'The key to escaping poverty from the deer farming profession in Ha Tinh'

TPO - Once a species accustomed to living in the mountains and forests, spotted deer have now become the “adopted animal to help alleviate poverty” of the people in the mountainous areas of Ha Tinh. Thanks to the exploitation of natural potential and the application of technical advances, deer farming has not only helped many households change their lives but also contributed significantly to the sustainable poverty reduction.

Stable livelihood, helping many households escape poverty

For a long time, people in the mountainous district of Ha Tinh have known how to domesticate sika deer, raising them to get antlers as medicine to improve health. In the 1990s, sika deer farming began to develop strongly, from small-scale farming, to now there are farms raising hundreds of deer, earning billions of dong each year.

For many years now, thanks to bold investment in expanding barns to develop deer farming, Ms. Phan Thi Linh (67 years old, residing in Son Giang commune) has had a stable income from selling breeding animals and harvesting antlers. Deer farming not only helps her family escape poverty but also becomes a sustainable way to get rich right in her homeland.

Deer farming helps many households in Ha Tinh get rich.

Mrs. Linh's family's livestock area is located right next to the main house, with an area of ​​about 100 m², divided into 10 pens. Each pen is about 10 m² wide, with a solid cement floor, surrounded by wooden crates, and a tiled or corrugated iron roof, ensuring a cool space in the summer and warm in the cold. Thanks to careful care, her deer herd is always healthy and growing well.

According to Ms. Linh, deer are easy to raise, rarely get sick, and their main food is leaves from trees in the forest, grass, corn, and cassava. The most important thing is to keep the barn clean and dry, regularly clean it, and avoid mold so that the deer do not get sick.

Sika deer farming in Ha Tinh brings high income.

“If the barn is large, you can raise two to three deer, or even a whole herd like on large farms. However, with the household model, I find raising each deer separately is the most effective, both to avoid deer fighting each other and to make cleaning and care easier,” Ms. Linh shared.

Thanks to her mastery of techniques and her diligence in learning, Ms. Linh's deer herd is increasingly reproducing well, bringing in over 100 million VND in revenue each year from selling breeding animals and harvesting antlers. Not only helping her family escape poverty, Ms. Linh also shares her experience and supports breeding animals for many households in the area to develop the model together.

“From a near-poor household, my family now has enough to eat and save. Almost every family in this area raises, at least 3, sometimes up to dozens of deer,” Ms. Linh shared.

Sustainable economic development

For many years, Huong Son district (old) has been considered the “capital” of deer farming. This is a famous specialty farming model not only in Ha Tinh but also in the whole country. Deer farming here is mainly concentrated in the communes of Son Giang, Son Hong, Kim Hoa…, where natural conditions are favorable, people are experienced and have been involved in the profession for many generations.

Not only does it help stabilize livelihoods and alleviate poverty, deer farming has also become the local “economic spearhead”, bringing in hundreds of billions of dong in revenue each year. Many households not only live well off by selling antlers, but also “make money” by owning deer that meet breeding standards, with economic value many times higher than that of normal deer.

This year, the family of Mr. Nguyen Van Duc (55 years old, residing in Son Hong commune) earned more than 70 million VND from deer farming. Mr. Duc shared that in the past, his family faced many difficulties, income mainly depended on farming, so life was unstable, lacking everything.

People are excited to harvest deer antlers.

Since he boldly invested in raising deer for velvet, his family's economy has gradually improved. Raising deer not only helped him escape poverty sustainably, but also created conditions for him to accumulate capital, have food and savings, and take care of his children's education until university.

Mr. Duc added that deer are easy to raise, have few diseases, low care costs but bring high economic value, especially from deer antlers. Thanks to that, his family is increasingly confident in sticking with the profession, and is also willing to share experiences to help many other households in the commune develop this model, contributing to improving life and promoting the local economy.

“Raising deer for velvet antlers is very profitable now, so we are completely confident in sticking with the job. The main job is taking care of the animals, which does not require too much effort or initial investment. Thanks to that, my family's economy is now more stable than before, saving from 50 to 70 million VND each year, having an amount to take care of life and children's education," said Mr. Duc.

According to statistics, the total herd of deer in Huong Son district (old) is currently over 47,000, of which about 22,350 produce velvet antlers, with an estimated output of 20 tons/year. With an average selling price of about 12 million VND/kg, velvet antlers alone have helped local people earn over 200 billion VND this year.

In addition to income from deer antlers, people also have significant profits from selling deer breeds, estimated to bring in more than 100 billion VND per year.

Currently, deer farming is also identified as one of the key agricultural development directions, contributing to promoting the national target program on sustainable poverty reduction and new rural construction in Ha Tinh.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/chia-khoa-thoat-ngheo-tu-nghe-nuoi-huou-sao-ha-tinh-post1795042.tpo