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Engineer quits job, gets rich by gathering land to grow purple “strange fruit”
Realizing that the village land was abandoned, Mr. Vuong Dac Loc, a resident of So village, Cong Hoa commune (Quoc Oai district, Hanoi) decided to give up his job as a construction engineer and open a farm to grow black grapes. for high economic efficiency.
Growing new grape varieties on… TV
Mr. Vuong Dac Loc is a construction engineer with a stable income in Hanoi. However, before the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, Mr. Loc decided to change his job to cherish the idea of getting rich in his own hometown.
In 2020, while watching an agricultural program on the internet by chance, Mr. Loc learned that Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry received a technology transfer for planting and caring for black currant varieties from the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of Quang Nam province. West (China). This is a grape variety with outstanding advantages compared to native grapes in our country such as healthy growth, fast harvest, average yield of about 16-18 tons/ha, fruit with average sweetness. average from 18 to 18,5, the fruit is crispy, has a mild aroma and especially has no seeds.
This information led the engineer who built the wrapping cloth to go to Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry to learn about this grape growing model. Mr. Loc shared: “After that, I went to school, consulted with the school, and went to the school’s grape growing models that were really effective. One is that grapes are a high-class commodity, the other is to grow this grape variety. is applying high technology, third is the direction of traveling to experience, this grape is very suitable. More importantly, the Vietnamese agricultural product that I suffer from is the story of the good season. I realize that grapes can be used. Using post-harvest processing is very good such as making grape wine, dried grapes, grape wine, fermented grape juice… Therefore, I realize that this is the direction that I can calculate”.
After being consulted by experts, Mr. Loc received a technical transfer from Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry, returned to his hometown and started his entrepreneurial journey right in his hometown.
Persuading villagers, accumulating vineyards
So village, Cong Hoa commune, Quoc Oai district, Hanoi city is a famous village for making traditional vermicelli. Besides, the youth of the village mostly go to work abroad. Realizing that the land in the countryside is much abandoned and fragmented. Mr. Loc has gradually persuaded people in the village to lease land to realize his idea of growing grapes.
Mr. Loc shared: “In the beginning, for agricultural production, you had to have land. When I returned to my hometown, land was a difficult problem because my village at that time was just starting to accumulate plots. I had to go to each plot. People’s houses, persuade people to let them rent land. Just like that, it took more than a month to convince me to collect an area of 5,000m2, which is nearly 100 households.” After 1 month of persuading people to lease land to him, Mr. Loc embarked on land reclamation.
Loc’s direction is to create not only quality but also safe vineyards. The difficulty at this time is the handling of tall grass. Mr. Loc said: “It was the process of researching the facts of places, and then researching on the internet, then I started doing it. At first, looking at the tall grass, many people gave the method of using herbicides and chemical drugs. However, I originally loved natural agriculture and wanted to keep the land unaffected by the influence of chemicals, and in the end I chose to do it manually by cutting the machine and burning the grass, creating environment for the plant to grow later.
After 2 months of struggling to combine machines and human power, 5000m2 of land began to be improved to grow Ha black grapes.
High-tech application of growing black grapes for high economic value
At the beginning of 2021, Mr. Loc began to experiment with planting black currants. However, in the first year due to inexperience, improper care, and severe weather, Mr. Loc’s 5,000m2 vineyard with an investment of up to VND500 million began to suffer from pests and diseases. labour.
Mr. Loc said: “The climate in the North is not like other regions. Like Ninh Thuan, nature is favorable. The climate is stable, they only rain for more than a month, suitable for grapes to grow. The North has as many seasons as the season. Grapes can’t grow in winter, humidity is high, so there are many diseases. Grapes are not native plants, so their resistance is more difficult. “.
Black currant is a new grape variety, with good adaptability to hot and humid climates, good resistance. Black currant variety is suitable for planting in February, March, and April because the weather is cool at this time, which is very favorable for the plant to grow. However, in the North, the weather is rainy, the humidity is high, and the winter is cold, so black grapes often suffer from some diseases such as fungus, late blight, anthracnose and rust.
Before these disadvantages, Mr. Loc thought of applying science and technology to produce grapes in an organic way. On an area of 5,000m2 of improved land, he started to build a greenhouse system and an economical irrigation system for the vineyard to achieve high efficiency. Not only applying membrane technology, to create disease-free and safe grapes, Mr. Loc uses drugs of biological origin, composting from soybeans, or golden snails put into the drip irrigation system. help strengthen, improve the natural resistance of the grapevine.
Thanks to perseverance and perseverance, the grapes finally began to crystallize. To avoid the attack of yellow flies, Mr. Loc has used fruit bags from the time the fruit was small to keep the beautiful design for each bunch of grapes. The riper the grape, the sweeter it is and the purple color, growing in beautiful bunches.
However, since the grapes began to bear fruit, the worry about the output of the grapes made Mr. Loc many days without food and sleep. Mr. Loc shared: “The price of this grape is quite high, to say that Northern fruits selling for more than 100,000 VND are rare, now Vietnam also has many Chinese grape varieties imported at very cheap prices, I cannot compete. price, so I have to ensure quality, aim at people who prioritize quality, care more about health, I have to be transparent about production, the products made must be safe, so my criteria throughout is quality quantity”.
Affirming the quality of the grapes… that is also the principle of Mr. Loc’s way of doing things. To make the production story transparent, Mr. Loc chose to interact with customers on social networking platforms so that consumers can better understand the value of clean agricultural products. Thanks to approaching customers via social networking platforms, within just 1 week of opening the garden to visit, Mr. Loc’s grape farm has been well received by many consumers. Eco-tourism from the experience right on the vineyard is also the way that Mr. Loc aims: “People are quite curious about their grape farm model, then how it feels to pick grapes, the landscape of the vineyard. It’s also very harmonious so it has great appeal. The first grape crop was in June 2022, when the vineyard opened, within a week, I sold out.”
In this year’s Lunar New Year 2023, Mr. Loc has successfully regulated the vine to bear fruit. Up to now, nearly 1 ton of grapes has been ordered by customers far and near. With the price from 140,000 VND – 160,000 VND/kg sold in the garden, Mr. Loc earns hundreds of millions of VND per crop. Black currant has once again confirmed the economic value it brings and the right direction when deciding to build a safe grape growing model of Mr. Vuong Dac Loc.
The good news from far away, Mr. Loc’s grape growing model has been sought and learned by many people. Mr. Loc has also transferred technology for 4 planting models to neighboring areas so that people can get rich from this new plant variety.
Currently, Mr. Loc continues to gather land in the village to expand the grape growing area to 2ha. Not only stopping at growing black grapes, Mr. Loc also cherished the idea of testing 15 effective grape varieties in the world to be able to replicate many grape varieties with high economic value in Vietnam.
Engineer quits job, gets rich by gathering land to grow purple “strange fruit”
vinlove.
Source: vinlove
