Hà, who is the youngest in her family of four siblings, didn’t do any gardening as a child. But in her adult life she’s learned to love organic farming. She even uses a natural pesticide made with garlic, ginger, chilli and rice wine.
“Organic gardening reminds me of my childhood, when I witnessed my parents working on their garden and rice farm the natural way,” she said.
She said she has been studying the productivity of organic and chemical-based farming.
“I just test plots of vegetables,” she said. “I initially found that vegetables from organic plots grow better. It’s because plants are nourished from ‘green nutrition’, while in chemical farming the fertility of the soil is damaged.”
Hà said that she had not yet analysed the natural composition of the soil being used at organic farms in comparison with soil at pesticide- and chemical-using farms.