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Farmers bring countryside to HCMC

Farmers bring countryside to HCMC

Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 06:32 GMT+7

After getting married, Kieu Van Thuong and Nguyen Thi La found that they could barely scrape together VND3 million (US$144) a year by farming in the central province of Nam Dinh.

But they followed an uncle to grow vegetables in Ho Chi Minh City, where they now work from the early morning till as late as 3 a.m.

“We’re trying to work for our children’s schooling,” said La, of Dong Thanh Ward in Hoc Mon District. “And our dream is to open a pig farm in my hometown.”

Most workers who move to the city seek urban jobs and abandon the farming of their hometowns. But a crop of migrants like La have arrived in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City in recent years to cultivate rice and vegetables.

They set up temporary houses and gather into small hamlets near their fields.

One such hamlet is in Tan Thoi Nhi Commune in Hoc Mon District, where over ten households from the Mekong Delta provinces of Long An and Tien Giang are cultivating rice on anywhere from two to eight hectares.

Nguyen Thi Hoa My, a rice grower in the hamlet, said most of the fields are untilled land in planned zones or small fields owned by local residents.

Some owners lease the fields for free, while others charge VND1 million ($48) a hectare annually. My said that is three to four times higher than in her hometown, but still inexpensive by Ho Chi Minh City standards.

The soil is not as rich as in the country, according to Cao Van Phat, who at age 52 has farmed the area longest. But that doesn’t stop him from saving up nearly VND100 million a year.

When he first arrived in the hamlet ten years ago, weeds blanketed the dry land, which he and his wife cleared, treated with pesticide, and drained to ease salt penetration. A few years later, he could afford machines for rice production, and eventually bring relatives to pitch in.

rice 2

Farmer Le Van Muoi on his rice farm near the highway HCMC-Trung Luong (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

From factory to farm

Phat’s hamlet also includes those who worked in factories but quit to follow in his footsteps.

“I could not save much with a meager payment monthly in the factories,” Vo Van Hieu from Tien Giang Province said. “Rice cultivation is strenuous but more profitable, and it gets me away from scolding managers.”

He and his mother farm three hectares of rice and earn VND30-50 million per crop.

Tran Thi Hang, 46, also started out at a factory with her husband, but found the salary couldn’t cover school for their two sons. The couple from northern Hung Yen province then switched to vegetable farming ten years ago near their rented room in District 12.

In a couple years, they saved enough money to start a mustard green and amaranth farm on 3,000 square meters in the district’s Thoi An Ward.

Each year they pay the land owner VND10 million, the same amount they net in profits per month. That was enough to help one son earn a bachelor’s degree before working at a research center, while the other is wrapping up studies at the HCMC University of Natural Sciences.

Hang and her husband bought a house, though they spend little time at home. When they aren’t working for themselves, they are helping relatives and neighbors – who want to start even more farms around the city.

tuoi tre

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