9X Female Director and the desire to get rich

Born into a farming family, Luong has been attached to fields, gardens, and fruit trees since childhood. After graduating with a degree in Sociology from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), Duong Thuy Luong (born in 1990, from La Hien commune, Vo Nhai district, Thai Nguyen province) continued her studies to obtain a master's degree.

In 2013, Luong returned to her hometown and joined the Youth Union and Young Pioneers. While participating in local social activities, she realized that the land where she was born and raised had many vegetable and fruit models that helped people earn income, contribute to hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and education for children... However, the output of products is often uncertain, prices are unstable, and the situation of "good harvest, low price, good price, bad harvest" is still a common story that makes farmers always fall into the situation of loss.

This is what Luong always worries about, wanting to contribute to help people reduce the difficulty in consuming products.

From that awareness, Luong spent time to learn about the production methods and consumption markets of clean agricultural products in some places inside and outside the province, clearly understanding the preferences of consumers who need clean agricultural products with clear origins. In order to facilitate the implementation and support many ethnic minorities in the locality, Luong determined that the shortest way is to establish a cooperative.

Representatives of La Hien Clean Agricultural Products Cooperative exchanged techniques on caring for commercial chili plants with farmers in La Hien commune.

Thinking is doing, in 2019, Ms. Duong Thuy Luong decided to establish La Hien clean agricultural products cooperative with 7 members, charter capital of 200 million VND, with the desire to build La Hien's agricultural product brand, contributing to the development and enhancement of the value of clean agricultural products.

Ms. Luong shared: “I established the clean agricultural products cooperative with the aim of connecting households to produce clean and safe agricultural products, first of all to ensure the consumption needs of people in the commune, then to reach out to larger markets... . ”.

Initially with 7 members, the cooperative focused on growing mushrooms, raising bees for honey, and growing custard apples according to VietGAP standards. To implement systematically, the cooperative built a mushroom growing workshop of over 150m2 with a total cost of over 100 million VND, re-planned the custard apple growing area of 1ha, and consolidated and developed over 300 beehives.

In 2019, the cooperative produced 4 tons of dried wood ear mushrooms, 100 kg of shiitake mushrooms, 100 kg of brown mushrooms and 1,000 liters of honey. The cooperative's products were purchased by Phu Gia Biotechnology Company Limited (Hung Son town, Dai Tu district). Custard apples and honey were consumed in the provincial market and some stores in Hanoi, bringing in revenue of over 500 million VND.

Get rich with people

Not only implementing with members, the Cooperative also cooperates with 100 households, divided into many production groups with many different products, and focuses on developing honey to prepare to bring products to the provincial OCOP competition this year. Currently, the Cooperative has a total of 30 beekeeping households, of which 10 households participate in the Cooperative with more than 1,000 bee boxes, with an average output of about 10 tons of honey/year.

Since households joined the cooperative, honey products have been labeled and traced, the value of honey has increased significantly, and can be sold for 300,000 VND/liter.

Duong Thuy Luong introduces honey products of La Hien Clean Agriculture Cooperative.

“In the coming time, I plan to strongly develop honey products, considering this as the main product to bring in large revenue for cooperative members and people in the region. I also plan to package honey for the convenience of users to promote product consumption by people," said Ms. Luong.

Currently, the cooperative creates regular jobs for over 10 people with an income of 4-5 million VND/person/month. In addition, the cooperative also provides seeds, training on planting and caring for chili peppers and signs a commitment to purchase all chili peppers for 15 farmers in the commune and some hamlets of Khe Mo commune (Dong Hy) with a total area of 2 hectares.

It is estimated that each sao of chili pepper brings people an income of over 20 million VND, 5 times higher than rice cultivation.

"I want to pursue a career in agriculture to provide quality agricultural products, and also to form a product value chain in the market," said Ms. Luong.

Up to now, the market for products of La Hien Clean Agricultural Cooperative, La Hien Commune has basically stabilized. In the first 6 months of this year alone, the cooperative's revenue reached 600 - 700 million VND.

La Hien Clean Agricultural Cooperative also determined to stick with agriculture and farmers with the core goal of making low profits to develop, build brands, and develop markets, in which the main purpose is still to help farmers in consuming products with high value.

With the ambition and desire to get rich, in the near future, Ms. Luong plans to continue growing more lingzhi mushrooms, expanding the area of custard apple cultivation, and increasing the number of bee colonies. In addition, the cooperative also expands its linkage to provide seeds, science and technology, and purchase products for nearly 50 households growing about 5 hectares of chili peppers.

SOUTH

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