Bamboo rat farming - An effective livelihood in Sang Moc

The output for commercial bamboo rats and bamboo rat breeds of Ms. Luong Thi Nhu's family in Ban Chuong hamlet is quite favorable, with traders coming to the house to buy.

Together with Sang Moc commune officials, we visited the family of Ms. Luong Thi Nhu, in Ban Chuong hamlet - one of the pioneer households raising bamboo rats in the locality. In the cage of about 50m², Ms. Nhu introduced us to each bamboo rat raising area divided by different ages.

After a period of research and realizing that the bamboo rat farming model in some neighboring communes was highly economically efficient, at the end of 2023, Ms. Nhu's family decided to invest in a trial farming. Taking advantage of the old kitchen, she built dozens of brick cells and bought 5 pairs of bamboo rat parents to raise (priced at 1 million VND/pair).

While raising the animals, she learned techniques from her predecessors and through social networks. Thanks to proper care, after just over two months, the female bamboo rats began to reproduce. The family kept the baby bamboo rats to raise, and now there are nearly 200 in the cage, including breeding and commercial bamboo rats.

Ms. Nhu said: From the beginning of 2025, the family started selling bamboo rats, on average 20-30kg of bamboo rat meat per month, with prices ranging from 400,000-420,000 VND/kg; from 10-15 pairs of bamboo rats, prices range from 420,000-500,000 VND/pair. After deducting all expenses, the family earns a profit of about 20 million VND per month.

Seeing the effectiveness of Ms. Nhu's bamboo rat breeding model, many households in Sang Moc commune have come to learn from her experience and boldly invested in experimental breeding. Earlier this year, Mr. Nong Van Duong's family in Na Ca hamlet bought 5 pairs of bamboo rat breeds from Ms. Nhu's house to raise. After nearly 5 months of care, his bamboo rat herd has grown well, increasing to nearly 20.

Mr. Duong said: At first, I was quite worried because I had no experience. But during the process of raising them, I realized that bamboo rats are easy to care for, rarely get sick, and do not require much effort. The main food is bamboo, sugarcane, cassava, corn, elephant grass, all of which are locally available, so the cost is very low. After about 4 months of raising, the cost for each bamboo rat is only about 50,000 VND.

With the advantage of low cost, easy to raise, abundant local food sources, suitable for the conditions of the people in the commune, especially in households with little cultivated land, from a few initial households, up to now in Sang Moc commune there are nearly 20 households raising bamboo rats with a scale of 10 to 200 animals. Most households take advantage of old spaces such as kitchens, pigsties, buffalo and cow pens to save investment costs.

Mr. Mai Duy Yen, Chairman of Sang Moc Commune People's Committee, shared: To avoid the situation of massive development and supply exceeding demand, we will have solutions to support breeding households to complete procedures for licensing and management during the process of raising bamboo rats; mobilize households to join together into cooperative groups to share experiences and product output; coordinate with the district's functional departments to open training classes for people in the commune...

With the initiative of the people and support from the local government, the bamboo rat farming model has opened a new direction, creating sustainable livelihoods, contributing to increasing income and improving the lives of people in the mountainous commune of Sang Moc, the most difficult locality in Vo Nhai district at present.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/kinh-te/202505/nuoi-dui-huong-sinh-ke-hieu-qua-o-sang-moc-7d80f1c/