9X engineer quits big business to grow ornamental plants for Tet

Le Canh Hieu is still just a young and innocent 9X guy, but when it comes to work, Hieu is truly a true farmer. His love for the land and farming is also the biggest motivation for Hieu to quit a stable job in Ha Tinh to start a business in his hometown - right in his family's garden in Nam Anh commune, Nam Dan district.

Young engineer Le Canh Hieu at his ornamental orange garden. Photo: My Ha

Sharing the reason, Hieu confided: "Working in a company is more leisurely and has a more stable income. But every time I go back to my hometown, I see the land abandoned because my parents are old and can no longer produce, I feel guilty and "regret" the land."

Choosing to return to his hometown, with more than a year of experience working in Israel and many years working in the field of plant varieties, Hieu started his business by planting a garden. To realize this idea, Hieu did not hesitate to pool all of his and his family's more than 500 million VND to improve the garden land and buy equipment and seedlings. Hieu also calculated that doing agriculture would not be able to recover capital quickly, so he chose the solution of "taking short-term to support long-term".

In order to have income soon, the 9X engineer used more than half of the area to grow guava and Taiwanese apple because these are easy to grow and easy to consume. Of the remaining land, he planted Xa Doai oranges in part, and the rest he organized to grow seedlings.

More daringly, instead of choosing a safe solution, Hieu introduced Canh oranges and Dien grapefruits into ornamental plants to serve the Tet market. To do this, Hieu traveled to the North to learn from the experiences of gardeners. Then, he personally carefully selected each seedling to grow and care for according to the instructed techniques.

A grapefruit tree shaped like the word "Loc". Photo: My Ha

Sharing about the difficulties in the implementation process, Hieu added: "Canh oranges and Dien grapefruits are quite picky about soil and are only suitable for the soil and weather in the North. Therefore, bringing them to the Central region to grow is difficult, not to mention taking care of them to form bonsai trees"...

One special thing is that although the care technique is quite difficult, the more involved Hieu is, the more passionate he becomes about this job. Therefore, not only does he do the usual care, Hieu is also creative, buys more molds, and grafts them with other plants to give his bonsai a different shape.

For example, the same Dien grapefruit tree is actually a five-fruit tree. On each tree, Hieu grafted Buddha's hand fruit, Canh orange, and Xa Doai orange. In addition, the young engineer also used a mold to shape the grapefruit into the words Phuc - Loc - Tho, which is quite interesting and suitable for the Lunar New Year.

The five-fruit grapefruit trees are Hieu's creation to serve the Tet market this year. Photo: My Ha

After more than two years of care, the first harvest season has arrived. At present, Hieu's farm model has become a bright spot in Nam Anh commune and Hieu is one of the typical members that many young people learn from. Recently, Nam Anh commune's union also chose Hieu's model to implement a greenhouse model for growing clean vegetables according to Vietgap standards.

New greenhouse area invested to grow clean vegetables Photo: My Ha

Talking more about his job, Hieu said: "When I decided to return to my hometown to be a farmer, many people were skeptical because this is a hard and tiring job. However, for me, that is not important because this is the job I love and I feel happy because I can start a business in my hometown, be close to my parents and have the opportunity to repay the land that gave birth to me."

My Ha