Nearly 10 years ago, Mr. Nguyen Van Ton, in La Dong hamlet, Trang Xa commune, brought 150 Dien grapefruit trees to plant on his family's garden. After 3 years of active care, the grapefruit garden produced the first fruits with good quality. In 2019, Mr. Ton earned 2 million VND from each grapefruit tree and this was also the year when grapefruit trees gave the highest income.

In the following years, the Dien grapefruit growing movement in Trang Xa commune developed, leading to excess output, low selling prices and many difficulties in output. In 2021, 2022 and 2023, Mr. Ton's family and people in the commune could only sell for an average price of 2,000 VND/fruit.

Faced with this situation, Mr. Ton’s family decided not to cut down their pomelo orchard but instead intercropped it with pumpkins and 150 jackfruit trees intended for use as ornamental landscaping trees. After three years of cultivation, Mr. Ton recently sold the first batch of jackfruit trees for 500,000 VND each. In addition, he earns about 20 million VND annually from selling pumpkins.

Mr. Ton shared: “The pomelo trees have been grown for many years, with large, strong trunks cutting them down would be a waste. That’s why I decided to plant other crops in the empty spaces in the orchard. This approach has helped my family maintain a steady income.”

Meanwhile, in Cau Nho hamlet, Mr. Luong Viet Duc boldly applied the technique of grafting four-season lemon onto his family’s Dien pomelo trees. Thanks to his creativity and determination, his model has begun to show positive results.

Mr. Duc shared: Realizing that this model brings high economic efficiency to many households in Ham Yen district, Tuyen Quang province, in 2023, I hired someone to graft 20,000 four-season lemon eyes onto 1,000 grapefruit trees, at a price of 6,000 VND/eye. Of which, 300 trees belong to my family, the rest I cooperate with people in the area.

According to the plan, by the end of 2024, Mr. Duc's family will harvest the first batch of lemons, but due to the impact of storm No. 3, the trees will not start to be harvested until 2025.

Since the beginning of this year, each tree has yielded 10-20kg of fruit, with a selling price of over 20,000 VND/kg. According to Mr. Duc, from now until the end of the year, if the weather conditions are favorable, each family tree can harvest about 300 kg of fruit. If the price remains stable as it is now, after deducting all expenses, each tree will bring in about 6 million VND in income.

The model of intercropping other fruit trees into Dien grapefruit gardens or grafting citrus trees onto Dien grapefruit trees is increasingly being applied by people in Trang Xa commune. Mr. Nong Van Toan, Vice Chairman of Trang Xa Commune People's Committee, shared: Dien grapefruit trees used to be a great hope for the locality, but due to many reasons, grapefruit growers encountered many difficulties. However, in difficult times, there is wisdom, people have proactively learned and applied new models on their own grapefruit gardens. Thanks to that, it has contributed to keeping the grapefruit gardens green. Up to now, the total grapefruit area in the commune is 285 hectares, a slight decrease compared to the peak in 2018-2019. In 2024, an average hectare of grapefruit will bring an income of 100-150 million VND.