Billionaire of “circular agriculture” in the borderland

Article and photos: THANH MAI

With his determination to overcome difficulties, a farmer in Dong Thap created a miracle by not only becoming a pioneer, but also rising to become a billionaire of "circular agriculture " in the border area.

Mr. Chao (middle) visits Mr. Phuong's (right cover) sticky rice field using vermicompost supplied by his company.

In difficulty, wisdom emerges

Like most farmers in the remote border area of Tan Hong district, Nguyen Van Chao, 49 years old, in Thong Binh commune, started his business raising beef cattle. Taking advantage of the wild land along the border, he exploited grass to feed the cows. Thanks to his hard work, he "made a fortune" and by 2004 became the "boss" when he owned a herd of nearly 200 cows. Then, he seemed to fall into a deadlock due to the source of waste from the cows. "The amount of waste every day is very large, leading to pollution..." - Mr. Chao recalled that difficult time because in the remote border area of Thong Binh, it is not easy to sell cow dung like in many places... During the difficult time, he found a way out: using cow dung to raise earthworms to get manure - a suggestion when Mr. Chao talked to Mr. Ho Van Ly, Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tan Hong district. And from there, he became a business owner.

However, the road to success is full of challenges. Coming from a farmer background, Mr. Chao encountered many difficulties when starting a business with new breeds. At the end of 2015, he built a 500m2 specialized barn for raising earthworms and quickly failed. Due to lack of deep understanding, after the weather was unpredictable, the earthworms were almost completely depleted. The villagers made a lot of noise, but he did not give up, but found ways to improve. Thanks to that, he achieved success. From raising a few small barns, to relieve the pressure of waste from the cow farm, the scale of raising earthworms gradually increased to over 3.5 hectares, then became a business supplying earthworm manure.

“Opening” circular agriculture

To bring vermicompost products to the market, Mr. Chao chose his own path. At first, many farmers were still hesitant about the new thing, so they were somewhat hesitant. However, after receiving sincere guidance, combined with Mr. Chao's own "strategy", many people began to trust and use "Made in Tan Hong" vermicompost.

Not only did he travel to the fields in the border areas to introduce the product, Mr. Chao also gave the product to the field owners to try and then used the results after the crop season as a basis to convince them to expand it. This tactic quickly brought about results. Mr. Nguyen Tri Phuong in Tan Ho Co commune, Tan Hong district, shared: "At first, I tried it because it didn't cost money, but when I used it, I saw that the rice plants grew well, were healthier and had fewer pests and diseases than before, and the rice yield was still high, so I decided to apply it to all my fields."

When he affirmed the position of the product, Mr. Chao did not continue to expand the vermicomposting area but switched to linking and consuming products with households raising cows in the area, to spend time focusing on the product and the market. In 2018, when he saw the opportunity was ripe, Mr. Chao boldly established Thanh Chao Company Limited, specializing in the production of vermicompost fertilizer and investing in the product. Not only upgrading the vermicompost pellet product specifically for rice, he also researched hydrolyzed products from vermicompost such as vermicompost liquid used on crops, used in aquaculture... Up to now, the revenue from vermicompost has reached 3-5 billion VND/year.

What is more valuable about this billionaire is that he has brought much more to his hometown. “Not only does he contribute to limiting environmental pollution for himself, but through the cooperation in providing cow manure, he has also helped many localities in Tan Hong overcome the loss of beauty due to the problem of… cow manure. In addition, with his flexible approach, Mr. Chao has also laid the foundation for circular agriculture, helping farmers increase profits both economically and environmentally,” said Mr. Ho Van Ly, Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tan Hong district.

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