The man who "turns" rice into precious herbs

With his contributions to rice research, old farmer Phan Van Hoa - Director of Vinh Hoa Science and Technology Company Limited (Vinh Thanh, Yen Thanh) was honored by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Association as "Scientist of Farmers".

Increasing the value of rice through processing

Farmers in Nghe An in particular, the whole country in general and rice researchers are very familiar with veteran Phan Van Hoa in Vinh Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district with nicknames such as "Hoa rice", "Mr. Hoa herbal rice", "The person who paints colors for rice grains"...

Vinh Hoa herbal rice.

Born in 1957, after returning to his hometown after being discharged from the army, he became attached to the fields. Struggling to find a pure rice variety suitable for the soil and climate of his hometown's fields and having high yield and good quality, he spent time researching and successfully breeding quality rice varieties such as AC5, Vinh Hoa herbal rice 1, 2, 3... These rice varieties are protected by trademarks, present in fields across the country, and are positively received by farmers because of their high yield, fragrant and sticky rice, and rich nutrients.

Realizing that raw rice is cheap, rice farmers do not make a profit, even lose money, so old farmer Phan Van Hoa always has one thing in mind, which is to increase the value of rice through processing. Thinking is doing, he invested in machinery, factories, purchased and consumed AC5 rice products, Vinh Hoa herbal rice for people at high prices and processed and packaged them into products such as: Clean rice, Vinh Hoa herbal rice tea, Vinh Hoa herbal rice nutritional powder, Vinh Hoa herbal rice crackers and Vinh Hoa herbal rice extract. Combining production with processing and consumption, Mr. Hoa created a value chain that contributed to creating jobs, stable income and improving the lives of many farming households.

With his contributions, he was honored to receive awards and medals from the province to the Central. These include: Certificate of Merit from the Prime Minister for his active contributions to the construction of the new rural areas in the period of 2010-2015; Third-class Labor Medal awarded by the President in 2016; "National Innovative Rice Farmer" in 2011 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; First Prize in Science and Technology awarded by the Provincial People's Committee for the project "Application of advanced technology to produce AC5 commercial rice and safe rice"; International Technology and Equipment Innovation Gold Cup in 2012; "Sao Than Nong - for a bumper crop" Award in 2015 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Central Vietnam Farmers' Union honored him as "Farmer's Scientist" in 2018...

For him, being passionate about research, creating and exploring, and being attached to rice plants is not to be honored, to receive Certificates of Merit, Certificates of Merit, or Gold Cups, but the most important thing is to bring benefits and income to farmers, helping them to be attached to their fields and homeland.

Prevent cancer with herbal rice extract

The greatest success was in 2006, when he launched the Vinh Hoa 1 herbal purple rice variety with outstanding productivity and high nutritional content. Accordingly, the test results of the Center for Technical Standards - Measurement - Quality (Quates1) under the General Department of Standards - Measurement - Quality of Vietnam and the National Institute for Food Safety Testing showed that this rice variety has very high nutritional content, including: calcium content (mg/100g) reaching 16.6; iron content reaching 1.1; and Vitamin A content reaching 57.0. Even more special, because the rare omega substance only found in salmon eggs, now appears in the nutritional composition of this purple rice variety, with high omega 9 and omega 6 content.

Mr. Phan Van Hoa (right) in the herbal rice field.

From the initial success, Mr. Hoa continued to research and successively produced rice varieties: Vinh Hoa 2, Vinh Hoa 3, Vinh Hoa 4 with higher nutritional content, typically micronutrients omega 3, 6, 9.

With high nutritional content and many precious micronutrients, from Vinh Hoa herbal rice, he has researched and successfully processed functional products, supporting health care and disease treatment such as: tea, nutritional powder, herbal rice cereal... In particular, in 2018, he researched, discovered and successfully extracted Vinh Hoa herbal rice extract which has the effect of preventing and supporting cancer treatment. The initial test products received positive feedback from customers.

Herbal rice fields in Con Cuong

In March 2019, results from the National Institute for Food Safety Control showed that the 3 physical and chemical indicators in herbal rice extract have enough content to prevent and support cancer treatment: Anthocyanin content 0.20; Genistein content 0.74; GABA content 33.4.

“According to ancient medical books, long-term rice called “trùm mễ” is a precious medicine, curing physical weakness, leukemia that develops abnormally in the body of patients in the early stages of leukemia. This shows that the biological structure of the Vietnamese body in particular, and of people living in the rice civilization in general, interacts with the main food source, which is rice. Normally, rice nourishes people. Rice has the effect of circulation, balancing digestion and eliminating toxins. When there is an imbalance in digestion, rice helps people recover. Therefore, the application of rice products to treatment has a scientific basis, especially when it has been tested by the authorities with micronutrients and ingredients with sufficient content to prevent and support cancer treatment.

Vinh Hoa herbal rice extract is extracted from herbal rice bran with advanced technology and elaborate process. The way to use is very simple, that is, brew the extract like making tea, drink instead of water. 1 amount of extract can be boiled enough to drink for 1 year for 1 person. In particular, herbal rice extract has a pleasant aroma, a mild sweet taste, is very easy to drink, is very good for health and has the effect of preventing and supporting the treatment of cancer, especially thyroid cancer, stomach cancer and intestinal cancer.

Mr. Phan Van Hoa - Director of Vinh Hoa Science and Technology Company Limited said: To meet the growing demand of the market, the company is currently investing in installing modern machinery, technology, and equipment to expand production.

It is expected that by 2020, mass production will be carried out and widely consumed nationwide, opening up export routes to other countries. To contribute to restructuring the agricultural sector, Mr. Hoa is also pioneering research and building a project to produce rice in the direction of smart agriculture.

Thanh Phuc