Cao Thi Lien, a woman living in the Thac Hoa 3 residential area of Son Thinh township, owns a tea plantation covering more than 8,000 sq. m. During the farming process, she realised that the plants need shade to avoid heat. Besides, tea can only be harvested between April and November, leaving her family members idle for the remaining months and thus without income.

In an effort to raise profit from tea, her family decided to alternate tea rows with pomelo. With more than 200 pomelo trees grown among tea plants, their tea output declined just a little, but revenue from pomelo was 10 times higher than that. This method of farming has provided steady a job for her family, raising their annual income to over 250 million VND (nearly 10,800 USD).

Over the past two years, residents in Nong truong Tran Phu township have also been seeking profitable crops to replace the orange and tangerine areas affected by diseases, and many other traditional fruit trees have been cultivated.

Among them, local authorities have chosen green chilli to pilot in Residential Area No. 2 as they believe this short-term plant is both profitable and helpful in soil enrichment.

Green chilli can be harvested after nearly three months of farming, and generating an average productivity of 10 tonnes per hectare. Farmers can harvest the fruit continually for six to eight months.

Each hectare produces more than 60 tonnes of the fruit, earning farmers over 200 million VND per hectare each year after deducting expenses. Locals said green chilli cultivation generates a value four to five times higher than that of rice farming.

To promote cash crop production, aside from traditional crops with high value like longan, dragon fruit and pomelo, Van Chan farmers have also piloted some new plants like avocado, red pomegranate, macadamia, and morinda officinalis, gaining initial encouraging outcomes.

The diversification of crops has made Van Chan now home to a wide range of agricultural products, thereby meeting consumer demand, helping to address plant diseases in some areas specialised in fruit tree farming, improving production efficiency, and moving towards sustainable agriculture.