It is not the main season of the fruit, so there are not many shipping order at the moment; but the farmers are still happy since this season, Hung Thinh Red Dragon Fruit Cooperative did not receive the orders from only the Chinese markets, but also the European. Thanks to Mr. Doan Trung Ngoc’s huge contribution.
Mr. Doan Trung Ngọc in his red dragon fruit field.
In 2015, Mr. Ngoc was one of the national top 63 most typical farmers to be recognized as “The 2015 Excellent Farmer” by Vietnam Farmers Association. But long ago, this 61 year old farmer was well known for his incredible hard working that made him from zero to hero.
Mr. Ngoc was born in a poor farmer family in Song Be province (which is now Dau Tieng district, Binh Duong province). When he grew up, he joined the military to fight for the Northern borderline battles. After being demobilized, he returned to his village with his “3 NOs” – No Money, No Land, No Career. Life was even harder for the young man then when his kids were old enough to go to school. He and his wife had to work really hard for the others and borrow others’ land for farming but the productivity was not high. Could not stand the poor, in 1990, Mr. Ngoc decided to sell his house and moved to Trang Bom district, Dong Nai province for better career.
With only 5 million VND, Mr. Ngoc could only afford a plot of land large enough to build a small cottage. Without land to farm, and no stable job, his family life was not really better than before. Watching my children study with without a proper desk, eating less than 3 meals per day, my wife and I tried all kinds of works but it still didn’t get any better. Sometimes I thought if I should come back to the old village…” Said Mr. Ngoc.
But with a soldier’s spirit, he never gave up. After over 2 years trying the best he could, he finally afforded 5 acres of land near the stream to grow fruit trees. However, due to lacking of proper farming technique and money, the crop was not productive. “Back in those days, whenever I heard people said about which fruit was the most productive, I went for it immediately. Since 5 acres was not enough, I saved money to buy 1 ha of land more. I planted so many trees that they didn’t have enough space to respire, resulted in the unproductivity and money lost”. He recalled.
His life turned to a new page when he decided to change to the permaculture farming method. Realizing that the soil there was suitable for growing red dragon fruit, Mr. Ngọc replaced his current crop with the new fruits. In additional, deciding to follow the short term farming for a long run, he applied for a bank loan to build a fish pond and a farm to raise chicken, boar, deer and hedgehog.
In the first years, the investment costed a lot of money and his income did not come from a certain source, there were still many difficulties for him. But by studying hard and following the instruction from the district Agriculture Supporting Station, Mr. Ngoc understood the methods and made his dragon fruit field more productive. His life got better thanks to the dragon fruit. He wasn’t actually rich then but all the money he earned to buy more land. First it was 1.5 ha, then 2 more ha in Hung Thinh commune, then 4 more ha near Dau stream (Tay Hoa commune) for red dragon fruit farming. So far, Mr. Ngoc has owned nearly 10 ha of land, including 8 ha of red dragon fruit soon to be harvested with the expected capacity of 15-20 ton/ha in average. Red dragon fruit earns his family over 2 billion VND a year.
“Life is not easy, but if you try your best, you will succeed.” – said Mr. Ngoc.
Make more farmers’ life better.
Mr. Doan Trung Ngọc introducing his product at the Farmer Association’s Conference of honoring the most typical Farmers (2010 – 2015)
For being the pioneer in eliminating mixed farming to grow red dragon fruit to increase the economic productivity, more and more farmers in the commune followed Mr. Ngoc to apply the method and succeeded. To make better connection between farmers and consumers, in 2012, Mr. Ngoc established the Red Dragon Fruit Cooperative in Hung Thinh commune and guaranteed the output for farmers. Step by step, he showed the other farmers the techniques to grow dragon fruit in multiple seasons following the VietGAP procedure that helped increase productivity of the new crops and brought better life to many farmers.
So far, there have been 16 members joining the Red Dragon Fruit Cooperative in Hung Thinh commune with nearly 30 ha of crop soon to be harvested. There are 10 other households with nearly 30 ha more of dragon fruit to join the cooperative soon. About the product output, Mr. Ngoc said that the cooperative was currently cooperating with the enterprises in Binh Thuan to export the fruit to China, which is considered a large yet risky market since any problem that leads to the delay at the border, it is going to be a serious problem for the farmers as well as the enterprises”. “So we are looking for more markets. Fortunately, we have recently signed a contract with an enterprise in Ho Chi Minh City to export the fruit to European markets with the selling price of 40,000VND/kg.” – Happily said Mr. Ngoc.
The farmer who spent years with the red dragon fruit said that the opportunity to export to the European markets was a positive signal for the development of national product in the international strict markets. “We’re expecting to establish the Red Dragon Cooperative in Trang Bom district to grow the dragon fruit strictly following the VietGAP procedure and we hope to be facilitated in promoting the product in better and more stable markets” – Said Mr. Ngoc – about his cooperative future plan.
Providing better life for his family, for the farmers inside and outside the commune, Mr. Ngoc is also a great contributor in the local development. In the New Rural Area Developing Campaign, he contributed over 1000m2 of farming, spent over 1 billion VND of his own money to upgrade and maintain 1.5km of rural traffic road and the power lines in Trung Hoa commune and tens of millions of VND for the other activities each year.
Le An
