Female veteran gets rich from earthworms

After retiring from the army, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien (in Noi Bai commune, Hanoi) started her own business and has been successful with a model of raising pigs using earthworms, providing clean, high-quality food to the market.

Retired but not retired

With a youthful look always on her face, few people believe that Ms. Lien is 72 years old and owns a large farm with hundreds of pigs and sows. Not only that, she is busier than when she was young, always busy with work, sometimes taking care of worms, sometimes bathing pigs, sometimes planting trees to create a perfect organic cycle on the GHT farm.

Ms. Lien is originally from Hong Van commune ( Hanoi city) and served 32 years in the army at Factory Z153 (General Department of Engineering). In 2003, Ms. Lien received a decision to retire with the rank of major in professional military. Initially, Ms. Lien returned home to grow vegetables and flowers to enjoy her old age, but by chance she learned that raising earthworms for animal feed would help animals stay healthy and produce good quality meat, so she decided to start a business.

Ms. Lien and agricultural expert Nguyen Lan Hung discuss earthworm farming techniques - PHOTO: NVCC

"I expanded the farm to about 2,000 ^square meters and started raising earthworms. I used earthworms to feed the pigs, and the pig manure was used to feed the earthworms and fertilize the plants. The organic cycle was circular and nothing was lost," said Ms. Lien.

At first, Ms. Lien encountered many difficulties in raising worms due to lack of knowledge, but she was not discouraged and was determined to continue. "Worms breathe through their skin, so we always have to maintain a biomass with a humidity of about 70%, but too much humidity is not good, it can easily kill the worms. Besides, I do not pave the floor because it will lose the worms' natural contact with the soil," Ms. Lien said.

In pig farming, Ms. Lien feeds pigs earthworms every day because worms have a very high protein content, helping pigs grow well and increase their resistance. Ms. Lien mixes worms with rice bran, brewer's dregs, trace minerals, probiotics... to cook into bran and feeds pigs to help the meat quality be delicious and have outstanding value, especially because pigs are almost disease-free.

The pigs are fed earthworms and listen to music every day by Ms. Lien - PHOTO: NVCC

In addition, Ms. Lien also buys poultry and livestock manure from local people to raise worms, maintaining year-round production. Currently, on average, Ms. Lien's farm has brought to the market 100 kg of dried worms and 1 ton of worm seeds each month. In addition, Ms. Lien supplies the market about 1 ton of clean pork each week with a herd of about 300 pigs. She also produces sausages from clean pork, all products of GHT farm have been recognized as achieving 3-star OCOP of Hanoi City. Currently, GHT farm also has other products such as earthworm chicken meat and earthworm chicken eggs, all of which are of high quality.

"To get high-quality pork, in addition to feeding earthworms, I also let the pigs listen to music and sunbathe to relax them. The farm ensures the 3 no criteria including no industrial feed - no lean meat - no antibiotic residues," Ms. Lien shared.

In addition, Ms. Lien has a very special way of selling products. She does not put them in supermarkets or advertise loudly, but mainly customers come to her themselves. "Customers place orders, then when we have enough goods, we will slaughter the pork and send it to the customer immediately, not pre-cut it. Over the past 10 years, although the price of everything has increased, the price of GHT pork has remained the same because I want customers to use clean, delicious products without having to spend a lot of money," Ms. Lien shared.

Ms. Lien gives monthly support to households with difficult family circumstances - PHOTO: NVCC

Turning organic waste into "gold"

As an organic enthusiast, Ms. Lien spends a lot of time researching organic waste recycling. Once again, Ms. Lien learned about the method of treating organic waste using indigenous microorganisms - IMO. This method not only helps to solve a large amount of organic waste in the environment, but also creates good fertilizer for plants.

"I use on-site waste sources from the farm such as papaya, banana, and discarded fruits from the farm, add rice bran, refined sugar... mix well and incubate for 3 days, then filter to get IMO product," said Ms. Lien.

