For about the past two years, during the rubber tree leaf-shedding season, many farmers in Vũ Hòa commune, Đức Linh district, Bình Thuận province have been using a device similar to a lawn mower to sweep up the leaves. Wherever the machine “blows,” the rubber leaves are quickly gathered up.
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Mr. Đặng Xuân Trường is blowing leaves – Photo: THU THẢO |
However, few people know that this is a technical innovation by Mr. Đặng Xuân Trường – a farmer who has only completed secondary school…
The locals in Vũ Hòa say that rubber trees are extensively planted in the area, covering several hundred hectares. Every November and December, especially around the Lunar New Year, is when the rubber trees shed their leaves. During this time, leaves fall continuously at a high density and are very flammable, causing rubber plantation owners to rush around hiring people to sweep up the leaves. Farmer Đặng Xuân Trường is occasionally called upon by neighbors to sweep the rubber leaves. While the job isn’t physically demanding, it is quite labor-intensive. During these times, Trường often wished for a machine that could quickly gather the fallen leaves.
One evening, Trường suddenly noticed that the household’s table fan had the ability to blow lightweight objects in the direction of the wind. He recalled the lawn mower he had been using for a while, which could also clear grass along rows and had spaces near the rows of rubber trees that growers used as firebreaks…
The next day, instead of going to work as usual, Trường was busy tinkering with the lawn mower. He observed and disassembled the grass-cutting blade at the front, attaching a fan blade instead. When he started the machine, it did blow the dry leaves, but the fan blade shattered within less than an hour!
After failing with a plastic fan blade, he attempted to make one from iron, but that also failed because the blade was too heavy for the lawn mower to operate. After some thought and experimentation, he decided to try using an aluminum fan blade. To obtain this blade, he had to ask a local metal worker in the district to help him, and the size of the blade was about half a meter. This time, luck smiled upon him: the machine operated well and gathered leaves into clumps.
Trường took the machine to test it in some friends’ gardens. Initially, the plantation owners were skeptical, but when they saw the rubber leaves being quickly blown into piles, they were visibly excited. The machine not only collected dry leaves lying on the surface but also picked up those mixed with the soil. The operator only needed to hold the machine with the fan blade upright, without bending down as they would have to do when sweeping leaves with a broom.
Previously, to clean one hectare of rubber trees, plantation owners would often have to hire three workers and work continuously for a whole day. However, with Trường’s “leaf blower,” the machine can neatly clear up to 3 hectares in just one day. As a result, Trường has been hired by many plantation owners to sweep leaves at a rate of 60,000 VND per hectare, a price that helps plantation owners save 40,000-50,000 VND per day while cleaning their gardens 5-6 times faster than before.
The lawn mower costs just over 1 million VND, and making the fan blade and attachment only costs about 50,000 VND, allowing the machine to be used for two purposes. The people in the commune have noticed Trường’s success and have started to improve their own lawn mowers. Anyone who inquires is gladly assisted by Trường.
Bình Thuận Rubber Company has also sent staff to learn about and study the experiences of this leaf blower. To date, dozens of leaf blowers have been put into use in Đức Linh district (Bình Thuận), and during the rubber leaf-shedding season, locals even discuss going to sweep leaves for rubber plantations in Long Khánh and Dầu Giây…
“It’s just a simple improvement by a farmer like me, not a technical innovation as people say,” the 28-year-old farmer expressed.
THU THẢO
