Open the way to get rich from suburban wastelands

As a suburban area of Thanh Hoa City, over the past ten years, many low-lying agricultural lands in Dong Cuong Ward have been abandoned. The urbanization process has made many people no longer interested in rice fields, but some dynamic farmers have proactively accumulated and formed effective snail farming models.

Open the way to get rich from suburban wastelands In Dong Cuong ward, there are many models of accumulating ineffective fields to raise apple snails combined with comprehensive farms, bringing high economic efficiency.

Not only famous for its flower growing area, in recent years, Dong Cuong ward has also become a large "snail barn" of the province. Many models of snail farming combined with comprehensive farms have been formed here, bringing in hundreds of millions of dong, even billions of dong, annually. A typical example is the model of Mr. Le Thanh Binh in Ward 7, bringing in revenue of around 1 billion dong per year.

Through the concrete bridge over the small canal invested by the model owner, there is a 6,900m2 production land accumulation model. Leading the visitors, the dynamic farmer introduced 6 ponds across the land. According to him, there are 5 ponds specializing in raising snails and 1 pond raising duckweed as food for snails combined with raising fish. Visually, it is easy to recognize the large and small snails that stick thickly to the moss and vegetables in the pond as food. Just by using a net to scoop 3-4 times, Mr. Binh can scoop up a kilogram of snails. Between the ponds are production areas arranged to grow vegetables, squash and dragon fruit beds. On the ponds is a system of trellises, each season has its own variety, climbing plants such as chayote, luffa, squash, pumpkin... covering the land with green all year round. Along the paths are hundreds of guava trees that bear fruit all four seasons. Flocks of chickens roam free under fruit trees, and litters of pigs are raised to increase income. With the diligent hands of Mr. Binh and his wife, it seems that every area of the land is fully utilized, with optimal rotation of crops.

According to him, the vegetables, tubers, and fruits of the model are harvested all year round. The unsold parts, and the ripe guavas, are all collected to be used as food for snails. Waste from livestock farming is composted to fertilize crops, without having to buy chemical fertilizers. It seems that everything is utilized, so the economic model is circular, with almost no waste going out. In fact, you can feel the air and environment here is very fresh and clean. Under the ponds, the water is so clear that you can see the bottom, because the snails will eat all the vegetables and fruits dropped in, without releasing pollutants into the environment like many other farms.

Regarding the formation and development of this typical VAC model, Mr. Le Thanh Binh said: “The current production land was originally deep rice land along the canal, often flooded. Because it could only be cultivated for one unstable crop and the productivity was low, many local people abandoned it. Implementing the specialized resolution on converting ineffective rice land of the Dong Cuong Commune Party Committee at that time, in 1999, my family converted, accumulated and then bid for more to form a 3,500m2 production area. Concentrating capital to dig a pond to raise soil, in the first years the family grew guava and raised fish but the profit was not high. Gradually realizing that snails had a stable output, I learned the technique myself, switched to raising new animals and growing dragon fruit.”

Taking short-term to sustain long-term, his family gradually accumulated more land, expanding the production area to nearly 7,000 square meters as it is today. Up to now, the total cost of renovation and investment in production infrastructure of the family is about 800 million VND. Each year, the model harvests nearly 5 tons of commercial snails, selling 800,000 snail seeds. According to the owner's calculations, in 2022, the farm will bring in a profit of about 925 million VND. In 2023, the total revenue will be about 1.2 billion VND, the profit will increase to nearly 1 billion VND.

As the first example of successful accumulation of deep-lying rice fields to raise snails, Mr. Le Thanh Binh's model has created an effect for the locality to have a new direction in agricultural development. According to statistics from the Gardening and Farming Association of Dong Cuong ward, there are currently nearly 10 models of raising snails combined with comprehensive garden and farm development in the area. Typical examples are the households of Mr. Le Van Quang and Le Hong Huong in Ward 2; Nguyen Huy Loi in Ward 3; Le Dinh Thuan and Le Dinh Thanh in Ward 5... From this development, in Dong Cuong ward there are currently many restaurants that use snails as their signature dish. The snail models and restaurants are developing mutually, making snail farming increasingly promising.

Article and photos: Le Dong

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