Phong Van villager vaccinates their goats.

Low cost, high profit

Over the years, taking advantage of the large hills and natural grass fields, many households in Phong Van commune have raised goats, horses, cows and buffaloes to develop their economic conditions to improve income. The family of Mr Vi Hai Au in Lang Cha village raises 10 white horses. Each year, his family sells three or four horses with an average price of 25 million - 30 million VND (1100 USD) each, even up to 50 million VND (2000USD), raising the Au’s family income to more than 100 million VND (4399USD) per year.

According to Au, compared with some other pets, horse is more omnivorous and takes him less efforts to care for, while the economic efficiency is high. Today, selling white horses is easy due to a high demand. In the near future, he will expand the herd to increase income.

With his decades of breeding experience, the family of Mr Ngo Van Dat in Ca village, Phong Minh commune regularly has 60 buffaloes and cows worth nearly one billion VND (43.990USD). This is one of the typical outstanding households in the commune. Dat said that although his family raises many buffalos and cows, the work is not so hard. Meanwhile, the cost is too low while the profit is high.

According to the district’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, livestock husbandry combined with forest plantation is the main source of income for the northeastern communes of Phong Minh, Phong Van, Bien Son, and Tan Son. The cattle raised in the area are mostly horses, goats, buffalos and cows. At present, Phong Van commune has more than 1,000 horses, while Bien Son commune has over 2,000 goats, and Phong Minh has nearly 1,900 thousands buffaloes. Thanks to husbandry, the economic condition of ethnic minority community is getting better. Many households have escaped from poverty, becoming rich with an earning between 150-200 million VND (8000 USD) a year.

Support in varieties, co-operatives establishment needed

The development of domestic animal herds to increase income is a focus of local households in the mountainous communes of Luc Ngan district. However, there is a lack of qualified varieties production facility. The majority of farmers have used local varieties with small stature and low carcass. At the same time, the grasslands are being increasingly shrunken, while the cages are still primitive and rickety. These factors have caused high fatality of cattle due to cold weather, lack of food or dangerous diseases, leading to great economic losses.

The goat herd of the family of Mr Nguyen Van Luong in Lang Cha Village, Phong Van commune.

Defining animal husbandry as the strength of the locality, the Luc Ngan district People's Committee has implemented a project to speed up breeding development in some northeastern communes in the 2018-2021 period, focusing on major cattle including buffalos, horses and goats. The district’s target is to keep the stable herds of buffaloes, cows and goats and expand the horse herd in 2020. Specifically, the cross-bred goat herd is expected to account for 30 percent of the total cattle, while that of cross-bred buffaloes is 15 percent. The horses herd is hoped to be expanded to 3,000 individuals, of which 35 percent is white horses.

The total cost of the project is nearly 8 billion VND, of which over 5 billion VND comes from the district budget and the rest is contributed by locals. In each period, these funds will be used to support the development of new livestock varieties, purchasing vaccines, planting grass VA06, speeding up trade promotion, signing agreements on production consumption with markets inside and outside the province. In order to fulfil the plan, the district's agencies are selecting households to participate in the projects, organising training on husbandry techniques and changing people's habit of letting cattle wander, while guiding the establishment of co-operatives operating in the fields of husbandry, processing and marketing.

Cao Van Hoan, Vice Chairman of the district People's Committee, said that identifying the challenges in livestock development in the coming time, the district has rolled out responding solutions, thus creating a breakthrough in production organisation of local people. Particularly, it is an urgent need to protect the trademark for Luc Ngan cattle, while promoting and enhancing the value of the products, he added.

Trinh Lan