Drip Irrigation for High-Value Horticulture

- Mr. Van Viet Uan

Mr. Van Viet Uan is a 60-year-old farmer in Thua Thien Hue province. He has spent many years growing peanuts on his small plot of land, but like many farmers in this sandy region, has never been able to grow anything during the dry season. This was always a time of considerable hardship for him.

As he explained, “I always thought it was impossible to grow anything. The soil is so sandy & porous here, that it cannot hold any water. In the dry season, how ever much you water the land by hand, everything just shrivels up”.

When IDE introduced small-scale drip irrigation to Mr Uan, he was initially hesitant. Eager to improve his situation, however, he agreed to try it. The neighboring farmers gathered around when the simple system of buckets and pipes was installed, many of them telling him that he was ‘crazy’ to try to grow peanuts in this barren season. 

One month later, Mr Uan could already see the benefits - the young plants seemed to be growing very well. When he harvested his crop, Mr. Uan discovered that not only did he have a healthy yield of peanuts in the dry season, but it was also 25% higher than what he achieved during the regular growing season.

“I was amazed; I could sell my extra crop & also get a better price for the seeds because it was off-season”.