Garlic is a key crop on Ly Son Island. However, 90 percent of local garlic growers are suffering from losses in the 2022-2023 Winter-Spring crop.
Ngo Thi Kiem from Tay An Hai Village in Ly Son District said that her family has grown garlic over the past 30 years. However, this is the first time she had witnessed such a bad crop.
Garlic growers in Ly Son Island in the central province of Quang Ngai are facing great losses due to the unfavourable weather
Kiem’s family invested VND45 million (USD1,906) in their garlic garden of over 1,000 square metres and they incurred losses of around VND30 million for the garlic plantation this year.
According to local residents, the weather before the 2023 Lunar New Year was bad with a long period of low temperatures, rain and strong wind.
"Productivity for my 360-square-metre garlic garden this crop was less than 100 kilos, compared to 500-700 kilos in previous years. This represents an on-year drop of 90 percent. In addition, the garlic is quite small, resulting in the slow sales,” said Nguyen Thi Ngo, a local resident.
The garlic productivity in Ly Son also fell in the 2021-2022 Winter-Spring crops with 1,225 tonnes, down 70 percent on-year.
Ly Son District People’s Committee Vice-Chairman Dang Tan Thanh said the locality is home to 320 hectares of garlic. However, over the recent years, farmers are struggling with losses. Local authorities have reported the situation to the province for support.
