The story of a Thai farmer escaping poverty

Mr. Quang Van Quoc introduced the bamboo rat farming model to the villagers.

Starting from 20 pairs of breeding rats

Unlike many other households in the area who choose to grow coffee and plums, Quang Van Quoc boldly started a business with a model of raising special bamboo rats. After nearly 10 years, his farm has become an economic bright spot in the Northwest mountains and forests.

Quang Van Quoc confided that before he became interested in bamboo rats, he, like many other villagers, cultivated crops on the fields. However, the income from the fields was unstable and not enough to cover his family's living expenses. With the desire to improve his life, he decided to find a new direction.

“At first, I encountered many failures due to lack of experience, especially in the mating stage. However, with perseverance in learning techniques and accumulating experience, I was able to develop the bamboo rat population steadily,” Quoc shared.

The bamboo rat cage is divided into 50x50cm square cells made of ceramic tiles, with a total area of 120m2. The ideal temperature for bamboo rats is 25 - 32 degrees Celsius. Covering the cage to keep it warm in winter and cool in summer helps the bamboo rat reproduce evenly and grow quickly. Each year, the mother bamboo rat can give birth to 2 to 4 litters, each litter has 2 to 5 babies. After 8 months of age, the bamboo rat has a body length of 35 - 40cm, weighs 1.5 - 2kg and is capable of reproduction.

To date, his farm has more than 1,000 rats, raised in a closed cage of 120 square meters, equipped with a ventilation fan and misting system to ensure ideal temperature. "The rat is a rodent so it is very easy to raise. The rat's food is simple and easy to find, such as bamboo stems, elephant grass stems, sugarcane stems, corn stalks...". An adult rat only needs to eat a piece of sugarcane or a piece of bamboo each day. For young rats, the food portion is smaller. To supplement nutrition, he also feeds the rats elephant grass roots and corn stalks, said Mr. Quoc.

Bamboo rat food, elephant grass stems, sugarcane stems, corn stalks...

Stable revenue

Thanks to simple breeding techniques, available food, and the high resistance of the bamboo rats, the herd development is very good. Each year, Mr. Quoc sells about 1,000 bamboo rats for meat and breeding bamboo rats. With the meat price of 600,000 VND/kg, bamboo rats for breeding from 3.5 to 4.2 million VND/pair and peach-cheeked bamboo rats up to 18 to 20 million VND/pair, the profit after deducting costs reaches over 500 million VND/year. "Mung bamboo meat is a specialty, customers order all year round. Many restaurants in the city even deposit a month in advance," said Mr. Quoc.

What is special about Mr. Quoc's bamboo rat farming model is its sustainability and ability to be replicated. Thanks to making the most of available food sources, the cost of raising them is very low, while the economic value is many times higher than that of raising normal livestock and poultry. In addition, bamboo rat manure is also composted with cow and buffalo manure to fertilize coffee and elephant grass, helping the soil to be loose, the plants to grow well, and closing the production cycle.

Not only does he develop his family’s economy, Mr. Quoc also enthusiastically shares his experience and techniques in raising bamboo rats with the people in his village and commune. Many households, after learning, have boldly invested and initially had a stable source of income. Since then, people’s lives have improved significantly, contributing to sustainable poverty reduction in the locality.

Quang Van Quoc's bamboo rat breeding model is a vivid demonstration of the spirit of daring to think, daring to do, daring to change to rise up and get rich. In the midst of the difficult Northwest mountainous region, he affirmed that if people know how to choose the right direction, they can completely build a prosperous and fulfilling life right on their homeland.

Currently, in addition to providing breeding and commercial bamboo rats for the provincial market, Mr. Quoc has also received many invitations for cooperation from other localities. He is planning to expand the scale, aiming to build the brand " Son La Bamboo Rat" to increase the value of the product.

People visit Mr. Quoc's bamboo rat farming model.

According to him, the potential of raising bamboo rats is still very large because the consumption market is stable, while the initial investment capital is not too high, and the raising techniques are not too complicated. The most important thing is that the breeder must be persistent, diligent in observing and learning to grasp the reproductive habits and take care of the bamboo rats effectively.

“Today’s success is thanks to not being afraid of change. If we only rely on farming, it will be difficult to escape poverty. I hope that more and more people will be bold enough to try, together to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty, and get rich right in their homeland,” Quoc shared.