Get rich from smart agriculture

Many young people have quit their jobs in big cities and provinces to return to their hometowns to start businesses and have succeeded with agricultural production models, circular agriculture, and clean agriculture.

A typical example is the home-based stingless beekeeping model of Mr. Nguyen Huu Truc, born in 1992 in Bao An ward, Phan Rang-Thap Cham city, which brings in an income of hundreds of millions of VND/month.

After several failures with the traditional honey beekeeping model, in 2015, when cleaning up the remaining wooden and paper boxes used to raise honey bees in his garden, Mr. Truc accidentally discovered three colonies of stingless bees ( scientific name: Stingless bees) staying there.

With his passion and experience in beekeeping, he kept three colonies of stingless bees for experimental breeding. During the breeding process, Mr. Truc discovered that this species of bee has high vitality, good disease resistance, and very good ability to find food in the wild (stingless bees do not eat sugar but only suck nectar and bring pollen back to the nest to create honey). Stingless bee honey has a characteristic aroma and contains more nutrients than traditionally farmed honey.

With favorable conditions for food sources from the flower garden, the stingless bee colony reproduced quickly. Mr. Truc decided to quit his job at a bank to start a new career. He focused on expanding the stingless bee colony to sell the breed to people who wanted to raise them for honey to improve their health.

In 2018, with a capital of 100 million VND borrowed from relatives and a loan of 100 million VND from the Ninh Thuan Provincial Youth Union from the capital to support young entrepreneurs, Mr. Truc built a house of more than 40 square meters in the garden and invested in a ventilation system, fans, and iron shelves to hold beekeeping boxes. He implemented the technique of separating the colony to breed by raising queen bee eggs separately. In 2021, this model won the first prize of the "5th Ninh Thuan Youth Startup Creative Ideas Competition".

From 2021 to now, Mr. Truc has sold 50-200 stingless bee colonies each month, at a price of two million VND/hive. From the initial three stingless bee colonies, the scale has now increased to 400-500 colonies. He has now become a seed supplier for many breeders across the country, and at the same time established a company and developed "JiChi stingless bees".

He also built a website and YouTube channels to promote the stingless bee breeding model and products such as stingless honey and stingless bee glue. In 2023 and 2024, revenue from supplying honey, breeds and other products will reach more than 600 million VND/year. He also cooperated with seven members to expand the model to 2,000-3,000 colonies to supply to consumers.

In addition, there are many young people who have successfully started their own businesses, such as: Le Minh Vuong, born in 1992 in Luong Cach village, Ho Hai commune, Ninh Hai district with the model "Applied circular agriculture combined with eco-tourism to experience sustainable agriculture". This model won the Encouragement Prize at the "Rural Youth Startup Competition 2023", organized by the Central Youth Union.

In 2024, Mr. Vuong's circular agriculture startup project and earthworms were recognized by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. The project brought in hundreds of millions of VND/year in revenue, creating jobs for many local workers with an income of 4-6 million VND/month.

Similarly, Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Uyen Trinh, in Luong Cang 1 village, Nhon Son commune, Ninh Son district, started a business with the model "Replicating the model of growing and processing products from Syrup fruit" and won the first prize in the "Ninh Thuan Province Creative Startup Competition 2024". Up to now, the Syrup garden with an area of over 1,500 m2 has brought in a revenue of 300 million VND/year, creating jobs for many workers.

Mr. Le Trung Thu, born in 1993, in My Binh ward, Phan Rang-Thap Cham city, said: In 2015, after graduating from the Faculty of Business Administration at Van Lang University, he stayed in Ho Chi Minh City to start a business. In 2021, although at that time he was the owner of a coffee business chain that brought in a good income, he decided to return to Ninh Thuan to start a business in the post-harvest processing of agricultural products, in order to contribute to limiting the situation of farmers falling into the situation of good harvest but low price, bad harvest but high price after each crop season.

After returning to his hometown, Mr. Thu established T&H Food Company Limited with the brand name Rangfarm. After two years of processing and trading products such as dried grapes, dried apples, mango jam, grape jam in a 50 m2 factory, bringing in quite a profit, Mr. Thu boldly invested in expanding the factory to 250 m2, equipping it with modern machinery such as cold dryers, automatic wine filling machines, etc. to process a variety of products and increase capacity.

From 2024 to present, Mr. Thu has expanded his dealerships in many provinces and cities with seven product lines, including: dried grapes, dried apples, mango jam, grape jam, apple cider vinegar, wine, distilled grape wine... with revenue reaching more than one billion VND/year, creating jobs for many workers.

Secretary of Ninh Thuan Provincial Youth Union Hoang Huu Phuc commented: Each young person has different ideas, initiatives, and product creations to start a business, but the similarity is that they all have a lot of practical experience in production labor. They have the aspiration to become rich with their knowledge and youthful enthusiasm, becoming a shining example for other young people to learn and follow. New products from creative models, applying science and technology to production bring high economic value, creating a difference for specific products, meeting the needs of the program "One commune, one product" not only bring benefits to themselves but also open the way for local farmers to new production methods to increase the value of agricultural products in the future.

The youth start-up movement in Ninh Thuan province has been spreading with many new ideas. However, according to the Secretary of Ninh Thuan Provincial Youth Union Hoang Huu Phuc, the movement is facing many difficulties, especially the support capital mainly relies on loans to create jobs from the Social Policy Bank, but the loan amount is limited, not meeting the actual needs of young people. This can make many young people impatient to realize ideas according to long-term development strategies, so the start-up results are not as expected.

Mr. Le Trung Thu said that young people really want to access loans from preferential credit programs to solve employment, start a business, and establish a career with favorable conditions. Specifically, young people are not required to have collateral and prove their income when borrowing capital... because when starting a business, young people have difficulty meeting these regulations.

Mr. Thu proposed: "The Provincial People's Committee needs to establish a support point with digital transformation equipment and facilities, as a destination for young people to research and exchange experiences, thereby perfecting their startup ideas and projects. At the same time, the province needs to soon establish a specialized department to support young people, regularly meet, listen to the thoughts and aspirations of young entrepreneurs and promptly resolve problems, helping young people feel secure in achieving their goals of contributing to the socio-economic development of the locality."

Vice Chairman of Ninh Thuan Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Long Bien said: In mid-March, at the Dialogue Conference between the Provincial People's Committee leaders and young people in 2025, with the theme "Opportunities and challenges of young people in the socio-economic development process of Ninh Thuan province in the period of 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050", the provincial leaders listened to their thoughts and aspirations, and noted proposals on mechanisms and policies to support young people starting businesses.

In the coming time, the province will continue to improve mechanisms and policies, especially building and perfecting policies and laws on loan procedures for youth start-up and economic development projects to remove difficulties and obstacles, meeting start-up requirements in the new situation.

The Provincial Youth Union will build and develop Youth Cooperatives, Savings and Loan Groups, and economic development linkage models among youth to mobilize resources to support youth. All levels and sectors will coordinate to implement various forms of connecting startup ideas with potential investors, supporting youth to successfully implement creative startup ideas and projects, and strive to become rich.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/lam-giau-tu-nong-nghiep-thong-minh-post867028.html