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Along the banks of the Lai River, from Trung Luong to An Dong river plain at Bong Son town, Hoai Nhon district, the locals often grow mung beansprout besides animal husbandry and cultivation. The mung bean seeds are sown in the river sand and ready after 3 days and 3 nights. The mung beansprout growing brings fairly good income for local people even though it is just a sideline.
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Preparing holes to grow mung beansprouts
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Every early morning, the mung beansprouts are sold to everywhere all over the district, mainly to countryside markets and restaurants,. The product is even present at Tam Quan, Sa Huynh and Phu My.
The mung beansprout growing is rather simple and doesn’t require much initial capital. The beansprout growers just need couples of iron panniers and dozens of bamboo baskets with big holes to drain and rinse the harvested product. Yet, they must be really meticulous and experienced to get high efficiency.
Family of Nguyen Thi Nu, 78, at An Dong, Bong Son town has pursued so far the traditional job over 3 generations.
“Not all types of the mung bean seeds can grow into sprouts. Different kinds of them produce diverse outputs of sprouts with various qualities. The growers must master know-how of selecting, soaking and germinating the bean seeds so that the sprouts can be timely harvested at satisfied length, neither too long nor too short,” said the old woman.
“They must be expert in preparing a layer of river sand for the sprout to grow straight. It is also very important to excel in moistening the soaked beans in growing holes because this decisive step may affect success of the batches. If the holes aren’t moist enough, the sprouts will be too crisp to break off. If the holes are too wet, the harvested product will be rotten at its root. In the two conditions, the output is very low.”
Unlike a decade ago, the local mung beansprout growers now prefer buying domestic mung bean varieties from provinces of Cao Bang, Bac Thai, Gia Lai and Kon Tum to other species of mung beans because the formers give higher yield than the latters.
Dang Hoi, a 66-year-old mung beansprout grower who has 40 years of experience, said that the mung beansprout growing along the banks of the Lai River isn’t a hard work but it is time-consuming.
In order to maintain daily supply of the vegetable for the markets, the growers should calculate consecutive cultivation on basis of the sprout growing characteristics. In addition, they should locate areas which have fine alluvial soil and are higher than the river and dig holes there to ensure the high output and the good quality.
Each hole usually is 0.6m - 0.7m wide and maximum 0.6m deep. If not, it will cause difficulties for the seed sowing and the harvest.
The growers often sow the beans in 3 courses in an interval of 3 days; 10-12 holes per course, maximum 3kg of bean seeds per hole. The standard hole has enough room for 2kg of bean seeds to grow into 12-13kg of sprouts.
Sand covering the holes should be regularly replaced so that the mung beans can grow fast and produce high yield. Otherwise, the sprouts will taste unflavoured and become tough.
Family of Vo Van Su, a 41-year-old mung beansprout grower at An Trung, escapes poverty, gradually become well-off, is able to afford the children’s schooling and build a spacious house thanks to the traditional job of mung beansprout growing.
“Between 2.30am and 3am, all of the growers go to the river banks to harvest the sprouts. Their work must finish before dawnbreak so that the harvest product can be timely delivered to the customers. In late afternoon, they clean the holes and sow other batches. In evening, they drain and rinse the beans,” he said.
“Then, they soaked the drained beans with water before placing the beans in the holes. Whenever it rains, they have to cover the holes carefully to avoid flooding over the holes. The task repeats all year round. Income generated from the mung beansprout growing is fairly stable. I often sow beans in 10 holes or 20kg of bean seeds each day and harvest 120-125kg of sprouts. I earn about 180.000-200.000-VND-worth net benefit per day.”
“The mung beansprout growing still exists and enjoys rather stable development while other age-old traditional trades such as mulberry growing and silkworm raising, coconut processing have gradually declined,” said Chairman of Bong Son Farmers’ Association Nguyen Van Quoc.
“Yet, the mung beansprout growing is facing threats now because of rapid urbanization, dyke and embankment building. Land areas of the river plain are becoming scarce, inducing a lot of difficulties to the cultivation of the local farmers, including the mung beansprout growers.”
“Local government at all levels should create favourable conditions for the people to grow mung beansprouts at the river plain because the job helps them get rid of hunger and poverty in righteous manner. Furthermore, the markets inside and outside the district have a safe and clean vegetable source,” he added.
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