The story of "The King of Earthworms"

Driven by passion and a desire to contribute to the development of green, environmentally friendly agriculture, for over 10 years, Mr. Le Minh Vuong (born in 1992, residing in Luong Cach village, Xuan Hai commune) has been dedicated to researching earthworms and successfully started his business with a "Circular Agriculture using Earthworms" model, generating hundreds of millions of VND in income per year.

Success from circular agriculture

After working for eight years at several earthworm farming businesses in Ho Chi Minh City and a company specializing in organic fruit production in the southern part of the province, at the end of 2022, Le Minh Vuong (also known by the nickname "Vuong the Earthworm Farmer") decided to quit his well-paying and stable job to return to his hometown and start a business with a "Circular Agriculture model using earthworms." Vuong calls it "a return to my passion, to the land, to the profession, and to the ideals that I have always believed to be right."

Le Minh Vuong and his product display booth at the closing conference and awards ceremony of the Khanh Hoa Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition 2025.

On a ^4,000m² plot of land in Tan Son 1 residential area (Bao An ward), Mr. Le Minh Vuong started his business with a garden-pond-livestock-earthworm farming model, combined with agro-tourism. He built and developed this model based on earthworm farming, which he had researched since 2014, and combined it with successful circular agriculture models from around the world and domestically. He designed and built his farm into several areas: growing super-yielding coconuts combined with free-range chicken farming; raising earthworms; producing earthworm extract, various types of liquid biological fertilizers (such as banana GE, aloe vera GE, indigenous IMO microbial preparations...); and an office for work, product display, and receiving guests. To minimize costs, he researched and formulated his own probiotics and performed many other tasks on the farm.

Mr. Le Minh Vuong received a letter of commendation from the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Le Minh Hoan (now Vice Chairman of the National Assembly), in 2023.

“Simply put, circularity is the reuse of farm waste for fertilizer or animal feed. Specifically, spoiled vegetables and fruits are reused as feed for earthworms; herbs and spices are used as biological pesticides for crops; earthworm castings are used to fertilize vegetables and fruit trees; and earthworms are used to make earthworm extract or as fish feed. Integrating earthworms into the circular garden-pond-livestock system is an extremely important link, optimizing feed, reducing fertilizer costs, and creating added value for subsequent earthworm farming activities,” said Mr. Le Minh Vuong.

With passion, enthusiasm, a strong foundation in agricultural knowledge, and entrepreneurial experience, Mr. Vuong has dedicated significant time and effort to researching and producing 14 types of earthworm leachate and plant nutrients for the market. Besides fertilizer and earthworm leachate, he also sells earthworm breeding stock and earthworm meat to customers. His regular customers come from all over the province, the Central Highlands, and the Mekong Delta. After three years of starting his business, his farm is now quite profitable. Currently, products such as earthworm leachate, earthworm fertilizer, earthworm breeding stock, earthworm meat, various plant nutrients, and biological pesticides help him earn between 20 and 40 million VND per month. Not only does it provide a stable income for himself, but Mr. Vuong's farm also creates regular employment for one worker with a salary of 5 million VND per month and two part-time workers. Besides his work on the farm, he also participates in technology transfer projects for treating shrimp pond sludge and livestock waste, gives guest lectures, and sells books to supplement his income. He is also a shareholder in another earthworm farming project with 50 farms (100 m² ^/ farm) in Ho Chi Minh City.

Mr. Vuong shared: "To achieve the success I have today, I've had four failed startup attempts. These failures taught me valuable lessons, the biggest of which is patience, perseverance, and unwavering effort to achieve success. Besides passion and dedication, in green agriculture, entrepreneurs need to be self-sufficient in capital, using short-term gains to support long-term growth; combining the four key elements of 'Water, fertilizer, labor, and seeds' with the fifth element of innovation, applying science and technology, and digital transformation in agriculture to generate profits, move quickly, and go far. Furthermore, partners in entrepreneurship also play a very important role."

Towards becoming a farmer-scientist.

Throughout his years of dedication to earthworm farming, Mr. Le Minh Vuong has shared his passion and knowledge about this "soil improvement machine" with others by writing books with the motto "everyone knows and does it together." Mr. Vuong is the author of several books guiding earthworm farming and clean agriculture, including: "Innovation for Service"; "Technical Handbook on Earthworm Farming and its Application in Clean Agriculture"; and "Technical Handbook on Earthworm Farming Using Fresh Pig Manure." In 2023, he collaborated with the Labor Publishing House to release the book "Circular Agriculture Applications," which sold out 1,000 copies within six months of its release and is preparing for a second edition. In addition to his Vietnamese books, Mr. Vuong also collaborated on an English-language handbook on the application of earthworms in organic agriculture, which is sold on the Amazon e-commerce platform to international customers. Mr. Vuong's farm is always open to welcome members, farmers, cooperatives, and students to visit, experience, and learn about circular agriculture for free.

Mr. Le Minh Vuong checks the quality of earthworm extract.

“In the near future, I will enroll in a Master's program in Crop Science, constantly striving to become a ‘Farmer’s Scientist’ specializing in circular agriculture using earthworms, solid waste treatment, organic fertilizer production, and soil improvement. Born and raised in a farming family, I understand the hardships of farmers and always want to explore and research solutions to help them increase the value of their agricultural products. Soon, I will open a second farm facility of approximately 4 hectares to implement the model and serve visitors for tours and experiences. I will also transfer my circular agriculture model using earthworms to farmers who need it, to spread green and sustainable agriculture to more people,” Mr. Vuong said.

With a passion for earthworm farming and circular agriculture, Mr. Le Minh Vuong has participated in many startup competitions and achieved some remarkable results, such as: Second prize in the "Khanh Hoa Innovative Startup Competition 2025"; a consolation prize in the "Rural Youth Startup Project Competition 2023" organized by the Central Youth Union; and a letter of commendation from the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Le Minh Hoan (now Vice Chairman of the National Assembly), in 2023.

LAM ANH

 

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/xa-hoi/202601/chuyen-cua-vuong-trun-que-88e0fd3/