Doctor couple returned to their hometown to become farmers, selling 5 tons of agricultural products/month

(Dan Tri) - Originally a scientist , pursuing projects and research activities, Duc Chinh and his wife decided to give up everything, leave the city to live and work with land and gardens.

At nearly 7am, Mr. Nguyen Duc Chinh (40 years old) and Ms. Nguyen Thi Duyen (39 years old) drove 15km to their 2.5ha farm in Hiep Thuan commune (Phuc Tho district, Hanoi ). The dirt road made the wheels stick to the mud. Mr. Chinh tried to keep a steady grip on the wheel, but sometimes he wobbled. The couple burst out laughing because they almost fell. When they arrived, Mr. Chinh walked around the large garden, one hand pulling weeds, the other catching worms quickly like a real farmer. He also checked the entire irrigation system, checking the amount of vegetables to be delivered to local food stores and kitchens that day.

In the 9m2 container house, Ms. Duyen assigns tasks to the farm workers, then prepares online orders from customers. Every day, Mr. Chinh and his wife are busy. Sometimes they have lunch late at night and come home when the road is only dimly lit by a few houses. However, compared to the time they spent working at a desk, claiming to be doctors and masters, Mr. Chinh and Ms. Duyen confidently affirm: "We are much happier now!"

The road to dreams is paved with muddy footprints!

In 2015, Ms. Duyen completed her master's degree in agriculture in Australia, returned to Vietnam and was assigned to participate in an international project on organic vegetables. At that time, she borrowed a 1,000m2 abandoned garden to practice. At that time, both Mr. Chinh and Ms. Duyen were still specialists at the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences. To make the work go smoothly, the couple asked for support from two colleagues at the same agency. During those 2 years of experimentation, the whole group worked hard, staying up late and waking up early to fertilize and hoe the soil every day. When they reaped the fruits of their labor and tasted the sweetness of the clean vegetable bundles, Mr. Chinh and his wife realized that they had "fallen in love" with the lush green vegetables, and then had the idea of ​​opening their own farm.

At the end of the project, in 2017, Mr. Chinh received a scholarship to study in Japan in the field of biotechnology. Ms. Duyen and her children also accompanied him. Here, he was exposed to a lot of new specialized knowledge. In particular, the book about natural agriculture in Japan and the world helped him come up with many ideas. The doctoral husband at that time held his wife's hand, cherishing the dream of returning to his homeland to start a business. At the end of 2019, both returned to Vietnam with many big ambitions. By motorbike, the couple traveled all over the provinces just to find a suitable location to open a farm. After many months, they finally rented a 2-hectare piece of wasteland in Hiep Thuan commune (Phuc Tho district). "It's called a wasteland because there was nothing but... land. There were no gas stations, no houses around the land, and even the phone signal was weak. We had to start everything from scratch. The big picture of the journey to transform the wasteland into a farm appeared before my eyes, making me both happy and worried," Chinh confided.

The road to achieving the couple's dream was filled with mud. In the first 6 months, the couple and 2 colleagues had to run back and forth, balancing work at the office and on the farm. Every day, they left home at 4am, worked as farmers for 3 hours. After that, they swept the mud away, changed into shirts, put on trousers and went to work as office workers. On weekends, the couple could become "full-time" farmers. They and their team of workers worked hard on the farm for 14 hours a day, digging ditches, pulling electricity, building houses and fences. Yet the couple did not feel miserable at all. Over the course of several months, Duyen lost 5kg, while Chinh was dark-skinned and had messy hair. The group only had enough money to hire 4 workers, so the work of converting the wasteland seemed to take forever. Then, at the beginning of planting, Mr. Chinh had to deliver vegetables himself, sometimes driving a motorbike the entire 100km to Hanoi. Not only sweat, but tears were shed when the farm suffered losses for 11 consecutive months. The initial capital of 500 million VND flew away. In August 2020, Ms. Duyen decided to quit her job to devote herself to the garden. Nearly a year later, Mr. Chinh also quit.

"At night, when we lay down to sleep, my wife and I put our hands on our foreheads and thought for a long time. Sitting in an air-conditioned office, looking at documents full of words every day, we really don't feel happy at all. Is that the life we ​​dreamed of? We asked each other, then answered ourselves, and finally both quit our jobs because we felt farming was hard, but we felt strangely happy," Chinh confided.

Happiness does not come from a desk

Chinh and his wife quit their jobs to the surprise of many people. His parents supported them, but their relatives were skeptical: "Study hard and then become farmers." Although they were sad, the doctoral couple still decided to ignore it. "I remember clearly the time I delivered vegetables to a pregnant female worker. Many people think that manual workers often prefer cheap food and do not care too much about quality, but this female worker was different. At that time, I saw how important the need to use clean food to ensure safety and health for future generations was. That motivated us to work hard day and night to grow and bring clean agricultural products to consumers," Chinh confided.

Organically grown vegetables cannot grow as fast as conventional chemical methods. However, Mr. Chinh is not in a hurry. Setting the criteria of providing clean agricultural products, the farm always strictly follows the rules: no herbicides, no chemical fertilizers, no plant protection chemicals, no genetically modified seeds and no growth stimulants. From the owner to the workers at the farm, they catch worms by hand, use microbiological technology, and install drip irrigation systems themselves. Workers here also do not burn grass to pollute the environment , but only spray microorganisms to make the soil humus. In addition, Mr. Chinh also researches, studies, and creates machines and tools such as semi-automatic seed trays made from plastic and wood.

When customers became more aware of homegrown products, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Mr. Chinh and his wife were workers who had to stay at home on the farm for many months, hanging around the garden every day. Thanks to that, they were more focused on growing and harvesting, improving the quality of their products. After the social distancing period, the couple started a business again facing natural disasters and floods. Witnessing the scene of the entire vegetable garden being flooded, the plants could not survive, both of their tears mixed with the rainwater. "At that time, I tried to dig the soil and clear the ditches but still could not drain the water in time for the garden. Having lost everything, my husband and I hugged each other, choking with tears, but still told each other "we must get up", Mr. Chinh said. The couple did not give up. In the new season, they were determined to start over. Learning from many failures, the group avoided many mistakes, and the output of vegetables and fruits on the farm gradually increased. In 2021, homegrown vegetables met the organic standards of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development .

Taking advantage of relationships, social networks and word of mouth from local people, the farm has more customers. The garden started to make a profit, enough to pay workers' salaries and maintain capital to rotate production. After 4 years of operation, the farm now supplies the market with 4-5 tons of agricultural products every month, with 100 different types of vegetables and tubers. Chinh and his wife created jobs for 10 elderly and disabled workers in the area. The farm also welcomed the first agricultural students to intern and gain experience.

"Everyone has their own way of living, any way is fine, as long as it is useful to society. We live the life of a farmer, eat and work like a farmer and are happy like a farmer. That happiness is simply waking up to rows of green vegetables, eating rice with vegetables and bringing those clean vegetables to others," Mr. Chinh confided.

Photo: NVCC - Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/lao-dong-viec-lam/vo-chong-tien-sy-ve-que-lam-nong-dan-ban-5-tan-nong-santhang-20240614153941009.htm