Tran Van Chuc, an official at Duy Thu Commune's People's Committee incentral Quang Nam province, has a love for pheasants and has taughtfarmers how to make a living raising them.
Chuc graduated fromthe Hue College of Economics in 2012 with a thesis on raising pheasants.After that he decided he wanted to turn his 200sq.m garden into apheasant farm. Through the process he found out that anyone with severalmillion dong could start their own business raising pheasants – andsince then he's sold birds to local farmers at low prices and coachedthem on raising the birds to make a living.
Back when hisinterest in pheasants began, Chuc visited bird farms in Hanoi to learnmore about how to raise them. He then bought four pheasants for 5million VND (232 USD).
The birds grew quickly. He fed them asimple diet of rice, corn, bran and industrial food. After four months,the birds weighed between 1.5 and 2.2 kilos. Three months later, threeof them began laying eggs.
Chuc set up an incubator and put the eggs inside, and young birds hatched from most of them, to his surprise.
"Pheasantsare more resistant to disease, eat less and bring more meat thanchickens," he said. "Especially, their waste is not as horrible aschickens, so they can be raised in residential areas."
Now Chuc has 50 pheasants for breeding and many young fowls at his farm. He earns 15 million VND (697 USD) per month.
"Whatthe birds need are 20-centimetre-deep sand, a system for supplyingwater and food, and warmth from several light bulbs for newborn chicks.The raising process is quite similar to raising chickens," he said.
Moreover, the cost of food for pheasants was only 30 percent for that used by chickens, he added.
Thehardest part was the high cost of purchasing the birds – 50,000 VND(2.30 USD) for a baby bird and 200,000 VND (9.30 USD) per kilo for a bigone. That was what first prevented him from developing the model forlocal farmers.
"They said the price was too high and the birds would be difficult to sell," he said.
Chuchas decided to offer a special promotion to local farmers: buy one babybird get one free. Now 30 households have purchased his pheasants, andhe has shown them how to raise them and start their own business. He hasbeen invited to lecture about the pheasants at some colleges.
PhanDinh Son, chairman of the communal People's Committee, said raisingpheasants has created a new path for farmers who wanted to switch jobs.
Inorder to focus on his newfound pheasant-based career, Chuc resigned hisposition at the communal authority. He plans to enlarge his farm to acapacity of 1,000 birds.
"I just want to introduce a new model that helps farmers ease their hardships, reduce risks and earn more money," he said.-VNA
Chuc graduated fromthe Hue College of Economics in 2012 with a thesis on raising pheasants.After that he decided he wanted to turn his 200sq.m garden into apheasant farm. Through the process he found out that anyone with severalmillion dong could start their own business raising pheasants – andsince then he's sold birds to local farmers at low prices and coachedthem on raising the birds to make a living.
Back when hisinterest in pheasants began, Chuc visited bird farms in Hanoi to learnmore about how to raise them. He then bought four pheasants for 5million VND (232 USD).
The birds grew quickly. He fed them asimple diet of rice, corn, bran and industrial food. After four months,the birds weighed between 1.5 and 2.2 kilos. Three months later, threeof them began laying eggs.
Chuc set up an incubator and put the eggs inside, and young birds hatched from most of them, to his surprise.
"Pheasantsare more resistant to disease, eat less and bring more meat thanchickens," he said. "Especially, their waste is not as horrible aschickens, so they can be raised in residential areas."
Now Chuc has 50 pheasants for breeding and many young fowls at his farm. He earns 15 million VND (697 USD) per month.
"Whatthe birds need are 20-centimetre-deep sand, a system for supplyingwater and food, and warmth from several light bulbs for newborn chicks.The raising process is quite similar to raising chickens," he said.
Moreover, the cost of food for pheasants was only 30 percent for that used by chickens, he added.
Thehardest part was the high cost of purchasing the birds – 50,000 VND(2.30 USD) for a baby bird and 200,000 VND (9.30 USD) per kilo for a bigone. That was what first prevented him from developing the model forlocal farmers.
"They said the price was too high and the birds would be difficult to sell," he said.
Chuchas decided to offer a special promotion to local farmers: buy one babybird get one free. Now 30 households have purchased his pheasants, andhe has shown them how to raise them and start their own business. He hasbeen invited to lecture about the pheasants at some colleges.
PhanDinh Son, chairman of the communal People's Committee, said raisingpheasants has created a new path for farmers who wanted to switch jobs.
Inorder to focus on his newfound pheasant-based career, Chuc resigned hisposition at the communal authority. He plans to enlarge his farm to acapacity of 1,000 birds.
"I just want to introduce a new model that helps farmers ease their hardships, reduce risks and earn more money," he said.-VNA
