Creating a livelihood from raising goats for grazing
Vu Muon is one of the mountainous communes with many difficulties in Bach Thong district, Bac Kan province. The natural conditions of the commune are relatively unique with high mountainous terrain, winter is often harsher than other localities.
Goat farming area of Ms. Dinh Thi Tu's household, Chooc Ven village, Vu Muon commune, Bach Thong district, Bac Kan province. Photo: Chien Hoang
Due to the special natural conditions, the selection of suitable crops and livestock always receives special attention from the government and specialized sectors, who encourage and support technical training.
As a household with more than ten years of experience in raising goats for grazing, Ms. Dinh Thi Tu (Chooc Ven village, Vu Muon commune) said that in the past, her family mainly raised goats in high mountainous areas. However, in recent years, people have developed a lot of forest plantations, so the grazing area has been narrowed, so her family has switched to raising goats for grazing.
According to Ms. Tu, semi-free range farming helps to take better care of the goats due to timely supplementing of food and monitoring of disease situations. With a herd of more than 60 goats, Ms. Tu sells from 30 to 40 meat goats, earning more than 70 million VND per year.
Based on the successful models of semi-grazing goat farming in Vu Muon commune, realizing that this is a promising direction, in 2023, the local government has oriented and supported people to develop goat herds from the capital of the Bac Kan Provincial Ethnic Committee, thereby overcoming difficulties and increasing people's income.
Ms. Nong Thi Thom, Trung Tam village, Vu Muon commune, Bach Thong district, Bac Kan province, takes care of the goats distributed from the project at her family's barn. Photo: Chien Hoang
Being a person who was given goats from the production support project, with 7 goats initially, after one year, Ms. Nong Thi Thom's family, Trung Tam village, Vu Muon commune, owned a herd of 14 goats.
Ms. Thom shared that in Vu Muon, although surrounded by forests, there are mainly special-use forests, natural forests, protection forests, and very few production forests, so developing household economies faces many difficulties. Therefore, when the government helped distribute goats from the project, she was very excited.
Ms. Nong Thi Thom, Trung Tam village, Vu Muon commune, Bach Thong district, Bac Kan province, when sharing the meaning of the project's goat support for the poor people in the locality. Photo: Chien Hoang
“The government’s support of goats for poor households has helped people have a livelihood. Raising chickens and pigs requires more investment than raising goats. Raising goats mainly uses leaves available in nature, so when receiving support for breeding goats, the investment in food is not much, especially since there is no need to pay for it. In addition to natural grass, the family also occasionally feeds corn, which is also grown by the family.
Goats are also easy to sell, not difficult to sell. Regarding goat diseases, we are also supported through training. Up here, the mountains are high and cold, so goats often get sick in winter, so being trained in techniques, detecting and treating diseases for goats helps us a lot in the process of taking care of our goats," Ms. Thom added.
Step by step to help people escape poverty
Like Ms. Thom, Ms. Dinh Thi An, Chooc Ven village, Vu Muon commune, also owns a herd of more than 40 goats. Ms. An is also one of the households that received support for breeding goats from the production support project program of the Bac Kan Provincial Ethnic Committee.
Ms. An commented that the programs to support production and economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas are very practical. People benefit a lot from these projects, typically the goat raising project that she and the local people are implementing.
Mr. Dinh Quang Duy, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Vu Muon Commune, visited and inspected the goat farm of Ms. Dinh Thi An (Chooc Ven village, Vu Muon commune, Bach Thong district, Bac Kan province). Photo: Chien Hoang.
According to goat farmers who raise free-range goats in Vu Muon commune, the climate, soil, large rocky hills and many streams are very suitable for raising goats. Goats are naturally clean-loving, the higher the rocky mountains and the more isolated they are, the more the goats will thrive.
Thanks to these advantages, goat farmers only need to invest initial capital to buy breeding animals, while the goat development process mainly depends on the hills and mountains, and the food is from natural grass. In Vu Muon commune, most people raise goats in the form of semi-grazing.
Poor households with financial difficulties are supported with breeding animals through the production support program for ethnic minorities and mountainous areas of the Bac Kan Provincial Ethnic Committee, which has contributed to helping people here have a stable livelihood.
According to statistics from the Farmers' Association of Vu Muon Commune, the whole commune currently has more than 30 households raising goats with a total herd of over 700 goats, mainly concentrated in the villages of Chooc Ven, Toc Lu, and Coi Co. Of the 30 goat-raising households in the commune, 11 households have received support from the project, and their goat herds are all growing well and have stable incomes.
Talking to Dan Viet reporter , Mr. Dinh Quang Duy, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Vu Muon commune, Bach Thong district emphasized that with projects supporting production development, specifically the goat farming model, initial assessments show many effectiveness.
“With this project, households implementing the project do not have to pay for it, they only receive and take care of the allocated goats, so there are many advantages. However, the current difficulty is that there is little productive forest land, many households have planned to grow fruit trees and forests, so the grazing area is gradually shrinking. That is why the model of raising semi-grazed goats is very suitable,” Mr. Duy added.
According to the Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Vu Muon Commune, to support farmers in developing sustainable goat farming, the local government has coordinated with relevant sectors to organize training courses on scientific and technical knowledge of livestock farming, disease prevention in goat herds; and provide capital support for people to invest in expanding and improving the quality of their herds.
With favorable conditions for developing goat farming, the profession of raising semi-grazed mountain goats in Vu Muon commune of Bach Thong district, Bac Kan province is considered a suitable direction and brings good income to many households with many difficulties in the commune, helping them escape poverty, become rich, and actively contribute to the movement of building new rural areas in the locality.
Comment (0)