The dying cashew trees in the garden of Hoang Van Thanh
Hoang Van Thanh from Village 9 said, "Most farmers are very poor and our livelihoods depend on the cashew trees. We were so glad when it was announced that the provincial authorities would provide support to the farmers. But instead of the funds, the communal officials gave us pesticide."
Each household was given one litre of pesticide, one litre of liquid medicine and one litre of nutrients. Following the advice from the officials at the Agricultural Promotion Centre, many farmers used everything on the cashew gardens. But one week later, the unripe cashew nuts suddenly fell off trees and the farmers lost the entire crops.
"Those didn't use the pesticide and medicine have harvested over a tonne of cashew per hectare. Other households only harvested 200kg. More importantly, there are no new buds and the trees are dying," farmer Be Van Tinh said.
One farmer questioned whether Bu Dang District Agricultural Promotion Centre had given them the wrong pesticide and medicine. The officials at the local agricultural promotion centre haven't commented.
Huynh Giang, head of Bu Dang Plant Protection Department, said, "We didn't know anything about this because the Agricultural Promotion Centre sold the products without discussing with the plant disease prevention team or us. Those drugs are for rice leaf folders and will kill cashew nut trees."
In the report to Bu Dang People's Council, Giang proposed clarifying the individual responsibility of the officials who sold the inappropriate drugs to poor farmers at high prices.
According to Binh Phuoc Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, due to bad weather in 2016-2017 crop, thousands of households suffered from losses due to plant diseases. That's why this year, the provincial authorities spent VND44.7bn (USD1.78m) to support farmers in 10 districts with 22,395 hectares of cashew cultivation.
