Old farmer earns millions every day from raising frogs

Previously, people knew Mr. Ngo Tri Nghi by the name Nghi Ca associated with his profession of raising fish fry. Now he has been renamed Nghi Frog since he raises frogs for production and sale in and outside the district; people have gotten used to it and given him that name.

Mr. Nghi chooses healthy frogs for breeding. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

In 1993, Mr. Nghi received 1.5 hectares of wasteland in Thinh Dong hamlet, Giang Son Dong commune (Do Luong) to renovate into a pond for raising fish for meat and fingerlings. After 10 years of successful fingerling farming, he was left penniless due to the "tornado" of the savings and credit association...

Mr. Nghi said: “Before, I raised fish, each year I got 5-6 tons of fish fry, every time I caught 100kg of fish and sold it, I got 1 tael of gold; that is, if I netted a corner of the pond, I got 1 tael of gold. After I lent money to the association, I lost more than 3 billion VND, I had no more manpower, so I switched to raising frogs. Now, every day I earn 1 million VND from selling frog fry.”

Mr. Nghi started raising frogs in 2004. At first, he took Thai frogs but they were not effective. After doing his own research, he switched to breeding frogs. The mother frogs were still Thai frogs, but the father frogs were Vietnamese frogs. According to him, the male domestic frogs are very healthy.

During the breeding season, Mr. Nghi keeps the parent frogs separately and creates artificial rain like showers for them to breed. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

His solution is clearly effective. On the banks of the ponds, he sets up nets to raise frogs for breeding. Every year, he sells 30,000 frogs to people in the commune and neighboring communes to raise frogs for meat.

Mr. Nghi gradually expanded his frog breeding business. In 2017, he sold 170,000 frogs; this year he plans to sell up to 300,000 frogs; the price at the beginning of the season in April was 1,200 VND, and at the end of the season (around the end of July) it was about 800 VND/frog.

According to Mr. Nghi's experience, first you have to choose healthy male and female frogs for breeding, and replace the male every year to avoid inbreeding... The frog breeding season is from March to the end of July; choose 10 pairs and keep them separately. If you want the frogs to lay eggs, you have to create artificial rain by spraying water 3 times at 3pm, 7pm and 9pm; each time lasts 15 minutes.

With artificial rain, the frogs will lay eggs until 5am the next morning. When the frogs have finished laying eggs, the parents must be taken out to avoid stepping on the eggs; from the time the eggs are laid, after 24 hours they will hatch.

Mr. Nghi is checking the 10-day-old baby frogs (commonly called tadpoles); Mr. Nghi prepares food for the frogs depending on their age. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

After 3 days of hatching, Mr. Nghi often boils chicken eggs, takes out the yolks and mixes them with a piece of gauze to feed the frogs. After 5 days, he releases them into a cage in the pond. During the first 15 days, Mr. Nghi makes a food mixture of flour, raw eggs, and milk, boils them, then mixes them with water to feed the frogs. After that, he feeds the frogs with normal bran, and after 1 month they can be sold.

Thanks to the meticulous work from selecting the breed to taking good care of the frogs as soon as they hatch, Mr. Nghia's frog breeds are always healthy; customers from Tan Ky, Anh Son, Yen Thanh, Nghia Dan, Thanh Chuong districts... come to order regularly.

In addition to raising frogs, Mr. Nghi also has over 3 tons of fish under the water. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

Mr. Nghi calculated that for every 10,000 frogs, he would earn about 10 million VND. With 300,000 frogs, he expected to earn 300 million VND this year. In addition, he also used 1.5 hectares of water surface to raise fish, selling about 3 tons each year.

Ngoc Phuong