Nguyễn Đức Thành is happy to harvest shrimp on his farm. —VNA/VNS Photo

ĐẮK LẮK — A man in Cư M’Gar District, Đắk Lắk Province has taken advantage of his passion for farming to start a successful organic agriculture business.  

Nguyễn Đức Thành is 23 years old and lives in Hiệp Hòa Village, Quang Hiệp Commune.

Located about 30km from the Buôn Ma Thuột City’s centre Thành has a small house, three hectares of fruit trees, and six ponds for raising fish.

Last year his income from agricultural production was about VNĐ700 million (US$30,000), but he said it took hard work to get there.

Thành was the youngest child in his family with two sisters. When he was in 9th grade, his father passed away so his family fell into difficult circumstances.

After finishing grade 9, he quit school to work as a hired labourer on various farms.  

Every day, after coming home from work, he researched agriculture online.

In 2015, Thành invested VNĐ100 million from the family savings to raise six cows and plant pepper on his family's land.

He was unlucky when pepper trees were damaged by diseases and the price of beef fell. He decided to work at a fruit tree farm in Vĩnh Long Province for three months to learn about organic agriculture.

Thanks to the guidance from the farm owner, Thành invested in planting 100 guava trees, 150 coconut trees and 50 star apple trees in 2016.

“Coconuts and guava are easy to grow and bear fruit all year round,” he said. “Plants just need enough fertiliser and water to grow well."

The biggest difficulty at that time was how easily crops became damaged due to environmental issues. He recognised an increasing demand for organic food, so he was determined to only use bio-products for growing crops.

After eight months of planting trees, he got all his capital back.

An increasing number of customers favoured Thành’s fruits and he purchased seedlings from Vĩnh Long Province farms to sell to other farmers.

He both sold the seedlings and instructed the farmers on how to best plant them.

Thành also raised fish and shrimp with only bio-yeast and soybeans and corn for feed. Each year he sells about seven tonnes of fish.

He remembered on his journey in 2017 to Vĩnh Long, he saw a successful model of breeding giant freshwater shrimp. He spent VNĐ12 million buying breeds for his farm. However, for three consecutive years, his shrimp died en masse.

In 2020, he harvested the first season of giant freshwater shrimp with 600kg.

“I was lucky to receive support from my family. A bank loan of VNĐ50 million in 2016 partly helped me overcome the difficulties in the early days of starting a business.”

Ngô Minh Đức, Chairman of the Quảng Hiệp Commune People's Committee, said Thành was an example of the spirit of overcoming difficulties, being loved by local people and highly appreciated by the local authorities.

“His agricultural model has exploited the potential of the land and expanded cultivation while many households abandoned land,“ Đức said.

“The precious point from Thành is the diligence, patience and eagerness to learn, actively applying scientific and technical advances to production, bringing about high economic efficiency."

He has invested in three nipa leaf-roofed wooden houses to welcome visitors. During the Tết (Lunar New Year) holidays, he received 200 visitors per day.

Thành also plans to develop a flower garden for ecological tourism. He was honoured to receive the Certificate of Merit from the Chairman of the Đắk Lắk Provincial People's Committee for his outstanding achievements in the patriotic emulation movement in 2015-20. VNS