Le Van Hoa thought it was a joke when he was informed that he was invited to deliver a speech at an international agricultural fair in Indonesia.

But Hoa has indeed left his hometown in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre to be a speaker at the 2014 Parade Pangan Nusantara agricultural fair, which kicked off today, January 15.

Hoa is confident to go from the fruit plantation to the lecture podium thanks to his “experience garnered from being a farmer for decades,” he told Tuoi Tre prior to departure.

Hoa will share his experience and technique of growing seedless grapefruits at a conference held as part of the five-day event.

His technique is to wrap the grapefruit flowers with tiny nets made from zinc to prevent cross pollination with other citrus fruits in the plantation. “The zinc nets will prevent bees from transferring pollens of other flowers to the grapefruit flowers, thus making the fruit seedless,” he explained.

Hoa applied the technique for three crops in a row to make sure that it really works, he recalled.

The 5,000-sq-m crop of seedless grapefruits earns Hoa more than VND300 million (US$14,151) a year.

Many farmers and scientists from across the Mekong Delta have visited his plantation and studied the technique, all have been warmly received by Hoa, who is also willing to share all that he knows about growing seedless grapefruits.

Some people advised him to register to have his technique protected by intellectual property law, but Hoa rejected, saying it would be selfish to keep it to himself.

“The more people that know this technique, the happier I will be because it will increase the quality of Vietnamese produce,” he said.

When asked if he would be nervous speaking in front of the international experts and scientists, Hoa just laughed.

“I even expect them to ask as many questions as possible so that I can tell the world how creative Vietnamese farmers are,” he said.

Hoa also said he would begin his speech by saying “I am a Vietnamese farmer.”