Mr. Tram Minh Thuan and farmers in the cooperative on the rice-shrimp model field.
Although he graduated with a master's degree in economic law, instead of choosing an office job in a big city, Mr. Thuan decided to return to his hometown to establish an agricultural cooperative. Mr. Thuan comes from a farming family, so he has a special attachment to rice. After completing his master's program, he realized that his hometown has great potential for agricultural development, especially in building a cooperative model to support farmers in economic development. Fully aware of the difficulties that local farmers are facing such as lack of capital, technology and product output, he was determined to establish an agricultural cooperative to help them overcome these challenges. In July 2018, Long Hiep Agricultural Cooperative was established with 61 members, with an area of over 50 hectares of rice cultivation, combined with green-legged shrimp farming. Thanks to its effective business, people began to trust and participate, and now the cooperative has 72 members, producing on an area of 220 hectares. “At first, it was very difficult to persuade people to join the cooperative because they saw that I was young, my economic conditions were not yet developed, and many other cooperatives were not operating effectively. I had to try to convince them, committed to providing seeds, fertilizers, scientific and technical guidance, reducing costs, increasing profits, and especially farmers would be able to buy rice at a higher price than the market price, so they trusted and participated,” said Mr. Thuan.
Mr. Thuan also searched for markets for rice products, bringing the organic rice production - combined with green-legged shrimp farming to develop more and more sustainably. Then he decided to switch to making clean rice products from organic rice grains and build a separate rice brand for the cooperative called "Dragon Pearl Seeds". The "Dragon Pearl Seeds" rice product of Long Hiep Agricultural Cooperative has met the 4-star OCOP product standard. "When I had a partner, I decided to switch to making clean rice products from organic rice grains and build a rice brand. After purchasing rice from farmers, I rented a factory to mill it into rice, packaged it, registered the product brand as "Dragon Pearl Seeds" and introduced it to the market", Mr. Thuan said.
Currently, most members of Long Hiep Agricultural Cooperative sow rice varieties such as ST25, OM18, OM5451. In the last summer-autumn crop alone, rice yield reached 6-7.5 tons/ha, higher than in 2024. “When building a rice brand, the cooperative must follow a safe, clean and organic process. To do that, the Cooperative Management Board has put forth a farming process for members to follow, gradually moving from safe, clean to organic. Currently, members do not use pesticides to not only have quality rice products but also gain additional aquatic resources such as giant freshwater prawns,” Mr. Thuan shared.
According to Mr. Thuan, in 2024, the profit of Long Hiep Agricultural Cooperative will be about 1.4 billion VND; in 2023, it will be 1.1 billion VND. Regarding the development orientation of the cooperative in the coming time, Mr. Thuan will buy drones to provide spraying and fertilizing services. In the period of 2025-2030, the cooperative will increase the rice growing area by 30% (an increase of about 100 hectares), along with increasing the output and aiming for export.
In 2020, Mr. Thuan was awarded the Luong Dinh Cua Award by the Central Youth Union. In 2021, he was recognized as one of the TOP 100 outstanding young entrepreneurs. Recently, he was the youngest of 63 farmers honored by the Central Vietnam Farmers' Union as an Outstanding Vietnamese Farmer in 2024.
Article and photos: NGUYEN TRINH
Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/-me-trong-lua-huu-co-a188062.html
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