Co Tu people in Quang Nam Province’s Dong Giang and Tay Giang Districts are harvesting tiger grass flowers to bolster their incomes.

Harvesting tiger grass flowers to subsidise their education 

The plants grow wild in local forests and increase people’s livelihoods post Tet.

Tiger grass flower season

Two thirds of the forests in Dong Giang and Tay Giang Districts are home to tiger grass. Flowers of this plant are often dried and used to make brooms for domestic and foreign customers.

Tiger grass can be easily seen along the Ho Chi Minh Highway and Highway 604, as well as throughout the two districts. This plant also flourishes in forests.

Zoram Thi Blong, a girl from Chonet Hamlet, Ating Commune in Dong Giang District, is carrying tiger grass flowers home. She said that she is studying in sixth grade at Le Van Tam Secondary School. She often goes to school in the afternoon and uses her free time in the morning to help her parent gather tiger grass flowers to earn some money to support her studies.

Forest wealth

People in Aso, Song Kon and Ating Communes in Dong Giang Districts and A Vuong and Bhalee in Tay Giang District often trade in tiger grass flowers.

Bling Heng, a man from Phu Mua Hamlet of ZoNgay Commune, said every family in his village have someone to pick the flowers. Each person can harvest between 20 and 40 kilos of flowers and earn nearly VND100,000 (USD5.7) per day.

Village Patriarch Briu Abuc in Choco Hamlet, A Ting Commune, said, “Tiger grass have helped improve people’s living standards in recent years. Previously, people were not aware of the plant’s value and often destroyed it to grow acacia.”

Currently, there are six tiger grass flower agents in Dong Giang District’s Zo Ngay and Song Kon communes. Merchants use two or three trucks to carry the flowers to Tam Ky City in Quang Nam or to Danang City for daily sales, he added.

Ms. Ha in  ATinh Commune, who has traded in this flower for over a decade said, “Fresh tiger grass flowers are sold wholesale at VND3,500 (USD0.16) per kilo, but dry ones have better prices. This year local people have been very happy, as they’ve had a good crop. Many people started harvesting the flowers from Lunar January 4.”

Dong Giang District is home to over 4,600 Co Tu ethnic households. As many as 2,000 households take part in harvesting this type of flowers.

Local people happy with new crop

Classifying the flowers before selling them to agents