Low-profit paddies turn to lotus and tourism: building a growing area in Dai An, Da Nang

Rather than abandoning paddies whose returns do not grow, they are replanted with lotus and even draw in tourists — in the Dai An hamlet of Phu Ninh, Da Nang City (the former Phu Ninh District, Quang Nam Province), such a remaking has gotten underway. It is an effort to reorganize 6.2 hectares of paddy that about 90 households have tilled into a place where lotus seeds, apple snails, fish, glutinous rice, and the "lotus-field scenery" itself earn. For Japanese food and agricultural-product buyers, this is not a story about flowers. It is a procurement story that a lotus-raw-material source, where you can visit the production area and confirm the substance of production, is rising in central Vietnam.

Swapping low-profit paddies for lotus

The stage is the Co Co field in the Dai An hamlet of Phu Ninh, Da Nang City, a central rural area corresponding to the former Phu Ninh District, Quang Nam Province, where about 90 households have tilled 6.2 hectares of paddy. The administration put 4.3 hectares of this up as development land for community tourism in its plan, and approved a change of use converting more than 2.5 hectares to lotus, apple snails, fish, and glutinous rice. It is a design that reorganizes low-profit paddies run on rice alone into land where multiple income sources overlap.

The actual replanting got underway in October 2025. On 1.4 hectares of low-profit paddy, 18 households began growing lotus, into which they release apple snails (oc nhoi) and fish to add income. The People's Committee of Phu Ninh commune provided seedlings, materials, and technical guidance, taking a form in which farmers move their own hands as the main actors.

What is new: "crop conversion that does not rest"

Moves to switch poorly conditioned paddies to another crop exist in various places. But what sets Dai An's stance apart is that it uses the lotus paddy doubly as a farming pond, and further crafts the scenery of the flowering season into a tourism product, earning threefold. It sells lotus seeds and lotus flowers, sells the apple snails and fish released into the paddy, draws customers who want to photograph the lotus field in full bloom, and serves meals with local ingredients. It is a structure where harvest, farmed produce, and experience fees rise simultaneously from a single paddy.

The very attempt to remake low-return paddies into the black is, for instance, Cutting chemical fertilizer for 200,000 yen in profit: the sourcing window opened by An Giang organic rice there is also a route of raising quality while keeping it as rice. Dai An is by contrast in that it did not keep rice but swapped items wholesale. As an idea of redirecting poorly conditioned land to high-value-added items, it also connects with poor-sandy-soil guava earning VND 3.6 billion in annual sales, the blueprint of a Dak Lak farmer.

The conversion to lotus in figures

Here are the figures shown by the administration and local papers. Yen conversion is an estimate at about 162 VND per yen (as of July 2026).

In the central region, 1 sao equals 500 sq m. A margin of 2–3 times rice farming is propelling the move to swap low-profit paddies for lotus. The apple snails and fish released into the paddy pair well with biological management that does not rely on chemicals, becoming an added income source using the lotus paddy's water. Farming output and unit prices are not published at present, so this article looks mainly at the verified lotus-seed unit price and profit multiple. Note that there are minor differences between sources in the lotus planting area and the number of participating households; here we present aligned figures from the originating local report.

Dai An's positioning

Seen with a procurement eye, three features of this case stand out.

• The production area can be "visited" Because development as a tourist site is advancing, buyers can enter the site and confirm the cultivation, harvest, and primary-processing scene with their own eyes. A production-area visit becomes quality confirmation as is.
• The administration is involved with seedlings and technique Because the People's Committee of Phu Ninh commune is providing seedlings, materials, and guidance, information on cultivation standards and planting area remains on the administration's side too. The starting point of tracing is easy to follow.
• Income is also dispersed into tourism Because farmers' earnings do not depend on raw-material sales alone, they are less likely to accept extreme lowball offers, and price negotiations tend to converge to a level commensurate with the raw material's quality.

The reading points for Japanese buyers

Lotus works for Japan as a food ingredient, not as a flower. Dried lotus seeds have steady demand as an ingredient for sweet natto, Chinese food ingredients, and medicinal cuisine (lotus flesh, lotus heart), and lotus receptacles and leaves also become material for tea and processing. The level of fresh seeds at 60,000 VND/kg leaves room to bring them into Japan with processing and drying in between. For reference, in Duy Xuyen, another production area in the Da Nang region, dried lotus seeds trade at 180,000–230,000 VND/kg (VOV reporting), showing a structure where making it dried stretches the unit price several times over.

That said, Dai An has only just begun its demonstration, and drying and sorting equipment, hygiene paperwork, and year-round supply volume are not yet out in the open. Rather than a production area you can buy a consolidated volume from right away, it is closer to reality to see it as a procurement source to visit and cultivate. Even so, a community-tourism-type production area becomes, for buyers, a "candidate source you can visit and confirm the substance of." Visiting the production area, confirming the planting area and the players, and testing the arrangements for buying in time for the flowering season — this whole sequence completes on the ground. In terms of a mechanism for securing raw material continuously, there is also room to combine it with A chili that sells out as soon as it is picked: contract farming opens up Vietnamese spice raw materials the mold of contract cultivation. First confirm the actual goods at flowering and harvest, and nail down who handles the drying and sorting and where — that is the entry point.

Ripple effects on the market

Dai An's conversion is one answer to the common challenge in central Vietnam of "how to reuse low-profit paddies." While rice returns stagnate, bundling lotus, farming, and tourism greatly changes the gross margin from the same area. If a similar model spreads to central low-return paddies, the production areas of lotus raw material seen from the Japanese side are not limited to one place but a situation of being able to choose from multiple hamlets arises. The more comparison across production areas becomes possible, the wider the negotiating room in procurement grows on both quality and price.

On the other hand, a model that turns tourism and agriculture in the same paddy tends to concentrate labor and harvest in the flowering season. Because the production area's handling capacity is tested if buying timing overlaps with high season, the judgment of locking up a partner that holds a drying and storage regime early takes effect.

Basic information

Summary

The Dai An hamlet has begun remaking its land by layering lotus, farming, and tourism, without abandoning the 6.2 hectares of low-return paddy. A profit of 2–3 times rice farming per crop shows that the conversion to lotus has traction. The next move for Japanese buyers is to visit the site in time for the flowering and harvest season and confirm the quality of fresh seeds and dried product and the partner who handles sorting and drying. The strength of a production area that can be visited can be turned directly into procurement traceability. The central region is likely to see more such converted paddies going forward, so there is value in starting to prepare to line up and compare multiple hamlets rather than narrowing the lotus-raw-material source to one.

References: Dân Việt／Đại Đoàn Kết