'Watering' digital technology into barren land

For the past 2 years, the vast garden of fruit trees, fresh flowers and ornamental plants of Mr. Le Khac Hanh (44 years old, Duc Bac commune, Song Lo district, Vinh Phuc province) has always been filled with laughter. The joy of Mr. Hanh and the farmers here comes from the bumper crops, net profits of several billion VND each year.

Although he did not undergo any formal training, "farmer billionaire" Le Khac Hanh surprised many people when he shared that the secret to his wealth was thanks to digital platforms. Bringing products to the digital space is no longer a new story for many businesses, but seeing how Hanh does it is very interesting. He brings simplicity to social networking platforms.

w image 3 in flower 1 797.jpg
Mr. Le Khac Hanh takes care of the garden. Photo: Xuan Hau

"Hello everyone, hello 500 brothers and sisters! Introducing to everyone, Le Khac Hanh's garden. This season, the roses are blooming so beautifully, everyone. Wish everyone a happy flower viewing and remember to support my garden!", Hanh's voice said during a livestream in mid-March, attracting tens of thousands of Facebook and Tiktok users to follow and interact.

Farmer Le Khac Hanh impresses many people with his rustic, friendly appearance and always jokingly says, "I look like this but I graduated from grade 12." Belonging to the 7X generation and having few opportunities to access training courses on using digital platforms to sell products, Mr. Hanh is very lucky with his current job.

"I introduce the garden and its typical products to tens of thousands of people. When customers buy the garden's products, they just need to place an order through those live broadcasts and someone will send it to the customer, very convenient and effective," Mr. Hanh shared.

According to Mr. Hanh, thanks to bringing products to digital platforms, each year, when summed up, his family earns more than one billion VND. The above income is created by him from a barren land but "watered" with digital technology to bring in profits beyond expectations.

From scratch to billionaire

In the vast space, surrounded by flowers and fruits of the countryside of Song Lo district, Vinh Phuc province, Mr. Le Khac Hanh recounts his journey of becoming involved in gardening.

Born and raised in Duc Bac commune, Mr. Hanh spent many years traveling everywhere to make a living by trading Bat Trang ceramics and flower pots and ornamental plants. During his travels to many provinces and cities such as Hai Duong , Hung Yen, Thai Binh... he saw that flower and ornamental plant growing models were very developed. This urged him to return to his hometown to build his own garden.

w image 4 in flower 1 799.jpg
The garden is filled with laughter of Mr. Le Khac Hanh. Photo: Xuan Hau

In 2014, Mr. Hanh decided to use the little capital he had accumulated after many years of wandering to do business right on his homeland. The advantage was that Duc Bac - where Mr. Hanh was born - was famous for growing flowers and ornamental plants. With that "geographic advantage", he rented land, learned experience in caring for plants to start a business.

Small, thin, dark-skinned, but farmer Le Khac Hanh's voice resonates when talking about his daily work with passion and excitement.

"My day usually starts with taking care of the plants on a total area of ​​about 60,000 square meters. At first, this area was just barren, wild land. Every day, I try a little harder to cover it with plants that are economically efficient and also the strengths of the locality, such as roses, peonies, ornamental plants, magnolia trees, tea trees, grapes, etc.," said Mr. Hanh.

Farmer Le Khac Hanh shared that his daily work is very busy, almost from morning to night. Thanks to his diligence and perseverance in pursuing his work to the end, Hanh's garden earns from 1-1.5 billion VND each year. During Tet alone, there are months when he earns from 500-600 million VND.

Not only growing flowers and ornamental plants, Mr. Hanh also expanded the model of growing peony grapes, which he jokingly calls "billion-dollar grapes". The reason Mr. Hanh said that jokingly is because the garden of peony grapes and black grapes is planted on an area of ​​nearly 10,000m2, when harvested, it is expected to bring in billions of dong in revenue.

"There was a time when the price of commercial peony grapes on the market was sold for 800,000 VND to 1,000,000 VND per kilogram," Mr. Hanh confidently shared.

Determined to get rich with the peony grape variety - the king of green grapes - Mr. Hanh hired a Korean expert to provide technical support and care instructions, ensuring that this Korean grape variety grows according to strict Korean technical standards, bringing the best quality when it reaches the market.

From his nearly 6-hectare garden, Mr. Hanh also creates jobs for 10-15 local workers. During the peak of the Lunar New Year, he hires up to 30 workers to operate at full capacity. The salary he pays each worker is from 5-7 million VND.

W-anh-5-trong-hoa-1.jpg
The colorful garden of farmer Le Khac Hanh. Photo: Xuan Hau

Not only having a pure agricultural mindset, Mr. Hanh always seeks new directions, researching on the internet high-tech agricultural models, experiential agricultural models and decided to change the appearance of his garden house towards experiential tourism.

His model has attracted local people to visit, experience and buy products in the direction of green agriculture and agricultural tourism, following the modernization trend of agriculture and rural areas.

With a strong rise from nothing, Mr. Hanh's purely agricultural business combined with digital platforms has helped change the face of Duc Bac countryside.

Mr. Hanh's model has received attention from units such as the Department of Science and Technology of Vinh Phuc and the Farmers' Association of Vinh Phuc, who have supported part of the implementation costs. This is the motivation for him to continue to stick with and develop the model in a modern and sustainable direction.