After 35 years of fish farming, the female billionaire farmer from Lao Cai received a certificate of merit from the Prime Minister.

After more than 3 decades of working in aquaculture, Ms. Hoang Thi Chap in Luong Do village, Coc San commune, Lao Cai city, Lao Cai province has become a billionaire thanks to raising commercial carp, grass carp, tilapia and producing fish fry for the people.

Video : Ms. Hoang Thi Chap, Luong Do village, Coc San commune, Lao Cai city, Lao Cai province takes care of the parent fish.

More than 3 decades of experience in fish farming

In 1990, Ms. Hoang Thi Chap took over and subcontracted more than 2 hectares of contracted rice fields and asked for permission from the local authorities to convert them into ponds for fish farming. In the early years, due to difficulties in investment capital and the lack of pond banks, Ms. Chap and her family turned over each piece of land to grow rice. At the same time, some low-lying areas were converted into ponds, ensuring conditions for raising F1 carp, also known as local carp.

Ms. Hoang Thi Chap, Luong Do village, Coc San commune, Lao Cai city, Lao Cai province, takes care of the parent fish for breeding. Photo: Spring.

Ms. Hoang Thi Chap shared: Step by step, to overcome the difficulty in capital, my family hired people to dig and build ponds to raise carp, grass carp, tilapia, bighead carp, and silver carp for sale on the market. At that time, the price of meat fish was high, so we were very excited. Later, many places also raised a lot, causing the output price to be low.

In 2005, realizing that the source of seeds for local farmers was scarce and many other localities such as Yen Bai and Phu Tho needed a large source of seeds to raise in cages, to raise crispy carp...; Ms. Chap traveled to the Institute of Aquaculture Research - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment ) to get hybrid carp and parent grass carp to raise for breeding.

The brood fish weighing 5-10kg/fish of Ms. Hoang Thi Chap's family, Luong Do village, Coc San commune, Lao Cai city, Lao Cai province. Photo: Mua Xuan.

According to Ms. Chap, parent fish are the prerequisite factor in fish seed production. If parent fish do not meet the standards, it will lead to low reproductive quality and low hatching rate. Therefore, the first step in developing fish seeds is to carefully select parent fish that are healthy and have a clear origin.

In addition, when raising parent fish, hybrid carp must be raised for 12-15 months before they start laying their first batch of eggs. But when the carp lays its second batch of eggs, they must be incubated as breeding fish.

Explaining this method of raising, Ms. Chap said: The first batch of egg-laying fish will be smaller in number, the fry will be young, and will grow slowly. Therefore, the second batch will be purer, the fry will be stronger, grow faster, and have much better quality.

For grass carp, it must be raised for at least 2 years to lay eggs and successfully hatch them into fingerlings. To ensure quality and good fingerling productivity, parent fish that are 5-6 years old will be replaced with a new batch of parent fish.

When the parent fish reach 5-6 years old, they will be sold as meat fish to replace the new parent fish. Photo: NVCC.

Currently, Ms. Chap’s family has 4 broodstock ponds, each with an area of ​​1,500 - 4,000m2 and 7 fish breeding ponds. Thanks to raising and caring for the broodstock according to technical processes, Ms. Hoang Thi Chap now has more than 1,000 hybrid carp, grass carp, and tilapia parents to produce fish, many of which have reached a weight of 5 - 10 kg.

On average, each month, Ms. Chap's family supplies people inside and outside the province with 500,000 - 600,000 hybrid carp and tilapia fry and more than 1 ton of grass carp fry, earning hundreds of millions of dong.

Hybrid carp are bought and raised by many people for food. Photo: Spring.

In addition, taking advantage of empty ponds, Ms. Chap raises commercial fish to sell around Tet. In 2024 alone, Ms. Chap sold 13 tons of carp, tilapia, and grass carp, earning more than 500 million VND.

Learn fish seed production from aquaculture engineers

Sharing her experience in raising fish fry, Ms. Hoang Thi Chap confided: My family has been producing fish fry for decades without going to any school. My uncle (a sworn friend of my father-in-law), Mr. Vu Tien Dat, from Hoa Lu, Ninh Binh province, passed on his experience and guided me on how to care for, raise, and successfully raise fish fry for sale on the market.

According to Ms. Chap, Mr. Dat is a retired aquaculture engineer who used to work in Hoang Lien Son province (old) and has provided advice and technical support on fish breeding and breeding for the family.

Thanks to that, the family has acquired the technique of producing fish fry and has maintained and developed it until today. Currently, Ms. Chap's son has graduated from university with a major in aquaculture and returned to his hometown to continue his career in producing fish fry to serve the people.

The fish farm area of ​​Ms. Hoang Thi Chap's family, Luong Do village, Coc San commune, Lao Cai city, Lao Cai province. Photo: Spring.

"Recalling the early days of starting to raise parent fish to produce fish fry, my family encountered many difficulties, especially lack of capital and experience. Especially the weather and climate were unfavorable, the fish got sick... But with a passion for the job, my family both built models and learned from real life experiences in raising fish and raising fish fry. At the same time, we were enthusiastically guided by the officials of Coc San commune and the agricultural extension officers of Lao Cai city to apply scientific and technical advances in animal husbandry such as investing in automatic fish feeders, water fans for ponds to regulate temperature...", Ms. Hoang Thi Chap confided.

Thanks to the fish farm of Ms. Hoang Thi Chap's family, many households in Luong Do village, Coc San commune, Lao Cai city have developed fish farming, increased their income, become rich, and built new, spacious and solid houses.

Many households in Coc San commune, Lao Cai city have become rich from commercial fish farming. Photo: Spring.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Vice President of the Farmers' Association of Lao Cai City, said: Ms. Hoang Thi Chap's family is one of the typical examples of farmers in the emulation movement of good farmers in production and business in the locality. She has helped and supported many households in Coc San village and commune with capital, seeds, and fish farming techniques to escape poverty.

From raising fish fry, Ms. Hoang Thi Chap's family has been recognized as a good farmer and business household at all levels for many consecutive years; received a Certificate of Merit from the Prime Minister, was honored by the Vietnam Farmers' Association as an "Outstanding Vietnamese Farmer" in 2020 and was honored at the 6th National Conference to honor good farmers and businessmen, period 2017-2022...

Source: https://danviet.vn/35-nam-theo-nghe-nuoi-ca-nu-ty-phu-nong-dan-lao-cai-duoc-thu-tuong-chinh-phu-tang-bang-khen-20250302155836476.htm