People in Tuyen Quang used to plant cassias to create shade. However, cassias had a lot of pests and diseases which affected tea plants. Since 2007, My Lam Tea Joint Stock Company has encouraged farmers to plant neem trees for both the purposes of shade creation and pest resistance.

Accordingly, families in the Quyet Thang production team of My Lam Tea Joint Stock Company (Yen Son District) have planted neem trees into their tea gardens to create shade and prevent pests.

Luong Ngoc Anh's family, part of the Quyet Thang production team of My Lam Tea Joint Stock Company plants shade trees to protect their tea trees from heat waves.

For every two beds of tea trees, one neem tree is planted, each tree is 7 - 10 metres apart from the next. In addition, according to the harvest cycle of 7-8 years, local people then cut down and sell the neem trees to improve their incomes.

Thanks to the shade trees, the tea growing area of Ngan Son Trung Long tea cooperative was not heavily affected by the large scale heat wave in early May. Thereby, its productivity reached nearly 25 tonnes per hectare.

In order to limit the impact of the hot weather and create favourable conditions for tea trees to develop in a stable manner, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has worked with People’s Committees in districts and cities to direct localities to plant shade trees in tea growing areas.