Leaving a programmer job with a salary of more than 2,000 USD, he returned to his hometown to raise earthworms (Perionyx excavatus), so far, the engineer in the West has a property of more than $160,000.
Every day, Mr. Nguyen Cong Vinh (38 years old in Than Cuu Nghia commune, Chau Thanh, Tien Giang) often gets up early to go to his family’s farm to check each worm farm. Using his hand to gently dig up the wet soil to raise worms, he said: “The soil for raising earthworms must be wet, if the soil is dry, the worms are slow to grow”.
Anh Vinh was born into a family of farmers. After finishing high school, Vinh studied Information Technology at An Giang University. With an engineering degree, he easily applied for a job as a programmer for a company in Ho Chi Minh City, with a salary of more than 2,000 USD/month.
Mr. Vinh is checking earthworms.
However, being passionate about agriculture and always wanting to get rich in his hometown, in 2016, Vinh suddenly quit his job and returned to his hometown to raise earthworms.
“At the end of 2016, I started to learn about the worm farming model in Cu Chi (HCMC), Long An and went to Hanoi, then to Lai Chau. At the beginning of 2017, I decided to return to my hometown to start a business with the worm farming model. At that time, I saw that earthworms are an important link in organic agriculture and the trend of high-tech agricultural production, so the possibility of success with earthworms is very high,” shared Vinh.
“But with passion, I was determined to make it happen. Up to now, everyone has ‘turned the wheel’ to support me, friends come to learn and learn the worm farming model to open a farm,” he said. .
Vinh’s worm farm.
Worms raised for 15 months are sold.
Initially, Vinh spent about 20 million VND ($1=25,000 VND) and raised earthworms in an area of only a few hundred square meters. For 5 years, he has worked and accumulated experience. Up to now, he has owned more than 100ha (including farms associated with people) farming worms throughout the western provinces, opening a company with assets worth more than 40 billion VND.
In order to have a worm farm like today, Vinh had many sleepless nights. The Western man revealed that the construction of the cage is very important, accounting for 50% of the efficiency in raising worms.
Breeding cages must have a height of 4-6cm, a base of sand lined with a height of 5cm, in the layer of sand lined with nets and must have a roof to cover the sun and rain. Each m2 of soil stocked about 25kg of seed worms.
“After 15 days of stocking, you can harvest meat worms; It takes about 3 months to harvest manure to put it into the fertilizer production process,” Vinh said.
According to Vinh, raising earthworms is not complicated. “Even very simply, just compost cows, pigs, goats, buffaloes, straw, agricultural waste, etc. to rot to make food for earthworms. Worm worms when grown, sell meat; and vermicompost as fertilizer, Vinh said. He also used probiotics imported from Israel and combined with molasses and sugar that had been incubated for more than 3 weeks for the earthworms to eat.
Each month, Vinh’s company sells about 1,700-1,800 tons of vermicompost.
Worm meat is sold to shrimp, eel, and fish farms and to cattle feed companies. The vermicompost is sold to high-tech farms in greenhouses throughout the provinces and cities across the country.
“Worm castings do not contain heavy metals. Fruits exported to foreign countries, thanks to the use of vermicompost when planting, are very popular. Gardeners who grow citrus use a lot,” said Vinh.
After 5 years of construction, Mr. Vinh’s worm farming model has brought great economic benefits.
Currently, Vinh’s farm sells about 1,700-1,800 tons of vermicompost per month, priced at 4-5 million VND/ton; 5-6 tons of meat worms, price from 50,000-60,000 VND/month.
In addition, he also sells worm seed and many other exclusive products that he produces from worm manure. Excluding all expenses, Vinh earns 500-600 million VND per month.