The "fish kings" in Dien Doai

(Baonghean) -From a poor, swampy, reedy land, Dien Doai commune (Dien Chau) is now a pioneer in the fish farming movement of the district. That is thanks to farmers who dare to think and dare to do, struggling with difficulties to reclaim and improve the land, and have emerged "fish kings"...

A corner of Mr. Le's farm.

We visited the house of Nguyen Ngoc Le (born in 1962), in Hamlet 3, Dien Doai Commune. In a spacious house with full amenities, Le happily said: “For many years, I have eaten fish, slept with fish, and dreamed of fish at night. With such a large house, I still built a small hut in the middle of a vast pond.” Le was not joking. Indeed, witnessing his story about starting a business with fish, we could not help but admire him. In 1988, after being discharged from the army and returning to his hometown, he did many jobs, from farming to construction and carpentry, but still lacked food.

Looking at the vast, wild land of his hometown, the swampy area where he used to go with buffaloes as a child was still covered with cogon grass and sedge grass. He discussed with his wife about reclaiming the land to create a new business direction. The night before, the next day, he cycled to Dien Truong commune to ask a friend to borrow 100 kg of young rice so that the couple could eat and gain strength to reclaim the land. With just their hands, the couple cleared the grass that was as thick as their bodies, cutting their skin. He also borrowed money to buy hundreds of grass carp to release so that the fish could clear the cogon grass. One sao, two sao, three sao... wherever the land was reclaimed, he built a bank to create a fish-rice model.

Around the bank, Mr. Le planted purple sugarcane, brought it to Giat market (Quynh Luu) to sell to buy fish fry, pigs, chickens, livers, and ducks to raise. When the villagers first saw him raising fish in rice fields, they all shook their heads and said it was too reckless. Raising chickens and ducks was fine, but who would raise fish? Just one rain would mean a total loss! But the villagers were surprised again when they saw him digging a pond and investing millions of money to buy fish to raise. Some people even advised him to buy land outside the town. At that time (1990), a few million dong could buy a few plots of good land in Dien Chau town. Mr. Le only thought about turning this place into a rice-fish area or specializing in fish, getting rich on the fields.

Currently, Mr. Le's family has 7 fish ponds, mainly black carp, grass carp and snakehead fish (catfish) that bring in an annual income of 250 million to 300 million VND. Not counting the income from sugarcane, orange and grapefruit fruit trees, livestock, deer... each year, it is approximately one hundred million more. Mr. Le boasts: "Many provincial leaders from different periods have visited the family's model". He still clearly remembers that in 1998, former Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee Truong Dinh Tuyen visited and encouraged: "Around the pond, you should plant lemons. Buyers only worry that oranges and grapefruits are not sweet, but no one complains about sour lemons. Just do it boldly". From the advice, Mr. Le's family was determined to do it and from then on had a decent income from lemons planted around the fish pond.

To earn hundreds of millions of dong from 7 fish ponds is not simple. Every year, Mr. Le has to add manure before plowing the pond, change the water, and build banks to avoid floods. He also supplies fish fry to people in and outside the commune. When asked about the method of making fish fry, Mr. Le said that from the fact that he himself spends 5-5 million dong on fish fry every year, and people in the commune also raise a lot of rice fish, he went to Hau Loc (Thanh Hoa) to learn how to raise fish from when the fish are 3 days old. The pond must be cleaned, lime powder spread, water filled and the pond dried for 3 to 5 days. When the water is the color of green banana shoots, release the fish (3-day-old fish are as small as a strand of hair). Feed the fish milk, raise them for 30 days, the fish are as big as chopsticks. People came to buy fish to stock their ponds, rice fields... During lunch, Mr. Le treated them to black carp from his pond and he told them that each pond had about a few dozen carp weighing nearly a hundred kilos. From many sources of income: fish for meat, fish for breeding, fruit trees, livestock and poultry... Mr. Le became a typical Catholic household doing business in the district. Every year, he also set aside hundreds of millions for charity.

