We visited Men’s family on harvesting occasion of mushroom. Men and other three workers are quickly packing mushroom to deliver to costumers while Thinh is busy with preparing for expanding the mushroom cultivation area.

Men and Thinh harvest mushroom.

He stopped his work to invite us some tea and told, “Before, we did farm work on some acres of farmland. After each harvesting season, I went to Hanoi to work as hired workers. As I had to work far away from my home with very low income, which could not afford our living, we decided to use one part of our poor land for the mushroom farm in 2014 after studying a number of economic models in our district. We realized it was easy to plant mushroom while its consumption is favorable and it could bring high income”. In order to gain more experience, Thinh asked to work for other mushroom farms.

Thanks to proper caring process, her family earned a profit of some tens of millions VND (some 429 USD) in the first crop. Up to the present, the mushroom area has increased from 200 square meters to nearly 500 square meters. They arrange them into separate rows for easy moving, caring and harvesting mushroom.

The economic model of Men’s family proves that local people can grow rich on their homeland instead of working far from home. Thanks to changes in thought and working methods, they can master their life and create jobs for a number of local women Nguyen Thi Thuong, Vice Chairwoman of Tan Thanh communal Women Union

The mushroom farm is equipped with spraying system to maintain regular humidity ensuring optimum growth of the mushroom even in hot weather. Currently, their family’s mushroom farm has about 9,000 bags of oyster mushroom.

According to Thinh’s experience, the best time for planting mushroom is from August to April of the following year. The main substrate ingredients include rice straw, used cotton, sawdust and bagasse. In order to make standardized bags of mushroom, the growers must strictly follow the steps including whisking the ingredients before composting, bagging, transplanting and incubating especially paying attention to hygiene water resources.

The mushroom can be harvested within 25 days since incubation. Thanks to its good quality, the mushroom is purchased by traders from Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen right after harvest. Her family sells about 40 tons of mushroom per year at an average price of 20,000 VND (0.8 USD) per kilo with annual revenue of 800 million VND (34,400 USD) and profit of 400 million VND (17,200 USD). They are expanding by 500 square meters for the mushroom farm.

After finishing her work at the mushroom farm, Men is busy with 4 acres of vegetable and 5 acres of rice. They found that the farmers in their hometown face difficulties with both farm work and consumption. Unlike mushroom, which is sought to buy by traders, other veggies such as bean, tomato, pumpkin or winter melon are sold at a low price even face difficulties in consumption.

In early 2016, they collaborated with some traders to open a purchasing place for agricultural produce at their house to deliver to adjacent markets. About 1 ton of veggies (tomato, cabbage, carrot, potato, bean and different types of vegetable) are consumed per day. The products are collected at their house every afternoon to be purchased and delivered by traders to Hanoi and Thai Nguyen in the next morning. After deducting other costs, her family earns profit from 15 to 20 million VND (664 to 859 USD) each month.

On the rest area of the family garden (3,600 square meters), Men’s family plant bananas because the investment costs for this plant is less than others while it faces lower risks. “This kind of banana is fancied by many people thanks to its sweet flavor. The growing and caring process are quite simple. When young trees grow, I only keep the main branch of the tree then fertilize them with cattle manure. On fruit bearing process, we can fertilize with NPK”, said Thinh. This year, their banana garden is expected to yield about 300 bunches of banana. Besides, they plant some hundreds of pineapple trees, raise pigs, chickens and cows.

The complex-economic model of Men’s family has demonstrated its effectiveness. From a hired worker, they have become masters on their homeland gaining profits of nearly 1 billion VND (43,000 USD) per year. They can build a luxurious house and take good care of their children.

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Mai Toan