Guiding livestock cooperatives towards safe biology and advanced technology

​(News Portal – Dong Nai) - With a loan from the “Accompanying the youth Fund” of Dong Nai province, Mr. Le Phi long, Director of Biological Livestock Cooperative (Long Thanh district) has established a livestock farm and a cooperative to connect like-minded members to develop a safe livestock model. 

Chickens on the farm are raised by Mr. Long in a biological manner, safe for consumers. 

After many efforts learning from experience, books and practices, his cooperative has achieved billions in revenue. His success in animal husbandry helped him become one of 57 young farmers to win the Luong Dinh Cua Award.

Success from a small loan
Mr. Le Phi Long graduated with a degree in veterinary medicine. After working for 3 years at a pig farm in Trang Bom district (Dong Nai province), he applied to work as a veterinarian in Binh Son commune, Long Thanh district. After traveling and meeting many households in the commune, he realized that although the number of households raising backyard chickens was the largest in the district, the people were struggling and did not have high income, so he was determined to research and complete the process of raising biological chickens. In 2017, borrowing 25 million VND from the Youth Companion Fund of Dong Nai province, Mr. Long tested raising 500 chickens in a biosafety style, without using antibiotics.

In the first two years, this model suffered numerous failure due to lack of experience and an unstable consumer market that depends mainly on traders. Not feeling discouraged, he went to Dak Nong to learn chicken raising techniques, boldly borrowed more capital to invest, and expand the scale of farming. In 2020, he participated in the Creative Rural Youth Startup Competition with the annual OCOP program organized by Dong Nai Provincial Youth Union and won 3rd prize.

At the end of 2020, with support from the locality and the Provincial Cooperative Alliance, the biological livestock cooperative was officially established with 7 members, with the office is located in Hamlet 7, Binh Son commune. The cooperative is currently providing jobs and stable, regular income for 14 workers and creating seasonal jobs for 15 local workers, with revenue in 2022 reaching more than 6 billion VND.

According to Mr. Le Phi Long, the main business activity of the cooperative is raising free-range chickens for sale to traders and slaughterhouses, which are consumed mainly in the two districts of Long Thanh and Nhon Trach. In addition, the cooperative's activities also propagate disease prevention in livestock and poultry to localities through the application of biosafety farming measures. As a result, it contributes to promoting the economic development process, especially contributing to establishing modern rural areas for the locality.

Hoping to receive support to attract more young people and cooperative members to join the cooperative

In addition to focusing on economic activities and operating the cooperative, Mr. Le Phi Long is also a local youth union worker, so he also really wants more young people to join and cooperate with him to develop a biologically oriented livestock model.

Currently, the cooperative's main product is biosafety-raised chickens, which therefore require more stringent regulations than traditional, mass chicken farming, from breed selection, care, and vaccination through each stage. To keep the chickens healthy and ensure the meat does not contain antibiotic residues, Mr. Long uses biological products as the foundation for the farming process. In particular, using organic acids, garlic, ginger, protects the liver and intestinal tract of chickens, especially chicks; using probiotics and rice husks to line the cages helps absorb moisture, reduce odors, and prevent diseases for chickens. When chickens are healthy, farmers do not need much intervention or care. ​

How to attract young people to participate in the cooperative's activities is Mr. Long's concern. He often propagates the rights and obligations when joining a cooperative with the desire to promote local livestock farming in a sustainable way.

“When participating in production cooperation, cooperative members have a stable source of income, are taught in the care process, received technical support, are oriented on annual farming output, and reduce input costs. The cooperative also contacted the breeding and veterinary medicine company to provide services to the cooperative, so the price of chicken breeds and veterinary medicine decreased compared to the market price, thereby partly reducing investment costs," Mr. Le Phi Long share.

The direction of the Biological Livestock Cooperative is to expand the area of raising hybrid cows and wild boar. An efficient model needs to be invested a large amount of initial capital, including the cost of renting land, building barns, buying breeds and more complex techniques. In addition, the consumer market for safe livestock products is subject to fierce competition with products that are not of high quality, while consumers are not really knowledgeable. Like other units, Mr. Long hopes to receive support in terms of capital, technology, breeds, and support in connecting with businesses to sell products and improve the value of livestock production for local residents.