Recently I was able to travel throughout Central Vietnam observing the local agriculture. I stopped to look at an unusual type of pepper planting that were growing up tall poles much like the hops I have seen grown in Oregon. In addition I saw numerous banana and rubber plantations.
In Central Vietnam the black pepper is grown on a tall pole with the thinking that it increases the yield per acre as opposed to the more commonly seen horizontal growing of peppers often in row planting. I had never seen this type of planting before but once I noticed it, I saw that it was fairly common.
Vietnam grows a number of different types of bananas. I found the flavors of the bananas here in Vietnam to be better and the fruit much more of a meal in itself as compared to the common banana sold in the U.S. .
Vietnam is also a producer of natural rubber. Last year in Thailand I wrote about the large rubber plantations I had visited and the plantations were similar here. The rubber (tree sap) is collected one drop at a time and used throughout the world as natural latex. I find it interesting that such a slow harvesting of a product can be aggregated into a world market of demand.
Each of the observed crops in this article would be suitable for USDA NOP certification or for the smaller more regional markets an alternative agricultural certification might be more appropriate. Each crop had a well developed understory allowing for wildlife to wander in and out of the production areas. There did not appear to be any weed spraying in the established growing areas. With the fertile soils of Central Vietnam and the co-production of animal products in or near the crop production areas, natural local fertilizers appear to be available. New roads are being built in the region which will reduce the transport time to regional markets. The future of Vietnam looks promising and the production of regional organically managed crops will hopefully be a big part of the future’s success!
