The joys and sorrows of raising hedgehogs

(Baonghean) - Five years ago, the hedgehog farming movement was popular in Que Phong district. Hedgehogs helped people buy cars and build multi-story houses when the price of hedgehogs was high. However, after the market became saturated, the price of hedgehogs dropped, causing hedgehog farmers to suffer.

We visited Mr. Lang Khanh Suyen's family in Kim Son Town when his family was preparing to celebrate the birth of his grandson who was about to be one month old. Although he was busy with work, when he saw that the visitors from the lowlands were very interested in porcupines, Mr. Suyen put his work aside and enthusiastically told the story. Since 2003, after selling all the buffaloes that were roaming freely in the forest, Mr. Suyen started to experiment with porcupine breeding. At first, he bought wild porcupines to domesticate. The porcupines grew quickly but could not give birth. After that, he researched through books and newspapers, was given a book by a friend called "Techniques for breeding porcupines" and boldly went to the northern mountainous provinces to learn how to breed them, bought porcupines to try raising them in Que Phong. Two years later, Mr. Suyen had about 10 pairs of porcupines breeding and built a barn to develop the porcupine herd on a large scale.

Mr. Lang Khanh Suyen (Kim Son Town) at his family's porcupine farm.

By 2008, after having a herd of 70 parent porcupines, the porcupine breeding movement was booming. Each pair of porcupines initially cost about 2 million VND and was sold for 10 million VND, then increased to 15 million VND, 20 million VND. In 2010, when porcupines were most expensive, each pair of parent porcupines was sold for 60 million VND. At that time, the small road leading to Mr. Suyen's house was always crowded with people coming in and out to buy porcupines. There were households that sold their entire herds of cows and brought bags of money to Mr. Suyen to deposit to buy porcupines to raise. In 2010, Mr. Suyen earned nearly 1 billion VND from porcupine breeds. In the first 4 months of 2011, he sold 30 pairs of porcupines at an average price of 15 million VND/pair.

The porcupine helped Mr. Suyen change his life. In 2010, from the money he earned from selling the porcupine, he bought a brand new car and renovated his house. People called him the “porcupine king” or “porcupine billionaire”. From Mr. Suyen’s porcupine farm, people in Que Phong district also flocked to buy porcupines to raise. Kim Son town alone has about 30 households raising porcupines, of which block 8 has 9 households, block 9 has 8 households raising porcupines, Que Son commune has more than 10 households, the porcupine raising movement has also spread to communes such as Tri Le, Hanh Dich, Chau Kim…

In Que Phong district, there are also successful families raising porcupines such as Mr. Luong Sy Cuong (Block 8, Kim Son Town). From an initial experimental breeding pair of porcupines, thanks to knowing how to take care of them properly, Mr. Cuong has had 10 breeding pairs of porcupines, earning hundreds of millions of dong from selling porcupine breeds each year. Some other families also went to learn, borrowed money to invest in barns, and bought porcupine breeds to raise. At that time, Que Phong district also benefited from the project "Application of scientific and technological advances to build a model of breeding porcupines in Que Phong district", which made people more daring to invest.

By May 2011, the price of porcupine meat and porcupine breeding began to stagnate and by the end of the year, the price of porcupine fell dramatically. From tens of millions of VND/pair of porcupine breeding, it was only a few million VND, porcupine meat was only priced at about 150 - 200 thousand VND/kg, but no one bought it. Many households in Que Phong began to feel discouraged. Some households had to slaughter porcupines to eat because no one bought them. Mr. Lang Khanh Suyen said that from dozens of households raising porcupines, now there are only a few households left. Many people lost money, sad because they invested too much money to buy porcupine breeding during the peak period, leading to losses. The porcupine breeding movement also subsided because of that, people were no longer interested.

While telling the story, Mr. Suyen took us to his porcupine farm. According to him, although the price of porcupines is not as expensive as before, this is still a breed that brings high economic efficiency. This is a wild animal but has been domesticated. Porcupines are easy to raise, eat a variety of clean foods. With the current price of porcupine breeds of about 2 - 3 million VND/pair, after 15 - 18 months the porcupines will reproduce. If not sold for breeding, to raise porcupines for meat, each year the porcupines will reach a weight of 1.2 - 1.5 yen/head. With the current selling price of about 200 - 250 thousand VND/kg of porcupine meat, each porcupine sold will have a profit of at least 1.5 million VND. While the cost of food is very low, taking advantage of vegetables, fruits, and leaves in the garden to raise porcupines, this is an acceptable profit. “Raising porcupines is less risky than other animals because there are almost no diseases. If you do not follow the trend, know how to choose the right time to buy porcupine breeds and have a stable sales outlet, raising porcupines is much more profitable than raising chickens, ducks and pigs. This is also a type of animal that is suitable for the climate and soil of Que Phong, suitable for the farming customs of the people,” Mr. Suyen confided.

Mr. Suyen's concern is also the common thought of many farmers in Que Phong district. Mr. Nguyen Quyet Thang, deputy head of Hai Lam 2 hamlet, Que Son commune, said that at its peak, there were about 10 households raising porcupines in Que Son commune, some families pooled money to buy porcupine breeds, but now only 3 households, namely Mr. Ho Quang Phuong, Mr. Ho Dinh Khuong and Mr. Ho Van Chuyen, are still raising porcupines. These households raise them for fun, and occasionally butcher them mainly for food, because even though the price is cheap, very few people ask to buy them...

The leaders of Que Phong district said that the development of porcupine farming in Que Phong in previous years has left many lessons for farmers. Just because of following the taste, not calculating the market demand, many households suffered losses. However, the district still assessed that porcupine farming is suitable for the climate conditions, people's customs, has few diseases, "raise for fun, eat for real", but when the market has not developed strongly, the demand for porcupine meat is not high, people need to be careful in multiplying the herd. This is also a general lesson in the development of new varieties of plants and animals in the district, must follow the law of supply and demand of the market, avoid the situation of following the trend, when the price is high, massive investment, when the price is low, abandonment, causing waste...

Article and photos:Nguyen Khoa