In Hamlet 11, Dien Doai, there was a man named Cao Dang Nhat who also cherished the dream of turning wasteland into fish fields and ponds. Starting from nothing, without any capital, he and his wife had to weave brooms to earn some extra money to invest in fish. Mr. Nhat recalled those difficult days with a gentle smile: “I saw that Mr. Le could endure hardship, but I couldn’t! I also set up a tent in the middle of the deserted field, many days I had to cook bran instead of rice because the house ran out of rice. The two of us (Mr. Le and I) once invited each other to ride our bikes to Hau Loc (Thanh Hoa) to see how others were doing it. We planned to do it from there. The people around us were all poor, so we didn’t know where to turn. We knew that raising fish would be risky, but we had made up our minds. If we were afraid, who would dare to do it? Fortunately, my wife also believed in her husband wholeheartedly. Many nights, regardless of wind or rain, we would wade through the fields to pick sedges...”.

With only the hands of the couple, the bank has risen to the bank, the pond has become a pond. Looking at each school of fish growing up day by day, listening to their splashing sounds in the pond, I was so happy. The 2-hectare fish pond was formed since that day, in the early 90s of the last century. The biggest fear was the rainy and stormy season. When the storm came, people were worried about their houses, the couple just worried about the pond. Luckily, the loss was still less than the gain. "Maybe it's because I have a connection with fish" - Mr. Nhat said. Up to now, each year Mr. Nhat supplies the market with 20-30 tons of fish and fish fry (mainly fish fry). Fish fry are easy to sell, but not many people are willing to take the trouble to raise them because the care requires a lot of care and meticulousness. Although he hires 4 workers, Mr. Nhat still does many steps of fish care himself. From not having enough food to eat before renovating the land to raise fish, Mr. Nhat's family now earns nearly 300 million VND per year after deducting all expenses. They have built a spacious house with full amenities, raised 6 children to study, of which 3 have gone to university, graduated, and have stable jobs!

Mr. Le prepares fishing net.

Another “fish king” of Dien Doai is veteran Nguyen Huu Lan, in hamlet 4. Admitting that he does not have the “strength and broad shoulders” of Nhat and Le, he thinks “a soldier of Uncle Ho is not allowed to retreat”. After returning from the army, seeing his wife struggling to raise 5 children, he tried to improve her situation at all costs. Mr. Lan thought of growing bananas, raising pigs and raising fish. Banana stems are used to feed pigs, fruits are sold wholesale, and whatever money he earns is used to build a dike for the pond. With such diligence, Mr. Lan finally had 1 hectare of pond. At first, his wife was very worried, telling him that just because she saw others doing it, she could not do it! She was weaker, and had to focus on her children’s education, afraid that she would not be able to handle the difficult task. However, he still decided to do it. He proudly told us, “Even though I did it later, I learned from Nhat and Le, my brand of fish fry is not inferior.” His family's annual income from fish is over 150 million, plus income from the garden and livestock. He is over 60 years old, but every hour you see him wading through the fish pond, the pigsty, and the garden...

Mr. Mai Minh Man - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Dien Doai Commune (Dien Chau) excitedly shared when taking us to visit the fields in the commune: "Currently, the whole commune has 172 hectares of fish farming area, of which 120 hectares are rice-fish areas and 52 hectares are pond-raised fish. The total output of fish fry and meat fish has reached 260 tons/year. Although the area is a dead end, without National Highway 1A or Road 48 passing through, thanks to Dien Doai, it is now the most famous and second in Dien Chau district for the fish farming movement, so people come to the ponds and fields to buy, without worrying about stagnation in the consumption stage". That achievement in Dien Doai cannot be denied the contribution of the three "fish kings" Nguyen Ngoc Le, Cao Dang Nhat and Nguyen Huu Lan. They have shown the determination of farmers determined to rise from hardship, swamps and empty hands; become role models for getting rich, making people admire and follow, creating the current local aquaculture movement!

Article and photos: Thu Huong