Developing the Ky Son black chicken brand

Muong Long commune has a unique climate and terrain that is considered as "Sa Pa of Nghe An" with an average annual temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius. In Muong Long 1 village, Vu Va Tu's family used to be a poor household because for many years his family's economy depended on a small area of ​​upland rice and raising black pigs. However, due to disease, the pigs grew poorly or died, so Tu's family was always in a state of shortage all year round. Vu Va Tu said that his family has now escaped poverty thanks to learning the black chicken raising model that the District Farmers' Association deployed in Muong Long commune.

Explaining more about this model, Mr. Vu Ba Xu - Vice Chairman of Muong Long Commune People's Committee said that in 2020, the District Farmers' Association implemented the Project to develop the Ky Son black chicken brand in Muong Long Commune for the period 2020 - 2023, with a scale of 10 households. Initially, the pilot was conducted in 3 households in 2020, then expanded to 7 other households. Each household was provided with 400 native black chicken breeds and funds to buy food for 3 months. In addition, officials of the District and Commune Farmers' Association regularly inspected and guided families on care techniques and connected with product consumption outlets.

The model was successful when households developed their black chicken flocks well, bringing in quite high incomes. Some households have multiplied their flocks to 600-1,000 chickens, such as Mr. Vu Tong Po and Mr. Vu Y Sua. For example, Mr. Vu Tong Po's household, from the initial successful batch of chickens supported, Mr. Po bred and multiplied the flocks from beautiful, healthy chickens and prioritized purebred native black chickens. Mr. Po's household has continuously invested in developing the broiler flock in the coop from 300-700 chickens, at times up to more than 1,000 native black chickens, bringing in an income of 250-300 million VND/year. In addition, Mr. Po also borrowed more capital from the bank to expand the scale of the chicken flock, expand the service of selling both broiler chickens and native black chicken breeds, and at the same time, mobilized the establishment of the Black Chicken Raising Farmers Association with 15 households (36 members). By 2021, after 1 year of project implementation, Muong Long commune established the Muong Long Commune Agricultural and Community Tourism Cooperative, helping people promote and consume typical agricultural products, of which black chicken is the main product.

From the three families that initially raised black chickens, people in Muong Long commune saw the effectiveness of developing black chickens into commercial products, so they learned and followed suit. Some households even invested in buying incubators to both breed black chickens themselves and sell the breeds to people, such as Mr. Cu Ba Co's family in Sa Lay village. When Mr. Vu Va Tu's family followed the models, the Commune Farmers' Association supported low-interest loans to raise black chickens and helped the family escape poverty in 2023.

As one of the first three homestay owners in Muong Long commune, Ms. Lau Y Denh said that black chicken is raised mainly to serve the family, and is an indispensable traditional dish during the holidays and New Year of the local people. However, today, Ms. Denh and many other households in Muong Long commune have additional income from raising and selling black chicken meat, especially since the locality has seen a boom in developing community tourism and eco-tourism.

“Black chicken is also an indispensable dish in the Y Denh homestay menu introduced to tourists, and is very popular, especially the black chicken cooked with medicinal leaves dish which has the typical flavor of the mountains and forests, and is also good for health. Since ancient times, this dish has always been used to quickly restore health for women after giving birth,” said Ms. Lau Y Denh.

Mr. Phan Van Manh - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Ky Son district said that in 2020, the Farmers' Association of the district built Project No. 10/DA-HNDH to develop black chicken farming in Muong Long commune. Initially, the Farmers' Association of the district distributed 1,000 breeding chickens and provided technical guidance to 10 farming households in Muong Long commune, 2 incubators and 2 generators for households to breed native chickens. At the same time, coordinating with experts and functional agencies to support the Muong Long Agricultural and Community Tourism Cooperative to successfully protect the OCOP brand for black chickens.

From the initial success, continuing the project stages, the District Farmers' Association proposed the Central Vietnam Farmers' Association to support the expansion of black chicken farming towards bio-safe meat in Muong Long commune, with a scale of 10 households/4,000 breeding animals; proposed the Provincial Farmers' Association to support the expansion of black chicken farming in Ky Son district, specifically in Huoi Tu commune with a scale of 3 households/900 breeding animals, in Nam Can commune with a scale of 3 households/600 breeding animals, in Na Loi commune with a scale of 3 households/600 breeding animals.

During the project implementation process, all levels and sectors in Ky Son district also oriented people to develop the black chicken brand in the direction of biological safety, becoming one of the main OCOP products of the district.

Up to now, the households that have benefited from the Ky Son black chicken brand development project have maintained stable livestock and become a source of chicken breeds and black chicken products for consumption markets inside and outside the district. In particular, the households have coordinated with the Muong Long Agricultural and Community Tourism Cooperative to provide black chicken products to serve tourists, and participated in introducing the Ky Son black chicken OCOP product at many trade fairs inside and outside the province.