"White gold" by Dong Nai 2 hydroelectric lake

Harvesting bird's nests at Thanh Cong Cooperative

Mr. Bui Quang Tien - Director of Thanh Cong Durian Production, Trade and Service Cooperative (HTX), Sinh Cong village, Tan Ha Lam Ha commune proudly shared: "Our Cooperative consists of 17 members, all of whom are good farmers with stable income. The Cooperative grows coffee, durian, and raises swiftlets, creating momentum for the development of the whole village". Indeed, with 17 members, the Cooperative has up to 120 hectares of cultivated land mixed with durian - coffee and 6 households raising swiftlets, with dozens of swiftlet houses located along the Dong Nai 2 hydroelectric lake.

From the lush coffee and fruit gardens of the cooperative, many members have come up with the idea of raising swiftlets, taking advantage of the water surface of Dong Nai 2 Lake and the large planting area. Mr. Bui Tuan Anh, a member of Thanh Cong Cooperative, shared that seeing many areas where swiftlets can be raised, he also researched and consulted companies specializing in birdhouses. “We invited experts to the lake area to survey and evaluate the natural conditions, climate, food sources, and carefully surveyed to see if we could attract swiftlets. Because swiftlets are a natural bird species and cannot be artificially bred, the survey must be very careful and experts must evaluate that this lake area can raise swiftlets.”

So Mr. Bui Tuan Anh proceeded to build the first birdhouse right on the lake shore. With the support of experts, the house was built according to technical standards. The measures to attract birds were successful when hundreds of pairs of birds chose the house as a place to live and make nests to raise young birds. "There are quite a lot of birds living in this lake area, at 5am the birds fly out to find food, and at 5pm they fly back to their nests. All 6 households in the birdhouse cooperative have birds coming to make nests and all have a good income from the birds," Mr. Bui Tuan Anh informed. He also said that the members of the cooperative share with each other techniques to call birds, create attractive scents, create humidity, spray mist... to attract the birds to the land along the hydroelectric lake.

It is known that currently all 6 households of Thanh Cong Cooperative raising swiftlets have achieved good results, with a large number of swiftlets settling down. Swiftlet nests are exploited seasonally, the price of raw nests is 2 million VND/100 grams, the price of cleaned nests is 3 million VND/100 grams. Ms. Tran Thi Hoa - Head of the Economic Department of Tan Ha Commune, Lam Ha, assessed that the model of raising swiftlets along the hydroelectric lake of Thanh Cong Cooperative is a new model of the locality.

Ms. Hoa commented: “The investment level for raising swiftlets is quite high, but the results are very positive. Swiftlets settle in the lake, bringing good income. Households also ensure good regulations on the distance between the swiftlet house and the residential area, not affecting the community. We evaluate the swiftlet raising activities of Thanh Cong Cooperative as an effective model that can be expanded to bring good income to residents.”

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/vang-trang-ben-ho-thuy-dien-dong-nai-2-396190.html