Selling 55 taels of gold to raise pigs

Passing dozens of kilometers from Bac Giang city, we came to Nguyen Ba Huu's farm. The farm is located at the end of the village, surrounded by brick walls covered with white lime powder.

Nguyen Ba Huu and his two children at a ceremony awarding the title of “Excellent Vietnamese Farmer in 2019”.

He said 15 years ago, the area was a swamp where "buffaloes and cows would die when they fell into." After many years of going from the North to the South and vice versa with many jobs, Huu decided to return to his hometown to build a pig farm according to a model that he had accidentally knew in the southern province of Binh Duong.

But when discussing this issue with his wife, he was strongly opposed. Understanding his wife, he waited for her to be away from home, he sold 55 taels of gold accumulated earlier to buy more than 64,000 sq.m of Dam Lac lake area of 100 households in the village. He hired workers to build cages day and night.

When the breeding farm was completed and put into operation, he raised 500 pigs in the first time. After 5 months, his pigs were sold, earning him tens of millions of VND in profit. Seeing a good profit, he continued to borrow money to double the production scale. Just like that, his farm has become bigger and bigger like it is today.

The farm is arranged scientifically. More than 700 pig cages are built in a modern design, with cement floors and drainage slopes. Here, automatic faucets for pigs to drink, exhaust fans, air conditioners and electric bulbs ... are fully equipped to deal with all weather conditions.

In addition, he built a house for 20 workers and his couple to eat and sleep every day. Since the African swine fever outbreaks occurred, he has been closely monitoring the access to the farm and care for the animals.

Currently, more than 3,500 pigs are growing day by day. On average, about 5 months he sold a batch of 1,000-2,000 pigs. It is expected from now to Tet (Lunar New Year), he will sell nearly 2,000 heads. With high prices as today, the farm owner can earn a billion VND in profit.

Along with raising pigs, for nearly ten years, Huu has used wastes to raise fish and rented more land in the village to plant more than 3,000 timber and fruit trees of all kinds such as nacre, fragrant rosewood, jack fruit and grapefruit. Particularly, 200 nine-year-old fragrant rosewood trees are being paid an average price of 8-10 million VND each.

A farmer with many initiatives

Determining that livestock breeding and farming face risks, during the caring process, he has always sought ways to minimize investment costs and focused on disease prevention.

Nguyen Ba Huu's family is raising more than 3,500 pigs for commercial purpose.

Besides, to protect the environment, Huu and his wife also invested billions of VND in animal waste treatment system. With this system, feces are separated from the liquid and then composted with lime. When it becomes dry, it will be bagged and sold to farming households. His idea won a prize at the provincial Farmers’ Technical Innovation Contest.

Not only enriching himself, he has also provided breeding animals, knowledge and money without interest for 21 disadvantaged households to get out of poverty and get rich. At the same time, he has actively contributed money to the locality’s fund to build new-style rural areas.

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Hoang Phuong