Strong in the army, strong in everyday life

At the age of 68, veteran Nguyen Kim Xua, Co 1 residential group, Du town (Phu Luong) is still enthusiastically developing his family's economy .

From the army soldier

In 1975, at the age of 18, the young man Nguyen Kim Xua followed the sacred call of the Fatherland and joined the army. After only 1 month of enlistment, Saigon was liberated, the country was reunited, and the young soldier was mobilized to perform his duty in Quang Ninh .

Veteran Nguyen Kim Xua recalls: During my time in the army, I was involved in transporting food and goods (by ship at sea) to serve soldiers on duty on land.

Recalling his days in the army, Mr. Kim sadly remembered the ship and the 6 members who were always united, protected each other and performed their assigned tasks well. Day and night at sea, considering the ship as their home, he and his teammates delivered many shipments of supplies to their teammates on land to guard their homeland.

He said: Ships that brave storms to bring goods to the mainland face many dangers. I remember most the time when we were in trouble while transporting goods, the ship encountered storm number 3 (in 1976). At that time, big waves and strong winds sank both the ship and the goods. All the soldiers on board had to use all their strength to pull the ship onto the sandbar and then bail out water from the compartments. Fortunately, shortly after, the storm passed, the water in the ship drained, the soldiers were still able to preserve their numbers and return to normal activities...

The farm of veteran Nguyen Van Xua's family automates many stages of animal husbandry.

According to Mr. Xua, when the war broke out, it was not easy to bring goods from the ship to shore. There were times when goods and necessities were brought safely to the shore before the waves, but they still had to be protected so that the goods could be gathered ashore. Only when the goods were brought safely to the warehouse did he and his teammates breathe a sigh of relief...

After serving in the army for 7 years, in 1982, Mr. Xua was discharged from the army and returned to his hometown and married his old friend who had waited for him for 7 years - Mrs. Nong Thi Sao. From here, his life began with many difficulties and hardships but was still filled with happy laughter.

He said: Having gone through difficult days and witnessed the resilient battles of my comrades, I understand the value of the word " peace " and never back down from the difficulties of "food, clothing, rice, and money".

To large scale livestock farm owners

Returning to his hometown, he was elected as the village chief, then the head of the Inspection Board of Phan Me commune (now Du town). In any position, he always performed well the assigned tasks.

With the desire to build a prosperous life, in 2003, the veteran began to "spend" all his capital, switching from growing tea to investing in a white-feather chicken farm. At this time, his family encountered many difficulties due to lack of capital and knowledge about animal husbandry. He said: Investing in animal husbandry for less than a year, due to not grasping the science and technology, not vaccinating the chickens in time, more than 4,000 chickens died from H5N1 avian influenza, causing losses of up to 70-80 million VND, my wife and I were almost penniless.

Veteran Nguyen Kim Xua once encountered many difficulties due to lack of capital and knowledge about animal husbandry.

For many people, after a heavy failure, losing almost all their capital, they will give up halfway. But for Mr. Xua, it is different. He believes that even war and hardship do not give up, let alone today, living in peacetime, being independent to do business and develop the family economy, he must definitely strive to succeed.

Because of that thought, despite the difficult start, Mr. Xua was not discouraged. He started to learn animal husbandry from experienced farms, participated in vocational training classes, and animal husbandry training classes organized by the provincial Department of Agriculture. He even went to the National Agricultural Extension Center to learn and improve his knowledge about animal husbandry.

While working and learning, he has accumulated a lot of experience in taking care of chickens, so his family's business has grown. Now, each year, he raises about 40,000 chickens, and after deducting expenses, he still makes a profit of about 1 billion VND. His farm also creates jobs for 6 to 7 local workers with an income of about 7 million VND/person/month.

To make use of waste from livestock farming as well as protect the environment, he invested in raising more fish ponds, raising about 30 to 40 pigs/year. The number of chickens that died due to heat, suffocation, etc. were used by him to process into bran for fish and pigs to eat. With this method, each year he has a not small income of 7 to 8 tons of fish and several tons of live pigs.

Mr. Xua and his wife lived happily together in their old age.

With a sharp mind, since 2020, he has started applying science and technology to animal husbandry. He said: I have applied high technology in building barns, using closed barn systems (cold barns), silo systems to store food and connecting to automatic feeders. Thanks to that, I have controlled diseases well, implemented good biosecurity, increased survival rates and weight gain. Automating stages in animal husbandry helps my farm reduce labor and ensure biosecurity in production.

Not only does he automate farming, he also always raises awareness of environmental protection by using probiotics for chickens to feed them so that farming activities do not have unpleasant odors, affecting the quality of the surrounding air. In particular, he strictly applies the VietGAP process in farming to create safe products (in 2023, the farm will be certified to meet VietGAP standards), so the output is quite favorable.

Through many ups and downs, after more than 20 years of raising livestock, Mr. Xua and his wife have built a spacious property and a prosperous life. In 2024, storm No. 3 (in September), the water rose high, the family's 2 barns were submerged in water, chickens died en masse, causing damage of 700 to 800 million VND. However, he still persevered, overcame difficulties, and restored livestock production.

Although he is approaching the age of "seventy", his passion is still burning and he always looks forward to the good things in the future as he is investing in machinery and equipment to automate the entire livestock farming process and pass on his skills to the younger generation.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/xa-hoi/202504/kien-cuong-trong-quan-ngu-manh-me-giua-doi-thuong-f1b2898/