Early in the morning, after cooking rice for her two children to go to school, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang, 37 years old, brought a ladder to the banana plots to rub the buds. The excess flowers at the top of the fruit are removed, and the banana bunch is also covered to avoid sunburn. After 3 weeks from flowering, the corn is broken away to ensure quality fruit, leaving only 10 bunches per chamber. Banana trees take an average of more than 5 months to flower and three and a half months to harvest.
Eight years ago, Ms. Hoang was an overseas Vietnamese living on Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, making a living by fishing. After returning to Tay Ninh for about a year without work, she and her husband went to the banana farm to work until now.
“Each bunch of bananas is paid 2,500 VND. I earn more than 200,000 VND a day. Together with my husband’s salary of more than 300,000 VND, it’s enough to pay for my two children’s education,” Ms. Hoang said.