Currently, 1 kg of bat manure costs up to 60,000 VND, 4 times more expensive than rice, but people still compete to buy it to fertilize vegetables.

Taking advantage of the afternoon after work, Ms. Le Thi Hanh (Dinh Cong, Hoang Mai, Hanoi) hurriedly went into the house to put away her bag, then took a plastic basket and went straight to the 4th floor terrace to pick some water spinach to stir-fry with garlic for the whole family. Pointing to the sack containing flat, long, black soil balls, she boasted: "I had to order those bat droppings all the way from Saigon to have them shipped out at a price of 60,000 VND/kg, not including shipping costs."

Bat guano costs up to 60,000 VND/kg and is still being ordered by people.

Ms. Hanh shared that her house has nearly 20 square meters of terrace to grow clean vegetables and fruits for her family. However, to ensure the vegetables are absolutely clean, she applies the "4 no" method of growing vegetables: no pesticides, no herbicides, no inorganic fertilizers, no genetically modified seeds.

To have clean vegetablesTo keep the young plants from being eaten by worms, she had to fertilize them with organic fertilizer and catch the worms by hand.

"People have ways to compost waste and discarded vegetables, similar to the traditional composting method of our grandparents in the past. However, in townhouses, composting like that is very inconvenient, the stench is unpleasant, and when watering vegetables, the neighbors also complain. I'm embarrassed, so I switched to buying organic fertilizers such as vermicompost, chicken manure, etc.," she said.

According to Ms. Hanh, the above fertilizers are very good for vegetables. The vegetables are green and plump. However, compared to bat manure, they are far inferior. Bat manure is fluffy, the bat manure particles are round like NPK fertilizer particles, extremely easy to apply without being expensive, the vegetables grow green and lush no different from spraying stimulants.

Every time she uses up 5kg of bat manure, Ms. Hanh orders another 5kg of bat manure to fertilize the vegetables and fruits grown on the rooftop without having to use any other type of fertilizer.

Also a person who specializes in ordering bat droppings to fertilize her rooftop vegetable garden, Ms. Cao Thi Lien Huong (Thuong Dinh, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi) said that although the price is expensive, the bat droppings are dry and fluffy, so 1kg can be used twice, each time only using 0.5kg of bat droppings for the entire garden.

“My mother-in-law often jokes that bat guano is four times more expensive than regular rice, but I still order it and stock up the house with bat guano,” she shared.

According to Ms. Huong, bat guano is expensive but worth it. The cost of buying bat guano to fertilize vegetables is about the same as the cost of buying inorganic fertilizers, but in return, using bat guano is absolutely safe and not toxic.

“Luffa and tomatoes fertilized with bat droppings always bear fruit, while water spinach and young Malabar spinach are plump and young. In particular, Malabar spinach leaves are as big as a human hand,” Ms. Huong boasted.

Many people who grow vegetables on the terrace use bat guano to fertilize their vegetables, helping them grow well.

Admitting this, Mr. Nguyen Van Tien Lam, a distributor of bat droppings in Ho Chi Minh City, said that before, the main customers of bat droppings were flower and orchid garden owners, but for nearly 2 years now, in addition to the above garden owners, there have also been vegetable garden owners, especially those who grow vegetables on the rooftop.

"Each customer orders 5-10kg at a time to gradually use as fertilizer for vegetables and fruits grown on the rooftop," he said.

Mr. Lam added that bat droppings are collected from natural bat caves on the mountain and can be used instead of other inorganic fertilizers to fertilize trees, crops, especially fruit trees. "People now grow their own clean vegetables, so they also want to use natural organic fertilizers to fertilize their vegetables, making bat droppings more attractive and in demand than ever," Mr. Lam said, although bat droppings are much more expensive due to their rarity.

Currently, the retail price of bat manure is 60,000-70,000 VND/kg, depending on the time. Customers must pay additional shipping costs.

Mr. Lam said that, in addition to customers in the South, recently, many people outside Hanoi have called him to order bat droppings. Sometimes, bat droppings are even flown from Saigon to Hanoi.iaccording to customer orders, although shipping costs are extremely expensive./.

According to VOV