A poor farmer in Dong Nai Province’s Xuan Phu village is finding that fish breeding is the perfect way to supplement his income and make a tidy profit.
A poor farmer in
Nguyen Quang Vinh started the business on a small pond in his 200 sq.m garden over 10 years ago.
Now the 59-year-old man owns a big farm covering five ha of land and dozens of ponds and tanks for breeder fish.
"I met lots of difficulties when I started to breed fish in 1982," Vinh said.
The man said he spent three years attending fish breeding classes and learning from successful farmers.
"I suffered bitter failure when I put theory into practice, " Vinh said.
Although he was penniless, he did not give up. He said his impatience was one cause of his failure.
"I injected several kinds of liquid medicines into fish to stimulate their growth and fertility," he said. "The result was that my fish died or became infertile. Even when the fish produced eggs, the eggs were rotten."
He then borrowed money from his relatives and friends to restart the business.
"Many people persuaded me to give up the plan, saying that only people with knowledge in the business could achieve success, " Vinh said. "With only primary school education I decided to take a risk."
Since the number of fish caught from the sea and rivers are insufficient, he decided to raise breeder fish.
"I remembered the old saying, ‘Let’s raise fish to be wealthy, let’s raise pigs to be well-off’."
He applied what he had learnt from successful farmers and from fish breeding classes organised by the local Agriculture and Rural Department.
"I restarted my business and arranged everything in a systematic order and with patience," he said.
He fed his fish and administered medicine to them with more care. After several years of research and experimentation, his fish began producing eggs.
For his achievements, he is affectionately called Mandarin of Fish by farmers in his village, who have learned about breeding from him.
Vinh paid off his debts several years ago, and since then has rebuilt his house and presented houses to his married children.
Vinh’s farm sells more than 20 tonnes of fish, including carp and chub breeders, to farmers in
"I have earned a profit of up to VND350 million (US$21,875) a year," Vinh said.
His farm is crowded with customers every day, mostly in the rainy season, the favourable season to raise fish.
Vinh is now learning techniques to raise catfish and snakehead fish.
After a few false starts, poor farmer succeeds as fish breeder
"Dong Nai’s farmers now must travel to the Mekong Delta to buy breeders of these kinds of fish at high prices," Vinh said.
(Source: VNS)
