In To Son commune, Bu Dang district, Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam, M'nong ethnic-minority farmers are turning the wild vegetable "rau nhip," which they used only to gather from the forest, into supplementary income by planting it beneath cashew (dieu) and coffee trees. The farmer Dieu Thi Glung intercrops rau nhip on a plot of about 2.5 ha and took in about 40 million dong in sales from January to August. It is diversified management that uses the forest floor of cashew-planted land one more layer, and it serves as material for Japanese importing buyers and for upland production areas to think about how to turn the combination of under-tree space and native vegetables into procurement and production-area development.
On 2.5 ha under cashew trees, rau nhip moves at up to 150,000 dong per kg
Rau nhip is a wild herb that grows naturally in the forests of south-central Vietnam, and its young shoots and leaves are picked and eaten. The Glung household plants rau nhip in the shade between its main crops of cashew and coffee, using the same area under the crowns twice. Picking is daily work; going out to the field morning and evening to gather leaves turns into cash.
The price is 60,000 to 80,000 dong per kg in normal periods, rising to 150,000 dong when demand is tight. The Glung household built up about 40 million dong in these sales since the start of the year. Against cashew and coffee, whose harvest concentrates once a year, rau nhip supports the household budget by generating daily cash.
| Item | Local price / amount (dong) | Yen equivalent (approximate) |
|---|---|---|
| Rau nhip, normal period | 60,000〜80,000／kg | About 340 to 460 yen/kg |
| Rau nhip, high price in demand period | 150,000／kg | About 860 yen/kg |
| Glung household, January-August sales | About 40,000,000 | About 230,000 yen |
The exchange rate is estimated at 1 yen ≒ 175 dong. It varies with local market conditions and the season.
From forest gathering to the Trang Co Bu Lach cooperative's 16-tonne annual shipment
What connects individual picking to a sales channel is the cooperative that aggregates collection and shipping. The organic cashew cooperative "HTX Nong nghiep Dieu huu co Trang Co Bu Lach" gathers roughly 16 tonnes of rau nhip a year and supplies restaurants and food shops across several provinces. An ingredient that had relied on wild gathering from the forest is turning, through under-tree cultivation and joint shipping, into a commodity whose volume can be read. By having the cooperative aggregate on a 16-tonne scale rather than leaving picking to individuals, one-off sales are being replaced by continuous supply to urban food-service channels.
Rau nhip received a 3-star OCOP (One Commune, One Product) rating. Having stars attached as a regional specialty becomes an entrance for outside buyers to confirm quality and production area. The move of local OCOP products lining up on retail shelves is advancing across the country, and as with the case of Co.opmart putting 54 local OCOP products on its shelves, it is only when certification and distribution connect that it comes back as income for the production area.
The 261-member Dong Xanh cooperative shows ethnic-minority-led organic diversified management
In Dak Nhau commune of the same Bu Dang district, the organic-agriculture cooperative "HTX Nong nghiep huu co Dong Xanh" holds 261 members, of whom 213 (about 82%) are ethnic minorities. Annual sales reach about 21 billion dong (about 120 million yen) and profit about 590 million dong (about 3.4 million yen). Centered on organic cultivation of cashew and coffee, diversified management that extends into vegetables and medicinal herbs in the forest-floor and inter-tree space is taking root in the region in a form that lifts ethnic-minority household incomes.
Under-tree cultivation of rau nhip is also part of this flow. A design that does not hang household income on the market price of a single crop, but draws multiple cash sources from the same land, suits small-scale upland farmers. Cashew is easily affected by processing and export prices, and coffee's harvest also concentrates once a year. Even in a year when prices sink, if the rau nhip at one's feet generates daily cash of 60,000 to 80,000 dong/kg, the household can get over the off-season of the main crops. The idea of taking profit in the lower layer while keeping the forest's strata intact a high-tech forestry zone in Nghe An Province integrating forest-floor medicinal plants with large-diameter timber- it overlaps with that too.
The strength of low-cost diversified management that earns in the lower layer without felling the canopy
The core of this effort lies in the point that it needs neither new land acquisition nor expensive facility investment. The cashew and coffee plots already exist. The shade at their feet is space the main crops find hard to use, but it suits rau nhip, which prefers shade. Seedlings can be transplanted from the forest's native species, so seedling costs are also small. Harvesting is by hand-picking, and no machinery is needed.
The setup of earning cash in the lower layer without cutting the canopy faces the same direction as moves across the country to monetize the space of idle forests and orchards. In Phu Tho Province, a farmer who turned an idle forest into an earning forest by growing mushrooms under the canopy has appeared, turning "hard-to-use area" such as mountain slopes and under-tree space into income sources. Rau nhip, too, by moving the forest's products into the plot without clearing the forest, creates daily income while holding down environmental load. From the buyer's view, the fork in whether procurement is possible is how far the instability of supply common to wild-gathered goods can be leveled out through cultivation and cooperative shipping.
Points overlapping with Japan's mid-mountain areas and the cultivation of wild vegetables
In Japan too, wild vegetables such as warabi, koshiabura, and urui have long depended on wild gathering, and supply has thinned as pickers age. Under-tree cultivation of rau nhip shows a route to grow forest herbs systematically in the lower layer of orchards and forests and get them onto distribution through joint shipping and OCOP certification. The idea of monetizing abandoned farmland and neglected forests in mid-mountain areas with native vegetables of the lower layer can connect to Japan's production-area development too. A low-input model that uses existing cashew and coffee groves as they are and transplants native species for seedlings is also easy to transfer to Japanese mountain settlements that hold plantation forests with stalled thinning or neglected orchards. From the standpoint of considering procurement of dried vegetables or processed wild vegetables, once a native wild vegetable like rau nhip enters the stage of being cultivated and certified, stable raw-material securing and quality verification become realistic. As candidates for import or joint development, it is worth confirming the production area's cooperative structure and the reproducibility of volume from an early stage.
Practical points to secure in procurement
- The supply body is a cooperative rather than individual farmers. Confirm the collection capacity of the Trang Co Bu Lach cooperative, which aggregates 16 tonnes a year and ships to multiple provinces.
- The 3-star OCOP is an entrance for quality and production-area confirmation. Actually request the certificate and inspection records.
- The price varies widely, normally 60,000 to 80,000 dong/kg and up to 150,000 dong/kg in high-price periods. Pin down the annual price band and the shipping calendar.
- Cultivated goods derived from wild gathering have volumes that are hard to read. Before a contract, have them produce a month-by-month record of actual harvest volume.
- Under-tree cultivation pairs well with pesticide-free and low-input, but if you call it organic, confirm the certification category (organic / VietGAP, etc.) and its scope of application in writing.
The conditions under which a forest-floor specialty vegetable becomes supplementary income in mid-mountain areas
M'nong ethnic-minority farmers in Bu Dang district, Dong Nai Province transplanted rau nhip, which they used only to gather from the forest, onto 2.5 ha under cashew and coffee trees, and made supplementary income of up to 150,000 dong per kg and about 40 million dong per household from January to August. By having the cooperative aggregate 16 tonnes a year and push it up to a 3-star OCOP, wild-gathered goods are moving toward a commodity whose volume can be read. Sourcing managers thinking about Japan's cultivation of wild vegetables or use of the mid-mountain forest floor would do well to start by asking the Trang Co Bu Lach cooperative for month-by-month harvest records and the OCOP certificate, and confirming the reproducibility of cultivation in numbers.
