Woman with farm "chicken, pig"

(Baonghean) A handful of corn was thrown up from the hand of a woman who had turned 36, before it could touch the ground, thousands of chickens with shiny, smooth golden feathers rushed out from somewhere to surround their owner. On the other side, there were dozens of black pigs, geese, and ducks from the bushes, on the hills rushing to gather around the wire fence next to the chicken farm... That was the impressive scene when we visited Pay Thi Huyen's chicken farm, Bon village, Yen Na commune (Tuong Duong)...

Not resigned to poverty

Born in 1976, a few years ago, Ms. Pay Thi Huyen built her career with nothing but her bare hands. Having just finished junior high school, looking at the poor countryside, people only knew how to rely on the fields and forests, many households for years could not escape poverty, let alone get rich. Because of her poor family, Huyen could not afford to go to high school.

Staying in her hometown, Huyen often saw her friends going to school and felt so hungry that she cried. With a burning dream, Huyen determined to learn production experience, read books and newspapers, and watch TV to gain more basic knowledge about animal husbandry and veterinary medicine. While she was cherishing the dream of escaping poverty, Huyen's husband died of a terrible cancer, leaving Huyen with two young children. All the money the family had was spent on her husband's treatment. Now that her husband has passed away, the family's savings have run out. Huyen's children have grown up, and they are all obedient and hard-working, so Huyen has less hardship and more spiritual support.

In 2010, the poverty reduction project supported Huyen with 50 new chickens that were just a few weeks old. With a little capital and some knowledge about animal husbandry, through the Women's Union of the commune, Huyen boldly borrowed an additional 20 million VND from the Social Policy Bank to invest in raising chickens and pigs. Seeing Huyen's determination, everyone supported her.

Ms. Pay Thi Huyen with the dream of getting rich from a chicken farm

Starting with 50 chickens, the available land of about 2,000 m2 on the hillside, and a small loan, Huyen boldly invested in building barns, and at the same time diligently went to learn from many faraway places such as Bac Giang and Bac Ninh. Every night, Huyen sat for hours watching TV, reading newspapers at the commune cultural post office to learn how to raise livestock and poultry. From a few dozen chickens, a few pigs, with diligence, saving and available knowledge, in just over a year Huyen gradually became successful.

In 2011, Pay Thi Huyen's farm had over 3,000 chickens, along with dozens of local pigs, in addition to geese, ducks. During the recent Nham Thin Lunar New Year, Huyen sold over 2,000 chickens, each weighing an average of 1.5 kg, with an average selling price of 180,000 VND/kg. After deducting production costs, Huyen earned a profit of nearly 300 million VND. According to Huyen, although Bon village is far from the district center, traders from all over often come here to buy chickens and pigs. Many people call to place orders and request to have them delivered to them all the way to Hoa Binh town, but they sell out as soon as they are raised, not enough to meet customer demand.

Enrich your homeland

With her knowledge of animal husbandry and seeing that raising livestock and poultry is profitable, in 2012 she will continue to expand her farm. “But the difficulty is that she doesn’t have an incubator, so she has to move thousands of eggs to Bac Giang to incubate,” Huyen said. Seeing Huyen’s family prosper, many people in the commune have also learned how to get rich. Huyen wholeheartedly helps anyone who comes, from breeds, raising methods to medicines to prevent livestock and poultry diseases. Therefore, many people in Bon village, Yen Na commune are now gradually approaching large-scale animal husbandry. Instead of small-scale animal husbandry as before, many households now have hundreds of chickens, dozens of pigs, both native pigs and native pigs crossed with wild pigs.

Watching flocks of chickens, black chickens and black pigs playing with each other on the flat land, in the distance a few young pigs and chickens appearing and disappearing in the bushes trying to nibble on wild leaves in the forest, I just heard Huyen confide: "Yen Na has many advantages to get rich! There are fields, forests... the important thing is whether the people are determined to get rich or not". Regarding livestock and poultry farming, especially specialty breeds, customers are increasingly favoring them. Therefore, besides agriculture, the most sustainable direction for the people of Yen Na in the long term is still mainly livestock farming.

In her heart, Huyen honestly said: “Even though my family alone now has enough food and savings, to create a commodity area and be known by many people, we need the cooperation of many households. Raising clean livestock and poultry, moreover, is a specialty with a high demand now but cannot be consumed. Like this year, on the 26th of Tet, I had to hang a sign and send over 30 text messages to say that when all the chickens are gone, I will be at peace. Therefore, the biggest wish of Yen Na commune is to take advantage of the strength of land, clean and readily available food sources for livestock and poultry, to contribute efforts and resources, especially to support each other financially to create a large-scale livestock area. Only then can people rise up and become rich.” There are also those who have unrealistic dreams, chasing after gold thieves, not only violating the law but also endangering their lives, so how can they get rich!

Struggling with the desire to continue to enrich her family and her hometown, Pay Thi Huyen expressed: “If the people of Bon village in particular and Yen Na commune in general are still not really interested in livestock farming, in the near future, my family will invest to expand the farm to raise local chickens and black pigs. Seeing my family doing business in a sustainable way, many people will continue to learn from my way of doing things. Indeed, I really want to do something so that when people think of Yen Na, they will think of the community of a certain brand. At least, at present, although not many households have really responded, there are many people who, when they think of Yen Na, can think of local chickens and pigs.”

Vi Hoi