The giant softshell turtle is a specialty, a farmer in Kien Giang successfully raised it, caught 7 tons and still sold it all.

Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoan, Phu Lam hamlet, Dong Thai commune, An Bien district ( Kien Giang province) said that soft-shell turtles are carnivores. Soft-shell turtles' main food is various types of food that are abundant and available locally. He sold the first batch of 7 tons of soft-shell turtles at a price of 150,000 VND/kg, with a total revenue of more than 1 billion VND.

In 2024, the People's Committee of Dong Thai commune, An Bien district (Kien Giang province) organized for the Association, Commune Unions, Technical Economic Groups and representatives of good farmers and businessmen in the area to visit and exchange experiences on the commercial soft-shell turtle farming model in an earthen pond of Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoan's family in Phu Lam hamlet, Dong Thai commune.

At the tourist attraction, Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoan introduced the turtle farming model. He said that with 6,300m2 ^of ineffective agricultural land, he boldly renovated and built 7 ponds to raise turtles.

Each turtle pond is 900 ^{square meters} wide, he raises a total of 14,000 turtles, the price of turtles is 3,000 VND/turtle, the cost of turtles is 42 million VND.

After 8-10 months of raising, he began to classify soft-shell turtles by size and weight and harvested the first batch with a yield of 7 tons of commercial soft-shell turtles.

Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoan's soft-shell turtles cost 150,000 VND/kg, total revenue is over 1 billion VND, after deducting expenses, the profit is over 400 million VND.

According to Mr. Ngoan, the technique for raising this specialty is also simple: To successfully raise soft-shell turtles, before releasing them into the water, the pond must be dried and lime powder must be used to kill all pathogens.

Commercial soft-shell turtles are caught from the pond of Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoan, a good farmer and businessman in Dong Thai commune, An Bien district (Kien Giang province). Soft-shell turtle farming is a specialty farming model with high economic efficiency.

Most people who raise soft-shell turtles in earthen ponds have low efficiency because the number of soft-shell turtles lost during the raising process. Therefore, during the raising process, it is necessary to fence the pond with Fibro cement sheet to prevent soft-shell turtles from crawling and digging burrows elsewhere.

Turtle ponds must have a separate water supply and drainage system and must have a clean water source to change the water regularly to avoid pollution. Use BKC or potassium permanganate periodically every 15 days to kill bacteria, disinfect, and limit pathogens for turtles.

Soft-shell turtles are carnivores, their main food is trash fish, this is an abundant and locally available food source, so it is very convenient for care.

However, food for soft-shell turtles must be fresh, clean, odorless, and must be mixed with vitamins, minerals, and disease prevention drugs to help this pet increase its resistance and gain weight quickly. For soft-shell turtles 2 months old, feed twice a day, soft-shell turtles 4 months and older only once a day.

It can be seen that raising soft-shell turtles brings high economic efficiency, low risk, and relatively stable output, so Mr. Ngoan's soft-shell turtle raising model has been visited and learned by many households inside and outside the commune.

At the end of the visit, the leaders of Dong Thai Commune People's Committee (An Bien District, Kien Giang Province) directed the Associations and Unions to increase support for households with farming needs to access preferential credit capital to have investment capital to expand the scale; The commune's technical economic group and specialized agencies organized training on knowledge and production experience...

In particular, replicate the soft-shell turtle farming model - a model of raising specialty animals and form cooperatives in production, gradually forming a chain of links in production and product consumption, so that farmers can confidently expand production scale in the coming time.

Source: https://danviet.vn/con-ba-ba-to-bu-la-con-dac-san-ong-nong-dan-kien-giang-nuoi-thanh-cong-bat-7-tan-van-ban-het-20250119220118893.htm