Choosing deer instead of pig, making 300 million from 3 million dongs

Starting with small capital but pig raising kept failing, there was times when Hong got frustrated, not daring to put more investment.

In 2008, Truong Thi Hong, born in 1987, now residing in Trieu Thuong commune, Trieu Phong precinct, Quang Tri province, for the first time took the risk to borrow 3 million VND from the Microfinance Unit of World Vision Vietnam, to invest in pig raising.

Too young and inexperienced, Hong was not very successful in this business. There were many pig raisers in the commune at that time, the pigs got diseases often and the price was fluctuate. Hong and her husband decided to look for another breeding model. 

In 2013, the couple traveled all the way to Lao Bao commune of Huong Hoa precinct to visit an antler-deer farm. Staying there for 30 days, they learned the techniques of building shelters, caring and preventing illness for the deer. 

“That was new, no one in my commune had ever raised deer, while the local land and food was really appropriate for that animal. A lot of home-grown plants could be used such as leaves, vegetables, grass. Deer are wild animals, they have strong immunity, are less prone to diseases and easy to raise”, said Hong, now a mother of a 8 year old boy and a 3 year old girl.

As difficult as the purchase of the deer, transporting them home was not less than challenging. Hong and her husband had to prepare all the papers to prove the origin in order to take the deer home 120km away from Lao Bao. 

Truong Thi Hong with her children in front of the family’s deer shelter.

On first days, some of the deer got sick due to new shelters and climate. With the knowledge learned, along with information acquired from newspaper and television, Hong managed to diversify the food for the deer, mixing different kinds of leaves and vegetables. After 3 days, the deer gained their normal physique back.

Dealing with the dry and hot weather of the Central, she plants more fruit trees around the garden to help cool the deer. The shelters have been covered, new watering system has been set up to clean the shelters on daily basis.

After two first deer with effective results, Hong invested in another 8 ones. Deer antlers have significant nutrition, good for health fostering, illness preventing and treating, as well as a material for traditional medicine, thus the demand are high while the supply are still lagging behind. Being one of very few breeders locally, Hong’s business has been going very well so far, many orders came even before the harvest.  

“In the past time, when people wanted to buy deer antlers, they did not know where to get reliable ones among so many floating products on the market. The antlers produced at my farm have credible origin, safe process of raising and harvesting, with skillful antler cutters hired, and quality checked by precinct agriculture department, thus the buyers can rest assure”, confirmed Truong Thi Hong.

Copying Hong, two other households have started raising deer. Hong is not hesitant to share her expertise in this new business model that is profitable and helpful in poverty reduction. 

In order to prevent from the risk of depending on only 10 deer, she is also breeding 4 cows, a few chickens and pigeons. Her family also owns a tailor shop, the profession Hong was trained when younger, hiring 2 seasonal helpers and a contracted employee. 

Hong’s family now has the annual income of 120 million VND, and the gross asset of 300 million VND.

“I got married young with the desire of earning enough to be able to send the kids to school. Without education, knowledge and skills, I kept failing in breeding business at the beginning. When raising pigs did not work out, at times I got so frustrated, scared of putting more money in. Later on, the more I learn, the more I am confident in dealing timely with any problem coming up”, recalled Truong Thi Hong.

Her plan for the next 2 years is to pay the loan and get new one from the Microfinance Unit. In the past 8 years, Hong has borrowed the total of 70 million VND from this convenient loan service. 

“By the year 2018, we will have 20 antler deer, 10 breeding cows and 200 hens”, said Hong confidently.