Bridge engineer returns home to get rich from raising bamboo rats, earning billions

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That is the story of Mr. Le Van Lam (34 years old, in Tan Ninh commune, Thanh Hoa province). Graduated from the University of Transport Industry with a degree in bridge and road engineering, he has been working hard in the sun and wind on construction sites all over the country.

In 2016, the salary of a bridge engineer was 15 million VND per month, but living far away from his family, struggling through the sun and rain, the young man was determined to return and get rich on his homeland.

Mr. Le Van Lam returned to his hometown to develop livestock farming.

Realizing the potential from his parents' many years of raising bamboo rats in the countryside, Lam put his job aside and returned to his hometown to start learning and starting a business with bamboo rats.

“Many friends at that time thought that Lam was impulsive, leaving his job with a good salary to raise livestock. Moreover, during the years 2008-2013, bamboo rat meat was still unfamiliar to the Northern market, there was no outlet,” said Mr. Lam.

To find a new direction, instead of just focusing on caring for and raising the bamboo rats on the farm, Lam also started developing sales channels and finding outlets for the products. No longer the traditional bamboo rats, Lam connected with acquaintances to go to Thailand to buy large-sized bamboo rats to raise. 15 pairs of 4-month-old bamboo rats were brought back to the family farm for breeding.

Bamboo rat farming model develops on a scale of thousands of bamboo rats.

With the technical support of the parents, the bamboo rat farm soon overcame initial difficulties, the animals grew quickly and evenly.

Get rich from the homeland

For 3 years, instead of selling breeding rats and commercial rats, Lam's family focused on breeding to expand the scale of farming. In 2020, realizing that the market in the northern provinces began to favor rat meat, Lam focused on promoting on social networking sites. The number of customers ordering breeding rats and commercial rats increased day by day.

To date, Lam’s farm in Tan Ninh commune is raising 1,000 parent bamboo rats. Each year, it sells 2 tons of commercial bamboo rats and nearly 1,000 breeding bamboo rats to the market.

The commercial peach-cheeked bamboo rat breed is raised to have a large weight.

In addition to selling breeds, Lam also signed a 10-year contract to link breeding and product consumption, and provided a set of books on breeding and disease prevention for customers in need.

“Peach-cheeked bamboo rats are considered to be a highly economically efficient livestock. In particular, Thai peach-cheeked bamboo rats are fast-breeding livestock, with 2-3 litters per year, each litter usually giving birth to 6 babies; reaching a weight of 4-6 kg when fully grown. The current selling price is 800,000 VND/kg of commercial products. Breeding bamboo rats range from 4-6 million VND/pair depending on age and quality,” said Mr. Lam.

The farm owner said that, up to now, in addition to the local bamboo rat breeding model, the family has also established a cooperative for animal breeding and conservation, with a farm scale of 3,000 bamboo rats in Thai Nguyen province.

Mr. Lam said that raising bamboo rats is not difficult, the important thing is the standard breed. Whether it is the native bamboo rat or the imported peach-cheeked bamboo rat, the main food is still bamboo, corn, and sugarcane. In the morning, the rats eat bamboo and sugarcane cut into 20 cm long pieces, plus a little corn kernels. In the afternoon, the workers cook rice, mix it with old bamboo powder, corn powder, and pellets to feed the rats. In particular, the cage needs to be built discreetly, warm in winter, cool in summer, and in a high place to avoid the rats from getting pneumonia.

Mr. Lam also expanded the model, raising porcupines and civets.

Each year, Mr. Lam's farm of 1,000 bamboo rats in Tan Ninh commune alone generates a revenue of 2 billion VND. The farm also provides regular jobs for 5 workers with a good income. In addition to raising bamboo rats, Mr. Lam's farm also raises porcupines and civets to diversify products and increase income.

Local government leaders have assessed Mr. Le Van Lam’s bamboo rat farming model as a key economic model of Tan Ninh commune. The commune is guiding the farm owner to complete the procedures for renting farm land, to expand the farming scale, creating more jobs for local workers.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/ky-su-cau-duong-ve-que-lam-giau-tu-nuoi-dui-thu-nhap-tien-ti-post1793671.tpo