King of earthworms

That is the nickname people give to the young man Le Minh Vuong, who is working in his hometown Ninh Hai, Ninh Thuan.

Because for over 10 years, Le Minh Vuong has always been passionate about pursuing research on earthworms and producing organic microbial fertilizers, with the desire to contribute to building a clean, sustainable, and environmentally friendly agriculture .

Coming from a farming family, the images of fields, rice plants, plowing buffaloes and especially earthworms are no longer strange to Le Minh Vuong. His childhood memories are of sleepless afternoons, digging worms with his friends for fishing bait... Later in college, the lecturer mentioned earthworms to treat organic waste, which have great value for the environment and agriculture, Vuong was strongly attracted to those small animals.

Loyal love for earthworms

In 2012, when he was a second-year student, Vuong conducted a scientific research project on "Improving and treating mud from white-leg shrimp ponds to raise earthworms and make organic fertilizer". After that, Vuong transferred the technology to shrimp farming households in Can Gio, Kien Giang , Ben Tre and Quang Ngai, helping them to improve and reuse the amount of polluted pond sludge into organic microbial fertilizer to grow vegetables.

For over 10 years, Vuong has been passionately pursuing his passion for researching earthworms and producing organic microbial fertilizers. PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR

After the joy of helping farmers, Vuong was determined to pursue the goal of creating practical values ​​for Vietnamese agriculture. Although student life is full of hardships, Vuong still works hard to travel back and forth from the center of Ho Chi Minh City to the countryside, especially Cu Chi district - the capital of the worm farming industry to learn, observe and learn from the experiences of farmers. The student also often uses earthworms as a topic to participate in environmental competitions and won a number of awards. Vuong also created the Fanpage "Elite Generation" with the desire to gather young people who are passionate about scientific research to cooperate and realize ideas for a green environment.

Talking passionately about earthworms, Le Minh Vuong said: "I believe that in the future, people will change their thinking and farming methods, from abusing chemicals to switching to clean agriculture to have clean food, safe for health and friendly to the environment. Earthworms will make an important contribution to this ecosystem chain, through the treatment of organic waste to protect the environment and provide organic microbial fertilizers for clean agriculture."

The result is clean, healthy and environmentally friendly food.

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR

Embarking on this path, the young man encountered many difficulties because there was little information about earthworms in the country, and his own financial resources were also limited. But with great determination, Vuong studied more foreign documents, from which he realized that vermicompost has many uses in agriculture such as: providing macro, micro and micro nutrients for plants; keeping the soil moist; providing beneficial microorganisms to protect plant roots and loosen the soil. In addition, vermicompost has many worm cocoons that will hatch into baby worms, continuing to provide the soil with a large amount of worms to loosen the soil and process indigestible organic matter into easily digestible ones...

During the years of pursuing his passion, all the knowledge about earthworms gained from research and learning from the experiences of his predecessors has been gathered in the book Applied Circular Agriculture edited by Le Minh Vuong himself. This brainchild of his was born with the motto "everyone knows and does together", wishing that organic microbial earthworms would be present everywhere to serve sustainable agriculture.

Le Minh Vuong introduces the book Applied Circular Agriculture, edited by himself. PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR

In the book, it is written that raising earthworms is not difficult, suitable for all components from small households to large-scale agricultural farms. The basic requirements needed to raise earthworms include: available sources of livestock manure or agricultural by-products, organic waste, airy, dark and not flooded barns, having a source of healthy and qualified parent biomass...

Spreading circular agriculture thinking

Spending a lot of time and effort to research, produce and market earthworm products, Le Minh Vuong encountered many difficulties in starting his business. However, he did not "hide his profession" but was always willing and proactive in disseminating earthworm farming techniques to farmers through many training sessions.

Vuong's "Sun and Wind Farm" is always open to welcome visitors and farmers to experience and learn. PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR

Vuong and his colleagues launched a project applying the circular agriculture model - "Sun and Wind Farm" - always open to welcome visitors and farmers to experience and learn. Visitors will visit the farm growing grapes, apples, guava, melons and aloe vera, combined with large-scale livestock farming that meets Global GAP standards. The farm operates in a closed cycle, utilizing organic waste, agricultural by-products, and livestock manure to make organic microbial fertilizers and raise earthworms. The project has the mission of spreading the message of building and developing a sustainable agriculture based on safe and environmentally friendly solutions, for the health of consumers.

Le Minh Vuong received a letter of commendation from the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan (now Vice Chairman of the National Assembly). PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR

With this project, Le Minh Vuong won first prize in the Ninh Thuan startup project competition in 2023 and an encouragement prize in the National Rural Youth Startup Competition organized by the Central Youth Union. In November 2023, Le Minh Vuong received a letter of commendation from the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan (now Vice Chairman of the National Assembly).

The project's main products and also the "brainchild" of Vuong over many years of research and production: IMO localized microorganisms in liquid and powder form; GE aloe vera, GE banana (biological nutrients for plants); organic microbial fertilizers from earthworms, earthworm liquid and products from earthworms; biological nutrients Alonutri Pro for aloe vera plants... More uniquely, Vuong has recently launched the product "frozen earthworms". Accordingly, thanks to deep freezing technology, valuable compounds such as biological protein, enzymes, minerals and amino acids are kept intact; easy to preserve, not afraid of damage like fresh earthworms, proactively providing raw materials all year round.

Vuong said: "Every time I harvest vermicompost in my garden, my heart feels like it's on fire. Seeing each batch of fine, high-quality compost with a fragrant smell from the worms means that all the days of caring for the worms have been rewarded. Even happier is when I bag the vermicompost, I know that this gift from the earth will reach the hands of dedicated farmers, contributing to nurturing hundreds of hectares of clean vegetables, sweet fruit gardens, and organic vegetable gardens everywhere."

The country is entering a new era, requiring the development of ecological agriculture, modern countryside and civilized farmers. On that journey, we need examples of young people who dare to think, dare to do, dare to master knowledge and devote all their passion to pursuing green, clean, sustainable agriculture for the health of the community like Le Minh Vuong. Because organic farming is doing decent farming, contributing to positioning and enhancing the brand of Vietnamese agricultural products on the world agricultural map.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/vuong-trun-que-185251003152639465.htm