On a sunny mid-June day, we paid a visit to the VAC farm of Ms. Tan’s family. However, as soon as stepping into the garden, the burning heat of summer has gone, replaced by the cool feeling of green space with luxuriant fruit trees. She excitedly shared: “Thanks to TYM’s support in both credit for job creation and knowledge and capacity building for the past 7 years, I have achieved success as of today”.

Nearly 10 years ago, Ms. Tan’s family raised livestock but in a small scale; and the income was not much. After studying themselves, she and her husband decided to avail funds from TYM to raise chickens, pigs and grow more fruit trees, boldly applying practices towards environmentally friendly organic agriculture with high efficiency. From the initial loan of VND 20 million, she gradually increased to the maximum micro loan of VND 50 million. When TYM launched a loan product for job creation, Ms. Tan had the opportunity to take a free-collateral loan of up to VND 100 million to develop her VAC farm and create jobs for other women in the locality.

Up to now, with a farm of more than 13,000 square meters, she and her husband feed fishes, raise pigs, and grow fruit trees around the pond. The pigsty area is built in a closed model. With a spirit of curiosity, she regularly participates in training courses organized by the Women’s Union. “I am very fortunate to have the Women’s Union at all levels and TYM staff to guide me wholeheartedly to apply the information technology in business, to participate in digital technology classes and the Kind Agricultural Alliance group. This is a great motivation for me to develop my family’s economy and support other local women to develop the economy “- Ms. Tan shared.
Especially, in 2019, after participating in 2 training courses on how to make and use IMO probiotics in farming and animal husbandry, Ms. Tan started to immediately and boldly apply it to her farm. This is a method of using probiotics for treatment of organic waste to be classified from households, producing products such as disinfection water, digestive enzymes for cattle and poultry, pesticides and fertilizers etc. Since then, she has implemented the “VAC model and application of IMO probiotics in agriculture” and attended the Women Start-up Contest organized by the Central Vietnam Women’s Union (she was 1 of 34 outstanding TYM’s members joining the Contest).

Initially, she used probiotics for treatment of pond water to raise fish. She did it in a creative way by tying a number of cans together and then dropping them into the pond and periodically supplementing with IMO. She does the treatment with IMO once a week, so the pond water is always clean, the fish are less sick, reducing the cost of buying sanitation drugs and filter systems in the pond. Realizing that the application of IMO in animal husbandry is not only an effective solution to reduce input costs and bring high efficiency, but also helps to classify and treat thoroughly organic waste, contributing to environmental protection, and building new rural areas, she continues to apply it to her closed pigsty of 400-500 pigs. Every day, she mixes IMO to spray the pigsty and deodorize the surrounding environment. Thanks to good cleaning and disinfection, combined with good epidemic prevention, her family’s farm was not affected by African swine fever (in 2021), becoming a familiar place for people to visit and learn.

From IMO probiotics, she can make fertilizers and pesticides for orchards, soak it with garlic and ginger to feed chickens and ducks, avoiding diarrhea in livestock and poultry. As a result, she does not have to use chemical pesticides and synthetic inorganic phosphate fertilizers, reducing the cost from VND 150 to 200 thousand/pole. Each year, her family can save about VND 100 million in medicine for livestock, poultry, and pond disinfection etc. Up to now, her family has a stable income of VND 300-400 million/year and saves a lot of costs and maintain a very clean and hygienic farm.
In addition, she also applied it to make fermented fruit juice, shampoo, floor cleaner…; all were successful beyond expectations. From there, it has inspired her to completely switch to clean agricultural production. Thanks to this success, she regularly donates probiotics to those who want to try it, disseminates how to make it for local women members and use IMO fertilizer to spray flower paths, and treat domestic waste. As a result, the amount of waste to be collected in the village has also decreased significantly, making everyone excited and happy.

Currently, Ms. Tan is cherishing a plan to make clean fruit products to improve value and increase income and at the same time, to build more barns, and produce all kinds of bran for pigs, fish and ducks by herself for clean and safe foods. “I hope that I will create clean products for consumers and at the same time inspire those who want to start a business. With a strong passion, the results will be very sweet!”