Closed farm brings in 5 billion VND/year revenue for Nghe An youth

Being proactive in breeding and feeding, raising thousands of pigs for meat always ensures profit. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Graduated from the University of Water Resources, worked as an engineer for a large company for 12 years, going from the South to the North following projects. In 2015, tired of moving around, Bui Quang Huynh (Thach Son commune, Anh Son) returned to his hometown and determined to get rich on his homeland.

Initially, Huynh invested in raising chickens and ducks on a scale of 1,000. In the first year, due to lack of experience in raising chickens, Huynh only broke even. By 2017, Huynh expanded the scale to 3,000 meat chickens and 1,000 laying ducks, but unfortunately, the chickens were infected with bird flu and the whole flock died. “I lost everything, and had to hire a truck to transport the chickens and dig a hole to bury them,” Huynh said.

Breeding pythons is quite new, but Huynh said that currently, the demand for python meat is used in oriental medicine, and python skin is used in the leather shoe and handbag industry, so it is very easy to consume. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Not discouraged, starting from scratch, Huynh borrowed money to start over. In addition to raising chickens and ducks, Huynh also invested in raising sows, pigs, goats, pheasants, fish, and breeding pythons. In addition, in the garden area, Huynh planted 400 grapefruit trees, 400 jackfruit trees, 400 star apple trees, coconut trees and a trellis of orchids with about 500 orchid pots.

The most notable feature of Bui Van Huynh's closed farm model is the system of providing fertilizers and biological feed for crops and livestock, always ensuring the production of clean food. Huynh grows vegetables, corn, and grass in fruit orchards, then uses ground grass, mixed with bran, rice, digestive enzymes, etc. to provide feed for livestock and poultry. This type of biological feed has many advantages such as reducing barn odor, increasing resistance, and making meat tastier.

The pond area combines fish farming and 400 soft-shell turtles, taking advantage of leftover food from livestock and poultry. At the same time, the small fish provide food for chickens and pigs. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Thanks to the intercropping of grass and corn, Huynh's orchard is free of weeds, keeping the soil moist. And the waste of livestock and poultry is a very good source of fertilizer for plants. Chickens, ducks or pigs that unfortunately die will be a source of food for pythons, and small fish in the pond are a source of nutrition for 400 turtles, pigs, chickens and ducks.

Taking advantage of the space above the fish pond, Huynh invested in planting and propagating hundreds of wild orchids. The food for the orchids is ripe bananas and available goat manure. Growing orchids also brings Huynh a revenue of hundreds of millions of VND/year.

Huynh designed a space on the pond surface to grow and breed wild orchids, bringing in an income of 70-100 million VND/year. Photo: Thanh Phuc

In particular, in the past 2 years, despite the complicated developments of African swine fever, high piglet prices and fluctuating piglet prices, Huynh's farm has still been profitable. Every year, 50 sows provide 1,500 piglets for Huynh to raise for meat and regularly supply 150 tons of piglets to the market.

Mr. Bui Van Huynh said: “With a closed scale, proactive breeding, taking advantage of food and fertilizer sources in a circular manner, the family's livestock and crop products are mostly organic, clean, safe, and favored by the market. Thanks to that, in the past 3 years, the farm's average revenue has been 4-5 billion VND/year, creating jobs for many local workers.”