Where economic thinking and agricultural technology converge

With the motto 'Connection - Alliance - Development', Binh Phuoc Billionaire Farmers Club is a red address to share and spread economic thinking and agricultural technology.

The gathering place of "5 houses"

Located in the Southern Key Economic Zone, in recent years, Binh Phuoc has emerged as one of the leading localities in the region in agricultural development, high-tech agriculture, green agriculture, organic agriculture, and sustainability.

Most impressively, in 2023, the province's agricultural growth rate was among the top in the country. Since then, many typical farmers have appeared in the country, earning billions of dong each year.

Coming to Binh Phuoc, many farmers know Mr. Nguyen Viet Vi, Director of Phuoc Thien Hamlet Cooperative (Phuoc Thien Commune, Bu Dop District). With an open mind, Mr. Vi is a pioneer in researching and discovering new crop varieties with high economic efficiency associated with production chains, with protected varieties such as red-fleshed jackfruit, golden star apple, purple longan, red-fleshed ruby ​​guava...

Phuoc Thien Cooperative is one of the first cooperatives in Binh Phuoc province to apply high technology to growing and processing fruit products, aiming for a closed chain from cultivation, harvesting to processing according to the circular economic model. The orientation of the cooperative is circular economy - sharing economy - green economy. Recently, Phuoc Thien Cooperative was selected by Binh Phuoc province as one of the 5 pilot models of comprehensive digital transformation to create a spreading effect.

Not only enriching himself and the cooperative, Mr. Vi also does not hesitate to share experiences, varieties, transfer technical advances, and purchase products for farmers in and outside the province, helping many people change their lives. Inspired by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan's agricultural economic thinking, "if you want to go far, go together", Mr. Nguyen Viet Vi and his colleagues established the Binh Phuoc Billionaire Farmers Club and were elected by the members as the Club's Chairman.

With 44 members, in addition to good farmers with a revenue of 1 billion VND/year or more, the Club also gathers leaders of departments, branches, scientists, businesses and banks. With the close connection between the state, farmers, scientists, businesses and banks, although it has only been established and operated for more than 1 year, the Club has promoted the spirit of solidarity and mutual support, helping local agriculture develop in the right direction. The Club's orientation is to cooperate with associations such as the cashew, jackfruit and durian associations to share knowledge and learn from experiences.

“In today’s era, we cannot swim on our own like before. If we want to succeed in agriculture, we must apply science and technology, and have connections between all parties. We must apply technology, gather people who are passionate about agriculture to follow a new direction, change the whole agricultural sector to compete with other countries. The club will be a place to nurture many farmers in the province to become billionaires in the near future,” Mr. Vi shared.

Connecting farmers in many fields such as farms, associations, units in the tourism sector, etc., Mr. Nguyen Viet Vi hopes that the Provincial Farmers’ Association will study the establishment of millionaire farmer associations and branches to gradually become billionaires. In addition, it is necessary to focus on recruiting student branches who are children of farmers to orient the future, build a farmer class with full qualifications, access to science and technology, and know how to do agricultural economics.

Typical factors

In addition to experienced farmers, the highlight of the Club is that while many people are looking for ways to "leave farming" to find opportunities in big cities, the Club currently has many young people actively returning to agriculture - rural areas. Starting a business at many different ages, with progressive thinking, access to modern science and technology, many members of the Club have initially achieved success.

Queen Farm in Bu Dang district (Binh Phuoc) is growing nearly 10,000 durian trees on an area of ​​55 hectares according to European standards owned by Mr. Nguyen The Tung (born in 1983, studied for a master's degree in business administration in the UK) is one of the typical examples of the Club. From his success, Mr. Tung is considered a non-professional speaker who regularly attends forums organized by the Club to share experiences with farmers in and outside the province.

Visiting Mr. Tung's farm, we saw a vast red land with thousands of durian trees with beautiful canopies. The durians are planted in numbered lots, with even distances between the trees. Notably, each tree has a QR code - an "identity card" to track the growth and development of each tree.

Thanks to that, each durian tree is strictly controlled to promptly find solutions when encountering unfavorable conditions. For example, during the recent severe drought, only 4 durian trees died out of a total of nearly 10,000 trees.

"To prepare for durian consumption in the next 2 years, I am starting to build a growing area code, prepare to build a cold storage, invite large enterprises specializing in exporting fruits to visit the garden...", said Mr. Tung.

Born in 1988, Mr. Nguyen Minh Hieu, Vice Chairman of the Club, is also one of the active factors in spreading high-tech agriculture.

Visiting Mr. Hieu's Gia Bao Ecofarm in Phuoc Tin commune, Phuoc Long town (Binh Phuoc), the first thing that impressed us was the immense green of the durian garden in the post-harvest reconstruction period. The straight rows of durian are watered with an Israeli drip irrigation system. Weeds in the garden are treated with a lawn mower. Pesticide spraying for the garden is done entirely by drones and modern automatic sprayers imported from Korea.

Still not satisfied with the current technical advances, with the support and sharing among members CLB, Mr. Hieu has installed a “Personal Weather Forecast Station” in the durian garden. Through the weather forecast station connected to a smartphone, even though he is not present in the garden, Mr. Hieu still knows the sunshine and rain conditions in the garden to plan the spraying, fertilizing, watering... most appropriately and effectively for the garden. Mr. Hieu said: “The weather forecast station not only serves Gia Bao Ecofarm's garden, but the daily data collected by the station will be synchronized to a number of reputable foreign weather platforms to serve the common needs of farmers in the area”.