district, in Thua Thien province. Hue... to be able to bring new varieties of lotus to grow locally".

Despite bringing obvious economic benefits, at present, many lotus growers still have some concerns due to the fact that the lotus depends heavily on the weather and the people's care techniques are still limited.

In particular, although the localities have initially developed tourism, their inherent potential has not yet been fully promoted. Tourism services are mainly spontaneity of households, small scale. In the coming time, farmers need a lot of attention to invest in building facilities for tourism, training in skills to serve tourists as well as promoting lotus brand products, building projects calling for tourists. call to attract investors to develop green tourism in lotus ponds.

Recently, concretize the Program No. 04-CTr/TU of the City Party Committee on promoting the effective implementation of the National Target Program on building new rural areas in association with restructuring the agricultural sector and economic development. In rural areas, improving the material and spiritual life of farmers in the period of 2021 - 2025, Hanoi has paid attention to the economic development of agricultural and rural tourism in association with the construction of new rural areas in the area. Therefore, exploiting and highlighting the unique characteristics of agricultural and rural tourism in the tourism development orientation of the capital and the whole country.

Tourists choose lotus ponds in the suburbs of Hanoi
 as places to visit and take photos

According to the Hanoi Department of Tourism, the City People's Committee has soon issued and implemented the Plan for economic development of agricultural and rural tourism in association with the construction of new rural areas in the city in the period of 2022 - 2025. , branches and localities have had programs and activities to integrate the content of economic development of agricultural and rural tourism in association with new rural construction. At this point, the Department will assess in general the potential and ways of developing agricultural and rural tourism in Hanoi in order to effectively exploit and develop this type of tourism.

* Phuong Ngan
Capital Labor Newspaper - laodongthudo.vn
Key word: #Hanoi, # suburban Hanoi, #rural tourism, #Lotus,