Raising shrimp and crabs commercially is difficult, but breeding them for sale as juveniles is even more challenging. In the tidal areas of Nga Son district, about 5-10 years ago, many pond owners tried, but all failed. To this day, only Mr. Nguyen Van Hung in Hamlet 8, Nga Tan commune, has succeeded thanks to accumulated experience and technical skills, turning it into a lucrative profession.
Nguyen Van Hung's high-tech net house system for raising and breeding shrimp.
From orphan to millionaire
About 300 meters from the left bank of the Len River, viewed from afar, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung's integrated farm appears prosperous. Hundreds of Siamese coconut trees, laden with fruit, cast their shade along the embankment of the aquaculture pond system, making the landscape even more picturesque. In other areas are lush fruit orchards and high-tech industrial shrimp farms in net houses. The entire production area, covering more than 4 hectares, is planned and arranged quite systematically and scientifically .
Leading visitors on a tour of the production model, the owner, who spends his days with his hands and feet covered in mud, introduced the grapefruit orchards with a total of 600 trees that have been bearing fruit for many years. Interspersed among the production areas and ponds are 2,000 guava trees that yield fruit year-round. Notably, the orchard is equipped with a scientific drip irrigation system and fertilized with organic fertilizers produced in-house, following a closed-loop system within the farm. 400 coconut trees, stretching far into the distance, also bring in over 300 million VND in revenue each year, yielding tens of thousands of coconuts.
The farm's livestock and crop farming activities are both economically efficient, but the main source of income for a breakthrough must be aquaculture. According to Mr. and Mrs. Hung's calculations, this integrated farm generates an average annual revenue of over 10 billion VND, bringing in a profit of around 2 billion VND.
This is the result of more than a decade of his family's efforts, overcoming countless hardships, at times almost giving up. He vividly remembers his family's situation in the 1990s when his father died prematurely from a serious illness. His mother toiled to raise their young children, and he had to drop out of school after finishing junior high to work and help support her. It was from the depths of poverty that he forged his will to rise above his circumstances. In 2010 and 2011, Nga Son district had a project and called on the people to bid for this barren swamp area to renovate and build a farm.
“Thinking of myself as a farmer's son, with limited education, I realized that to prosper I needed a large-scale farm, so I borrowed money, bid for land, and invested. My mother and I started from scratch, with no experience, so we had to build from the smallest livestock activities, gradually digging ponds for fish farming… Initially, the investment didn't generate much income, so from 2011 to 2014, we couldn't even make enough money to pay the monthly interest to the bank. We borrowed from one place to cover another, accumulating debt for many years, making it seem impossible to recover at times. However, with determination and hard work, we managed to repay the debts each year and continue investing in infrastructure, which grew larger and larger. To date, the total investment to complete the farm's infrastructure is about 10 billion VND,” Mr. Hung confided.
Mastering the techniques of animal breeding.
Taking advantage of the sunny days of the early months of the year, Mr. Hung is having his workers wash and change the water in the cement tanks. These tanks are where mother shrimp breed and raise their larvae, providing a significant source of income. In the tanks, covered with black netting and with the temperature carefully controlled, millions of shrimp larvae, ranging in size from toothpick to chopstick tip, completely fill the water.
In his five traditional ponds, totaling 10,000 square meters, he raises broodstock shrimp and crabs for breeding. To increase efficiency and production capacity, he also regularly purchases larvae from southern provinces for rearing. According to him, shrimp and crab eggs and larvae are imported from southern hatcheries by air to Vinh or Noi Bai. They are then incubated and raised at his farm in a proactive manner. Raising shrimp and crabs for breeding and rearing is a highly technical activity; for many years, he has employed five technical workers on a regular basis, including one aquaculture engineer.
"In recent years, my facility has sold approximately 200 million shrimp larvae to the market. For crab larvae, I also produce and sell 4 to 5 million clock crabs (a term for crabs about the size of a wristwatch) and about 100 million embryonic larvae," shared the owner, born in 1981.
Currently, the whiteleg shrimp and crabs from Mr. Hung's farm are not only trusted and purchased by pond owners in Nga Son district but are also regularly exported to Ninh Binh province and many other northern provinces. In addition to direct production in his own ponds, he also collaborates with 10 pond owners in Nga Son and Kim Son districts, Ninh Binh province, to breed various aquatic species.
Producing shrimp fry right in Nga Son offers advantages to local aquaculture farmers. Buying fry from southern provinces requires a long journey, resulting in weak fry with a high mortality rate. Furthermore, temperature differences and varying climates require a long adaptation period, slowing down the growth of shrimp and crabs. Not to mention, transportation costs for these aquatic fry increase with distance. These drawbacks are resolved by purchasing fry from his facility.
During the production process, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung also introduced scientific advancements to raise shrimp industrially using high-tech methods. In recent years, he has consistently maintained 1 hectare of net houses for raising whiteleg shrimp.
Nguyen Trung Thuc, Chairman of the Nga Tan Commune's Gardening and Farming Association, said: "Mr. Hung started his integrated economic model and aquaculture with nothing but his bare hands, unlike many business owners who started with a little capital. He began by raising a few sows and a few dozen chickens, then gradually accumulated capital to build his business. Growing up surrounded by sedge, he had no prior experience, but he independently researched and learned, mastering modern aquaculture techniques. His production model is like a small-scale aquaculture breeding center, which we greatly admire."
Text and photos: Le Dong
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