Raising giant freshwater prawns, giant grass carp in rice fields, and pigs, a Quang Tri man earns 12 billion

Visiting Mr. Ho Van Duong's integrated farm in An Binh village, Thanh An commune, Cam Lo district ( Quang Tri province), we were surprised by the prosperous and well-organized property, with fish ponds and pig farms nestled among shady coconut trees.

Mr. Duong confided that, historically, no one has ever become rich from growing rice or potatoes. Therefore, to become wealthy on one's own land, one must change their way of thinking and doing things.

But changing the way things are done is a difficult question that has been bothering Mr. Duong for a long time.

And then, with his diligent nature and constant desire to learn new things, in 2003, he discussed with his wife the idea of ​​leasing a low-lying rice paddy area of ​​about 7 hectares, located about 1 km from their house, to develop a rice-fish farming model.

Mr. Ho Van Duong, an outstanding farmer from An Binh village, Thanh An commune, Cam Lo district (Quang Tri province), harvests freshwater prawns at his family's integrated farm. Mr. and Mrs. Duong built this integrated farm by renting abandoned and low-lying land in the area.

"In the early days of setting up the farm here, everyone said my wife and I had a problem because this was a barren, low-lying piece of land, surrounded by weeds and bushes."

Ignoring the warnings, I invested all my savings, borrowed more from relatives, hired an excavator to build dikes around the leased area, and completed the construction of six rice paddies for combined rice cultivation and fish farming,” Mr. Duong recounted.

Mr. Duong said that surrounding the rice fields are canals 6-8 meters wide and 1-1.2 meters deep, formed by digging earth to build dikes, where he raises various types of fish such as grass carp, silver carp, and tilapia. In the middle is a flat area of ​​land that Mr. Ho Van Duong uses to grow rice.

Before sowing the rice, the water level in the field is lowered to a level below the surface so that the fish move into the ditches. When the rice is growing well, the water is raised again so that the fish come to the middle of the field to feed.

However, it is necessary to calculate the appropriate rearing time and use nets to prevent grass carp from getting onto the rice paddies. Because if grass carp get onto the rice paddies, no rice plants will survive.

After harvesting the rice, he would flood the field with water and wait for a while for the rice plants to regenerate before removing the nets to allow the grass carp to come onto the surface of the field. At this point, the grass carp would eat all the regenerated rice plants and clear the field.

According to Mr. Duong, he only plants one rice crop per year, using the rice sprouts (regenerated rice) as fish feed. At the end of the year, he uses nets to select the larger fish to sell, and releases those that haven't reached the required weight to continue raising them.

Furthermore, in 2019, he introduced a new species to be farmed: the giant freshwater prawn, and developed a model of integrated farming combining giant freshwater prawns, fish, and rice cultivation in a closed-loop, recirculating system following natural farming practices.

“Currently, freshwater prawns are being bought directly from the farms by traders at a price of 350,000 VND/kg. Every year, I earn about 300 million VND from freshwater prawns and about 200-250 million VND from fish,” Mr. Duong said.

Not stopping there, with his diligent and inquisitive nature, in 2010, Mr. Duong decided to invest nearly 1.7 billion VND to build a cold storage system for raising pigs on a scale of 1,000-1,100 pigs per batch, in partnership with CP Vietnam Livestock Corporation.

With technical support from the company, Mr. Duong's pig farm has an automatic cooling system and, notably, a feed conveyor belt.

Instead of having to carry each bag of feed to each trough, at Mr. Duong's farm, workers simply pour all the feed into a storage tank, and a conveyor belt system delivers the feed directly to the pigs' troughs.

Mr. Duong said that he raises two batches of pigs each year, with an average weight of 110-120 kg per pig at slaughter, and the company buys all of them.

To ensure environmental hygiene, Mr. Duong also applies advanced manure filtration technology. Accordingly, the pig manure is collected in two tanks with a volume of 15 m3/tank, then a manure suction machine with a capacity of 20 m3/hour is used to filter the manure out of the water.

The wastewater is fed into a biogas digester to be used as fuel for the farm's living needs. The solid pig manure, after filtration, is treated with lime powder and composted using microorganisms to fertilize rice crops and feed fish.

“The composted pig manure is used to fertilize the rice, and at the same time creates a plankton environment for microorganisms that serve as food for fish and shrimp. The fish and shrimp waste provides nutrients for the rice. The regenerated rice then serves as food for the fish and shrimp. Utilizing each other's food sources helps save costs in production,” Mr. Duong shared.

When asked about his experience in developing his family's economy , Mr. Duong said that, in addition to hard work and diligence, farmers need to innovate their thinking, boldly switch to new crops and livestock, and introduce new plant and animal breeds into production.

Another important factor is knowing how to apply the right scientific and technical methods to achieve high economic efficiency. Currently, Mr. Duong's farm maintains a stable 6-hectare area for intercropping freshwater prawns, fish, and rice.

He sells over 250 tons of pork annually. Starting from nothing, but with relentless effort, Mr. Duong has succeeded in livestock farming and crop cultivation, becoming wealthy on land that was previously abandoned, with an annual revenue of over 12 billion VND.

"Due to the heavy workload, I had to hire eight more permanent workers with salaries ranging from 7 to 9 million VND per month. In addition, I also created jobs for dozens of seasonal workers," Mr. Duong added.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Viet, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Cam Lo District (Quang Tri Province), Mr. Duong's farm is a large-scale farm, well-invested and highly professional, bringing high economic efficiency.

In particular, besides enriching himself, Mr. Ho Van Duong actively participated with the Farmers' Association of the commune in organizing guidance sessions for local branches to build closed-loop models in livestock farming and crop cultivation.

Not only does Mr. Duong share his knowledge and experience, but he also supports farmer members by providing livestock and loans to help them develop production together. He also works alongside the local community in supporting poor households, rural road construction programs, and other activities of the Association and local organizations.

Mr. Ho Van Duong's family also provided hundreds of gift packages, each worth between 200,000 and 500,000 VND, to poor households and disadvantaged students.

For his efforts in economic development, Mr. Duong has received numerous commendations from the Prime Minister, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Association, and the People's Committee of Quang Tri province. Most recently, he was selected as "Outstanding Vietnamese Farmer of 2023".

Source: https://danviet.vn/nuoi-tom-cang-xanh-la-liet-ca-tram-co-to-bu-o-ruong-lua-nuoi-lon-mot-nguoi-quang-tri-thu-12-ty-20240626195117949.htm