Steady livestock development thanks to the Agricultural Extension Fund

“Lifesaver” for many farm owners

Sharing about his entrepreneurial journey, Mr. Dang Van Chung, in Son Cong commune (Ung Hoa district) said that he started raising pigs in 2015. As soon as he finished building the barn system, his family ran out of money. Luckily, he was lent 95 million VND by the City Agricultural Promotion Fund to import 16 gilts. In 2017, after paying off the principal and interest, he borrowed another 300 million VND to expand the scale to 60 sows.

Pig farming in Van Thai commune, Ung Hoa district. Photo: Pham Hung

The years 2018 and 2019 were extremely difficult for Mr. Chung because of the price storm, at times the price of live pigs dropped to 20,000 VND/kg, then the foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever epidemics occurred consecutively, causing livestock farming to suffer. However, Mr. Chung still tried to pay both principal and interest on time, so in early 2020, he received another loan of 400 million VND from the City Agricultural Extension Fund.

With capital in hand, he designed a closed barn in the direction of bio-safety farming, increasing the scale to 70 sows, 4 boars and 500 commercial pigs. Thanks to strict adherence to the closed farming process, Mr. Chung's pig farm is always safe from all risks of disease.

That's why, while most pig farmers in the village left their pig pens empty due to the African swine fever outbreak, in 2020, Mr. Chung also had a new 600m2 pig pen to increase the size of his sow herd.

“If the Agricultural Promotion Fund had not existed in recent years, I would not have known how to manage because I was really out of capital while borrowing from the bank was very difficult. Thanks to the reinvestment money, I have been able to maintain my sow herd and sell breeding pigs and pork quite regularly, earning a profit of about 300 million VND/year, and also repaying the loan on time,” said Mr. Chung.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoang, in Chuong Duong commune (Thuong Tin district) has been raising livestock for 8 years, but suffered losses for 4 years due to African swine fever, so he switched to raising BBB cows. In 2021, Mr. Hoang applied for a loan from the Agricultural Promotion Fund for the first time and received a disbursement of 350 million VND; in 2023, he paid it all off and in 2024, he applied for another loan of 500 million VND. Thanks to this loan, he has expanded his barn, increasing the number of cows to 29.

"The happiest thing is when I need to borrow money and contact the agricultural extension officer, I am guided to make a loan plan thoroughly, the procedure takes about more than a month to disburse" - Mr. Hoang confided.

Continue to improve the efficiency of capital management and use

The Hanoi Agricultural Promotion Fund was established in 2002, operating on a non-profit basis while preserving capital and lending to the right target, promoting production, business and mechanization. Over the past 22 years, the Fund has become a preferential financial channel to help farm owners and farming households borrow capital with low management fees to expand production scale, develop family economy, and contribute to building new rural areas in the locality.

Beef cattle farming in Thuong Tin district. Photo: Ngoc Anh

According to Director of Hanoi Agricultural Extension Center Vu Thi Huong, in order for farmers and farm owners to access capital in a timely manner, the Center has directed the staff in charge of the Fund to increase introduction and propaganda through channels such as: distributing leaflets at training classes; asking cooperative staff to introduce the fund to members; sending content about the fund to the district radio station; directly meeting with farmers to discuss the fund. Thanks to that, many farmers have known and contacted to borrow capital for production.

Director of Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Dai informed that in the context of the capital's agriculture often facing natural disasters and epidemics, as well as to meet the development needs in the current trend, the Agricultural Extension Center needs to continue to improve its management, operation and effective use of the Agricultural Extension Fund's capital.

During the appraisal and disbursement process, the Center continues to support high-tech application models, large-scale specialized agricultural production models, production linkage chains, post-harvest processing and preservation models of agricultural products... to increase production value.

On the basis of linking production households, the Hanoi Agricultural Promotion Fund prioritizes lending to models and households following the value chain, thereby increasing production efficiency, product value as well as farmers' income. At the same time, it is necessary to effectively implement Resolution 08/2023/NQ-HDND of the City People's Council regulating policies to encourage agricultural development in Hanoi.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/vung-vang-phat-trien-chan-nuoi-nho-quy-khuyen-nong.html