To convince women about the effects of IMO, Ms. Lien used IMO on a large pile of organic waste in the village and waited for 5 days. As a result, the large pile of waste collapsed into organic fertilizer and no longer emitted a foul smell. Since then, women in the commune have enthusiastically followed suit, contributing to reducing a large amount of waste released into the environment. Ms. Lien's initiative to produce IMO to treat household waste won second prize in the "Family safety against natural disasters and climate change" contest organized by the Vietnam Women's Union in 2021.

Having mastered the formula, Ms. Lien became one of the main speakers of the Women's participation in post-harvest straw treatment model organized by the Hanoi Women's Union. In recent years, she has been present in most districts in the suburban areas of Hanoi to participate in training to help cadres and women members in the area grasp basic knowledge about straw treatment to apply in production practices, instead of burning in the fields as before.

"Soc Son district (before the merger) is the leading district in the country in processing straw after harvest, processing waste to create livelihoods from IMO and microbial products. Currently, I am a reporter for the Hanoi Women's Union to share methods of microbial production and processing straw after harvest to the communes of Hanoi city," Ms. Lien shared.

Ms. Lien served in the army for more than 30 years - PHOTO: NVCC

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Currently, the total revenue of the GHT earthworm farm owned by Ms. Lien is about 2 billion VND per year and creates stable jobs for about 15 local workers with an income of 10 - 12 million VND/month. More specifically, many farming households have additional income from selling livestock and poultry manure to the farm to raise worms, contributing to reducing environmental pollution and promoting the green economy in the locality. The GHT farm is currently linked to 11 households in production. Ms. Lien provides free earthworms for them to raise and they must commit to raising them according to GHT's procedures.

In addition, Ms. Lien also actively participates in community activities and supports charity. In recent years, Ms. Lien has supported 5 households with especially difficult circumstances in the commune, each household 12 million VND/year. She also provided emergency support to many cases of serious illness or unfortunate accidents, such as giving a savings book to Nguyen Linh Anh, who lost her mother at the age of 15 months.

With her efforts, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien is one of the veterans, good businesswomen in peacetime and has many contributions to society. In 2022, Ms. Lien was one of the 10 typical women of the capital awarded by the Hanoi Women's Union. Above all, the love of customers, former comrades, and people is the most precious reward for Ms. Lien, helping her to live happily and continue to contribute even though she is at an "unprecedented" age.

The fifth Living Well Writing Contest was held to encourage people to write about noble actions that have helped individuals or communities. This year, the contest focused on praising individuals or groups that have performed acts of kindness, bringing hope to those in difficult circumstances.

The highlight is the new environmental award category, honoring works that inspire and encourage action for a green, clean living environment. Through this, the Organizing Committee hopes to raise public awareness in protecting the planet for future generations.

The contest has diverse categories and prize structure, including:

Article categories: Journalism, reportage, notes or short stories, no more than 1,600 words for articles and 2,500 words for short stories.

Articles, reports, notes:

- 1 first prize: 30,000,000 VND

- 2 second prizes: 15,000,000 VND

- 3 third prizes: 10,000,000 VND

- 5 consolation prizes: 3,000,000 VND

Short story:

- 1 first prize: 30,000,000 VND

- 1 second prize: 20,000,000 VND

- 2 third prizes: 10,000,000 VND

- 4 consolation prizes: 5,000,000 VND

Photo category: Submit a photo series of at least 5 photos related to volunteer activities or environmental protection, along with the name of the photo series and a short description.

- 1 first prize: 10,000,000 VND

- 1 second prize: 5,000,000 VND

- 1 third prize: 3,000,000 VND

- 5 consolation prizes: 2,000,000 VND

Most Popular Prize: 5,000,000 VND

Prize for Excellent Essay on Environmental Topic: 5,000,000 VND

Honored Character Award: 30,000,000 VND

The deadline for submissions is October 16, 2025. The works will be evaluated through the preliminary and final rounds with the participation of a jury of famous names. The organizing committee will announce the list of winners on the "Beautiful Life" page. See detailed rules at thanhnien.vn .

Organizing Committee of the Beautiful Living Contest

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nu-cuu-chien-binh-lam-giau-tu-giun-que-185250917145534127.htm