The porcupine farming model of farmer Phan Van Huan in Nghi Xuan district (Ha Tinh) opens up a new direction for economic development, contributing to the restructuring of local agriculture.
Mr. Phan Van Huan in Phu Thuan Hop village, Co Dam commune, has decades of experience in raising animals. Currently, his family is implementing a model of captive breeding of commercial porcupines and porcupines for breeding.
Talking about the idea of starting a business from raising this “specialty” of the forest, Mr. Huan said that in 2020, his family invested in a commercial pig farm. However, on the day of selling the pigs, the entire herd was infected with African swine fever, causing hundreds of millions of dong in damage.
“ After the failure, I pondered a lot and decided to invest in raising porcupines. Previously, I often ordered porcupines from sources in the mountainous district of Nghe An to sell to customers when needed. Realizing that the market was full of potential, I chose a new direction for myself, ” Mr. Huan shared.
Seeing the prospect, he began to research more carefully, looking for reputable breeding suppliers. In early 2023, Mr. Huan spent more than 150 million VND in Thanh Hoa to buy 80 breeding animals weighing over 2-3 kg, including 10 breeding pairs of porcupines.
Taking advantage of the former pig farm, he released a herd of porcupines to take care of. To gain more experience, he took the trouble to find large-scale farms to learn from, and at the same time updated his knowledge from social media channels.
According to Mr. Huan, porcupines are animals with many wild instincts, so they have high resistance, are easy to adapt to the environment, and are rarely affected by diseases. They are omnivorous, so they are not picky about food, mainly eating vegetables, tubers, fruits and agricultural products... so the cost is not significant. Raising porcupines is quite easy, and you can do other jobs to earn extra income.
Thanks to good care, adequate feeding, and clean cages, his porcupines grow very quickly. At this time, the family is selling 50 commercial porcupines to the market, with prices ranging from 350,000 - 370,000 VND/kg, earning nearly 240 million VND.
Porcupine meat can be processed into many dishes such as: steamed, stir-fried with lemongrass and chili, fake dog meat... with high nutritional content so there is no need to worry about output. At this time, many restaurants and hotels come to order but "supply cannot meet demand"
In addition, after a year of care, his porcupine herd has produced 10 offspring. He is currently selecting the healthy ones to keep as breeders and fattening the unqualified ones for commercial sale.
Mr. Phan Van Huan's porcupine farming model with low investment costs and simple techniques has initially brought economic efficiency. This is a model with many prospects for replication, helping farmers develop the economy, opening up a new direction in the restructuring of local agriculture.
Mr. Le Thanh Binh
Chairman of People's Committee of Co Dam commune
Huu Trung
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