The inventor of agricultural machinery in Kien Giang is a billionaire who grows rice on oil-free fields.

In the past 5 years, every year there are 2 rice crops, the average rice yield is 7-7.5 tons/ha, Mr. Tuan, Kien Binh commune, Kien Luong district ( Kien Giang ) has a rice yield of more than 3,600 tons/year. After deducting expenses, his family's profit from rice cultivation is 14 billion VND/year.

Owning more than 500 hectares of rice land with an income of more than ten billion VND per year, he is always simple and honest, typical of a farmer in the West. He is Nguyen Thanh Tuan (born 1975), residing in Lung Lon hamlet, Kien Binh commune, Kien Luong district (Kien Giang), an outstanding Vietnamese farmer in 2024.

Our working group was personally driven by Mr. Tuan on the dike, the whole green 2024 summer-autumn rice field appeared before our eyes as beautiful as a carpet.

Few people expected that this fertile land was once a saline and barren area, with only cajuput trees and weeds everywhere.

Mr. Tuan said that the Long Xuyen quadrangle development program started in 1988 and took more than ten years to complete. And his family was one of the households that was involved in this program from the very beginning.

Mr. Tuan said that in 2000, his father, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son, was assigned 700 hectares of cajuput forest land by the province for exploitation.

The reclaimed land at that time had all the best: the poorest, the most miserable, the most lacking in capital, the most lacking in experience... The land improvement, allocation, and acidification were basically completed, but the first 3 years saw crop failures due to high acidity.

The poor have no capital, and the better-off people, after several years of continuous losses, are also discouraged. Many people have “abandoned their property and fled” because they think this area is very acidic and there is no way to solve it.

Even scientists at that time advised to only grow Melaleuca, not rice because it would be very difficult to succeed, if not certain to fail.

“One time my father and I stood looking at the fields and could not hold back our tears. The rice bushes were withered and burned by the high level of alum, and all our efforts had yielded nothing,” Mr. Tuan recalled.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tuan, a billionaire, grows rice on an area of ​​over 500 hectares in Kien Binh commune, Kien Luong district (Kien Giang) (right) next to his agricultural machinery manufacturing workshop.

The land seems to test people's hearts. Perhaps it was the determination and deep love for rice that helped Mr. Tuan and his father to stay in this difficult land.

In 2003, Mr. Tuan was lent 4 billion VND by the Provincial Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to continue to renovate his fields and invest in dikes to promote the dual effectiveness of both building roads to transport materials and effectively preventing floods.

Mr. Tuan divided the entire field into 16 plots, each plot had 3 internal irrigation canals that both carried fresh water and removed acidity, saltiness, and alum.

The land does not fail the people, after 3 years of failure, irrigation works and technical solutions to treat acid sulfate soil have maximized their effectiveness, pushing the red water far away from the fields. Rice production has continuously increased. Land that was given away for free has now increased to tens of millions of dong per hectare.

Mr. Tuan's family is motivated to produce and take care of the fields in the hope of having better harvests.

Although rice productivity has gradually improved over the years, through many rice varieties and many different methods, the results have not been much. What worries him the most is the high production costs. There were even times when rice was produced and piled up for kilometers but could not be sold.

From that reality, Mr. Tuan changed his thinking, determined that he had to choose high-quality rice varieties, produce clean rice grains to hope to improve. And when the Japanese rice variety (DS1) was favored by the world market and always sold at a good price, it was also the time Mr. Tuan chose this rice variety to replace the old rice varieties.

“To reduce production costs, I chose to sow thinly using a row seeder with only 60kg of seeds per hectare, instead of thickly sowing 300kg of seeds per hectare as before. Thinly sown rice grows well and is resistant to pests and diseases, so it not only reduces seed and fertilizer costs but also helps reduce pesticide costs,” said Mr. Tuan.

In the past 5 years, with 2 rice crops per year, the average yield is 7-7.5 tons/ha, Mr. Tuan's family has a yield of more than 3,600 tons of rice/year.

After deducting expenses, his family's rice profit reaches 14 billion VND/year. In addition, he also trades in materials, plow and mower services with a profit of nearly 2.2 billion VND/year, creating jobs for 30 local workers with an income of 8 million VND/person/month.

Not only knowledgeable about rice plants, Mr. Tuan also successfully improved the 4-in-1 tillage machine to help speed up the process of plowing and leveling the field before sowing.

In the sowing and fertilizing stages, he uses drones to help improve production efficiency, ensuring uniform sowing and planting to ensure the crop schedule. All of these conditions help Mr. Tuan meet the strict requirements when a company specializing in exporting rice to the Japanese and European markets chooses to sign a contract to purchase rice products.

Having gone through many hardships, when they have enough to eat and save, Mr. Tuan and his wife still maintain a simple lifestyle, willing to share with the poor. In addition to giving away dozens of tons of rice and hundreds of Tet gifts to the poor every year, and building rural bridges worth hundreds of millions of dong, Mr. Tuan also bought a charity ambulance to help the poor when they are sick.

Mr. Tuan said: "My wife and I believe that if we eat well, we should share it with everyone. That is the right thing to do."

Mr. Do Tran Thinh, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Kien Giang province, said: "The Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Association signed Decision No. 777-QD/HNDTW on awarding the title of "Outstanding Vietnamese Farmer" in 2024 to 63 farmers nationwide. Of which, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tuan is the only farmer in Kien Giang to achieve this title and is the rice farmer with the highest profit in the country with 16.2 billion VND/year".

Source: https://danviet.vn/sang-che-may-nong-nghiep-o-kien-giang-la-ong-ty-phu-trong-lua-tren-canh-dong-khong-dau-chan-20241222203737041.htm