Nguyen Thanh Hung (born in 1988) used to worked as a biotech engineer, but then he decided to leave this job to fulfill his dream of applying high-tech agriculture on his homeland. Currently, he is the owner of Green Farm – a cantaloupe farm – in Hung Tho quarter, Hung Dinh ward, Thuan An town.
It is the first step that costs
In 2012, Hung began to fulfill his dream. He grew hydroponic vegetables in greenhouses. Then he convinced Hung Dinh ward Farmers’ Association to rent 3,000m2 of land in Hung Tho quarter, Hung Dinh ward out to him to implement the model.
His first crop comprising of tomatoes, lettuces, and some hydroponic vegetables were all lost, because of diseases on tomato plants, high production costs. But he was not discouraged, then continued to conduct market research, find appropriate varieties. He also came to Thailand, Malaysia ... to learn their methods.
Hung and his cantaloupes.
To accumulate more experiences, Hung visited some high-tech agricultural models in HCM City. Then he recognized that cantaloupe growing model was the best model, because this model was not popular in Binh Duong, capital investment was not high, the market also like cantaloupe, bringing high profitability.
Expanding the model
After renovation of his greenhouses, Hung raised cantaloupes on 1,000m2 of land with an initial investment of about VND350 million. Currently, his farm has 3 cantaloupe crops/year with many cantaloupe varieties imported from Taiwan, Japan… A cantaloupe weighs averagely 1.5 - 2kg; each crop can yield 2.5 - 3 tons cantaloupe sold for VND28,000-30,000/kg, earning about VND80 million/crop.
Along with earnings from growing peppers, hydroponic vegetables, his farm has an annual income of about VND300 million. Currently, Vuong Tron Company (HCM City hi-tech agricultural park) purchases all his cantaloupes. According to Hung, cantaloupe’s demands of the market are very high. Thus he is renting more lands to expand his farm.
Besides, his Green Farm is in Lai Thieu orchards attracting many tourists. Visitors coming to his farm can tour, take photos, buy cantaloupes… Many foreign visitors, who are working at industrial parks in Thuan An town also come to his farm and like his cantaloupes very much.
Hung shared his experiences, cantaloupes must be grown correctly to be not too thick nor too sparse. Each plant must be grown in beansprouts pot segregated from land to avoid diseases by canvas; install drip irrigation system to keep moisture. Pollination must be carried out timely usually at noon, at most sunny weather). Hung also raises bees for pollination. Each plant retains only one cantaloupe to avoid nutritious competition. Crop duration is about 75-80 days.
Reported by T.Hieu – Translated by Ngoc Huynh
