Coming to hamlet 6, Phuc Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, we learned about the porcupine farming profession of old farmer Tran Ngoc Hai - who has been involved in this profession for decades.
Mr. Tran Ngoc Hai said that raising porcupines does not require much capital investment, because the barn is built simply like raising pigs on a household scale. Each cage has an area of 1.5 square meters, the wall is 0.9 meters high. Food for porcupines is also available in agricultural production such as potatoes, cassava, corn, vegetables of all kinds, sugarcane stalks..., so the cost is low. All the food does not need to be cooked or processed, just bring it home and put it in the barn for the porcupines to eat raw. This type of animal also rarely gets sick, almost no signs of illness. For a long time, he has always kept 25 - 30 porcupines in his barn, of which, a part are breeding porcupines.
"In 15 years of raising porcupines, there has only been one time when the porcupines got diarrhea, after that, feeding them green bananas and figs cured them immediately, and no other diseases have been seen. For porcupines that reproduce, they have one litter per year, giving them 1-2 babies. To raise porcupines for meat with the best quality, it requires a raising time of over 12 months, or over 2 years. At that time, the porcupines will reach a weight of over 15 kg/head," said Mr. Hai.
Mr. Hai added that since 2008, when no one in the area raised porcupines, he initially invested in two pairs of porcupines. While raising and learning from experience, up to now, porcupine farming has proven to be successful, each year Mr. Hai's family earns hundreds of millions of dong from selling porcupines for meat. Realizing that porcupines are easy to raise and have low costs, his family has now expanded their porcupine farm to create jobs and increase income for family members.
For any household in the area that needs porcupines for breeding, Mr. Hai will share and guide them on how to raise them. However, in the commune and neighboring communes, there is still no household investing in commercial porcupine breeding.
Mr. Tran Ngoc Hai said that porcupine meat is currently sold on the market for 320,000 - 350,000 VND/kg, but "supply cannot meet demand". This price is high, because before that, there was a time when porcupine meat was down to 250,000 VND/kg.
According to restaurants specializing in porcupine dishes, although porcupine meat is expensive, it is profitable. 10 kg of porcupine meat after being butchered will yield 7.5 - 8 kg of meat, and porcupine meat can also be processed into many attractive dishes, loved by many people./.
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