Nguyễn Văn Phúc in his pigeon farm. Photo nongnghiep.vn

HÀ NỘI – Hà Nội leads the country in implementing the national programme on agriculture development and new-style rural areas.
After 10 years, the capital city has successfully improved its rural areas and encouraged young people to implement innovative agricultural models, reported online newspaper baotintuc.vn.
A pigeon farm in outlying Sóc Sơn District is one example.
The farm is owned by Nguyễn Văn Phúc, a resident of Hiệu Chân Village in Tân Hưng Commune, who was one of ten honoured as an outstanding youngster in Hà Nôi last year.
Every year, he earns billions of đồng from breeding pigeons, the paper said.
“Ten years ago, I returned from Russia with a degree in informatics and easily found a job with a good salary in Hà Nội,” said Phúc.
But he never felt happy working for someone else.
After getting married and having children, he wanted to do something that would help his young family.
He decided to quit his job in the city and return home to start his own business.
With a modest capital of VNĐ30 million (US$1,300), he opened a pigeon farm, sparing two floors of his house for the birds.
The first attempt ended in failure. Hundreds of the birds died after a few months due to his lack of knowledge and experience.
Only 20 pairs of pigeons survived.
But he was not discouraged. He bought another 30 pairs to breed.
Learning by himself and working hard, the flock started to grow bigger. 
Overcoming the difficulties in breeding the birds, the next challenge for the IT engineer-turned-farmer was to find customers.
“I had to take every pigeon to restaurants in Hà Nội to sell,” said Phúc.
“As an IT engineer, I set up a website and a fanpage to market my products,” he said.
“The number of clients started to increase, and sometimes I was unable to fill all the orders,” he said.
After 10 years, the small pigeon farm has turned into five in Hà Nội’s Sóc Sơn District and Thái Nguyên Province, creating stable jobs for more than 10 employees.
The farms bring in monthly income of VNĐ250-300 million (US$11,000 -13,000).
Like Phúc, Nguyễn Văn Kết in Sóc Sơn District’s Bắc Phú Commune quit his job as an ad designer to return home and work as a farmer.
Kết started a frog breeding business in 2006 after watching an online clip. Initially, he worked part time.
He bred 5,000 frogs in his 50sq.m-garden. Every day, after fishing work in the office, he spent time with his frogs to watch their habits.
He found more information online.
Kết never used antibiotics with the animals, but fed them herbs and garlic.
“I wanted to supply the market with safe and clean products,” Kết said.
Gradually, the part-time job turned into a full time career. His farm expanded to 7,000 sq.m, which could earn VNĐ700-800 million (US$30,000-35,000) per year.
In addition to being sold nationwide, his frogs were exported to many countries in Southeast Asia.
Phúc and Kết are young people who dared to work with a strong will of getting rich from their homes in rural areas.
They are pioneers for rural youngsters to make their home land better and better. – VNS