Young master of Ve Nong village

(Baonghean) - With his diligence and eagerness to learn, Mr. Tran Ba ​​Thuan (35 years old) became a pioneer in bringing plant and animal varieties to develop on the hilly land of Van Dien commune (Nam Dan). After a period of development, his farm model was considered the most successful in the region.

Tall and slender, fluent in speech, Mr. Tran Ba ​​Thuan is admired by many people in Ve Nong village, Van Dien commune for his somewhat unusual thoughts. Having gone to the Central Highlands and Laos to do business but without success, Mr. Thuan decided to return to his hometown to start a business. With the experience gained from the hard days in the Central Highlands, Mr. Thuan gradually re-planned the hilly land area and sought ways to develop the VACR economy. The plant he chose to "take the short to feed the long" was the galangal bush in front of the alley. When he saw the high demand for galangal at the town market, he expanded the local galangal variety. A year later, more than 1 sao of galangal of his family began to yield harvests. At first, the couple dug up galangal and brought it down to Sao market to sell to traders to bring down to Vinh. After that, traders came to the garden to buy it at increasingly higher prices. This product was bought up as much as there was. With the capital he earned from the galangal tree, Mr. Thuan invested in renovating his garden, hiring people to clear the pine forest area he had taken over for protection. At the same time, he hired machinery to dig soil, dig ponds, and lower hills to make room for growing galangal and other plants. When he saw the high demand for peach blossoms among the people, he also tried growing peach seedlings in front of his house. After about two years, the peach blossoms bloomed. Every Tet holiday, he earned tens of millions of dong from the peach blossoms in his garden.

Mr. Thuan takes care of the pigs.

Seeing that city dwellers like to raise turtledoves, a good turtledove can be sold for millions, Mr. Thuan has researched, domesticated, and successfully bred and hatched the wild bird. Currently, he has 4 pairs of parent turtledoves, each year these breeding pairs bring him a revenue of nearly 20 million VND. In 2010, while watching an agricultural extension program on TV, he noticed the jackfruit growing model. After daring to call the program's hotline to ask for advice and learn about the tree variety, Mr. Thuan went all the way to Hanoi and bought 80 jackfruit seedlings to plant. Unexpectedly, a year and a half later, the jackfruit seedlings taller than a person began to bear fruit. By the second year, the jackfruit garden was ready for harvest, every tree was laden with fruit. What is special is that this new jackfruit variety bears fruit all year round, the fruit is abundant from the root, is not affected by pests and diseases and is very suitable for the soil of the Nam Dan hill area. Traders buy jackfruit at the garden for 12,000 - 15,000 VND/kg. In the 2014 jackfruit season, Mr. Thuan earned nearly 70 million VND. Currently, the next batch of jackfruit is bearing fruit, and is expected to be harvested by Tet.

From the success of local galangal and creativity in breeding turtledoves and growing jackfruit, Mr. Thuan shared and guided other households to grow them. He said that these are not simply trees to escape poverty but a new direction, helping farmers get rich. Besides introducing new trees to commercial cultivation, the young man invested in building a concentrated pig farm. With this farming model, he invested in building a biogas system to both serve as fuel for cooking and heating the pigs in the winter, while ensuring the environment. Thanks to proper care, his pigs are now growing well.

Since the beginning of the year, he has sold two litters of pigs, earning nearly 100 million VND in profit. He plans to expand his pig farm next year and raise his own sows to take the initiative in breeding. When talking about his successes, Mr. Thuan modestly said: “At first, I was confused about economic development, but after a period of research and experimentation, I found the right direction. I think life has certain difficulties but there are still many opportunities, the problem is that we need to be bold in starting to do it. After failure, there will definitely be lessons to succeed…”.

After nearly 10 years of sticking to the hilly land of Van Dien commune, Mr. Thuan has made good use of his 3-hectare farm. The foundation he has is not simply a closed garden - pond - barn system, but more importantly, the trust of customers and traders. He is called the young boss of Ve Nong village by the locals, and has been recognized by the district as a good farmer. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hung, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Van Dien commune, said: "Mr. Thuan's economic model is gradually being replicated in the hilly land of the commune and is one of the effective directions, followed by many households...".

Article and photos:Thuy Linh