Raising bamboo rats, old farmer pockets 30 million VND/month

• Bamboo rats are animals with sharp teeth, good at digging burrows, and usually only grow well in mountainous areas. However, in recent years, people in the West are no strangers to Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu (63 years old; residing in Binh Thuy district, Can Tho city), a person who specializes in providing bamboo rats for breeding and meat for the whole region.

Bamboo rats are animals with sharp teeth and good at digging burrows.

Many years ago, when he was still a supermarket employee, while traveling with his family, Mr. Hieu accidentally enjoyed delicious and unique bamboo rat meat. With the mindset of an economist, Mr. Hieu searched for a supplier of breeds and bought them to try raising. After a long time of perseverance, patience and going through many difficulties, Mr. Hieu's bamboo rat farm has now become the largest supplier of bamboo rat breeds and meat in the West.

The food of bamboo rats is usually the roots or tops of bamboo, reed, and sugarcane plants.

According to Mr. Hieu, raising bamboo rats is very simple, each day only requires spending a few hours to feed the rats and clean the cage. Food for bamboo rats is also easy to find and cheap, mostly roots, or the tops of bamboo, reed, and sugarcane.

"Raising bamboo rats requires a solid, airy cage. It is important to not let sunlight shine in regularly because this species is sensitive to light. Bamboo rats should not be fed with sweet potatoes because if they eat it, they will die. In addition, cats should not be allowed to approach the cage because cats love to eat bamboo rats," Mr. Hieu revealed.

Many restaurant owners in Can Tho city and the western provinces came to order.

Currently, the price of meat bamboo rats on the market fluctuates around 800,000 VND/kg, and for breeding bamboo rats, depending on their age, the price can range from 1 million to several million VND/rat. With the current selling price, Mr. Hieu earns more than 20 million VND per month from raising bamboo rats.

According to Mr. Hieu, raising bamboo rats is very easy and the output is also stable because dishes made from bamboo rats are very popular with diners. Therefore, many beer house owners in Can Tho City and the Western provinces come to him to order bamboo rats in large quantities, so his facility is always "out of stock" from bamboo rats for meat to bamboo rats for breeding.

Mr. Hieu also uses rat manure to compost and mix into fertilizer to grow American aloe vera.

In addition to raising bamboo rats for breeding and meat, Mr. Hieu also uses bamboo rat droppings to compost and mix into fertilizer for growing American aloe vera. Currently, his house has hundreds of pots of green aloe vera. Mr. Hieu said that the price of aloe vera seedlings is 15,000 VND/plant, and aloe vera for use is 10,000 VND/kg.

So, just counting the aloe vera sales, each month Mr. Hieu pockets an additional 6 million VND. Calculating the total money from selling bamboo rats and aloe vera, each month Mr. Hieu pockets about 30 million VND.