Earn billions thanks to successful research and breeding of earthworms

After many failures and many negative comments, Mr. Giang has now earned billions of dong from selling bloodworm seeds to people in many northern provinces and cities with a commitment not to increase production without taking money.

Creating rươi seeds so you don't have to wait for "heaven's blessing"

In late September 2023, along with taking care of the vast worm pond located next to the Han River, in Hoa Binh commune, Vinh Bao district, Hai Phong city, Mr. Hoang Xuan Giang also took the time to clean up the factory area to prepare for a new worm crop that will begin in the eleventh lunar month.

Talking about his breeding of bloodworms, Mr. Giang said that in 2010, his family decided to contract out more than 9 hectares of bloodworm fields with the hope of "making money" but in reality, the bloodworms at that time were very few, not as expected.

The reason is that when realizing the economic value of the earthworm, people have surrounded the lagoon and used bamboo poles to block the exits, so only a small amount of earthworms can escape the net and go to the sea to lay eggs. In addition, the river water is increasingly polluted, leading to the small amount of earthworms that escape the net and reach the sea, but it is difficult to survive.

In the past, people still thought that the earthworm was a "gift from heaven" that came and went by itself and no one could reproduce it, so few people thought about raising earthworms for reproduction or releasing earthworm seeds into the pond. With the thought that all animals have a reproductive process, Mr. Giang came to a bold decision that no one in the district had ever thought of: raising earthworms for reproduction and creating earthworm seeds.

In October 2013, when the earthworms were floating in the fields, Mr. Giang hired people to scoop them up and put them in the breeding tanks he had built earlier, applying the process from breeding, hatching eggs to raising earthworm larvae according to books, newspapers and his own scientific research.

In the first three years, Mr. Giang tasted failure when, although the worms laid a lot of eggs, the rate of eggs hatching into worms was very low, less than 1%.

"After many years of failure, there were times when I thought about closing the factory, returning the worm pond to switch to another job, but my pride and desire to own the source of the species with high economic value gave me the strength to ignore the gossip and slander and research to create worm seeds" - Mr. Giang shared.

Realize the dream of getting rich from earthworms

After many failures, Mr. Giang mastered the closed process from putting parent worms into the tank for breeding, putting eggs into the incubation tank to nurturing the worms larvae into 0.2 - 0.3mm sized worms with the rate of eggs hatching into 0.2 - 0.3mm sized worms with over 80% of eggs hatching into 0.2 - 0.3mm sized worms.

In early 2017, Mr. Giang hired someone to zone off his family's worm field with an area of ​​1.5 hectares for testing and the results were beyond imagination when that year's worm crop, the experimental worm field yielded nearly three times more than the remaining area (about 45kg/sao/crop compared to 15kg/sao/crop).

In 2018, Mr. Giang brought about 5 billion rươi seeds to the market in Vinh Bao district for consumption. To gain people's trust, Mr. Giang committed that if after releasing rươi seeds, the yield is equal to or lower than before the release, he will not take any money.

Up to now, from 5 billion larvae sold in the 2018 crop, in 2023, the amount of larvae Mr. Giang sold increased to about 34 billion, with the market not only in Hai Phong City but also many other coastal localities in the North, from Quang Ninh to Nghe An.

Many families have "changed their lives" thanks to releasing rươi seeds bought from Mr. Giang's facility. Specifically, Mr. Nghiem's ​​family in Toan Thang commune, Tien Lang district has a rươi field of about 6 hectares. In 2018, the average yield was 5 - 10 kg/sao/crop, but in the 2019 rươi crop, after releasing seeds, the yield increased to 40 kg/sao/crop.

In the following consecutive crops of rươi, the yield remained stable at 40 - 45 kg/sao/crop with an average selling price of 300,000 - 400,000 VND or more/kg of rươi. Each rươi crop lasted from the beginning of the ninth lunar month to the end of the year, helping Mr. Nghiem's ​​family earn a profit of nearly 1 billion VND.

Mr. Giang said that after the expansion, the 2023 breeding of worm larvae (from the 11th lunar month to the first month of the following year) at his family's production facility will have a scale of more than 2,000m² with 140 tanks (5m³/tank) to breed parent worms to lay eggs, incubate eggs, and raise worm larvae into worm larvae.

It is expected that in early 2024, Mr. Giang will supply the market with more than 35 billion rươi seeds, earning a profit of about 2 billion VND. In addition, Mr. Giang also completed the procedures to register rươi seed products to participate in the One Commune One Product (OCOP) program.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Sang - Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vinh Bao district assessed that Mr. Giang's model of breeding and raising earthworms is a unique model, contributing to bringing high economic efficiency not only to his family but also to many other households raising earthworms.

According to Mr. Sang, the unit is consulting and proposing to the District People's Committee to study and consider to replicate this model depending on the actual conditions of the locality and the wishes of the people. At the same time, support and help connect production with consumption as well as procedures for registering the One Commune One Product (OCOP) program to increase the value and economic efficiency of the earthworm farming profession in the area.

"The earthworm is a mollusk that can live in both saltwater and brackish water. In Vietnam, earthworms are abundant in Kinh Mon and Tu Ky areas of Hai Duong province and Vinh Bao, Tien Lang, Kien Thuy and An Lao districts of Hai Phong city. Earthworms usually appear from September to November of the lunar calendar with a green, red or reddish brown, light pink body with a length of only about 6-7cm. They are rich in protein and can be used to make dishes such as earthworm rolls, earthworm sauce, steamed earthworms, earthworm spring rolls, braised earthworms, earthworms stir-fried with fresh bamboo shoots or radishes, and some places even make earthworm soup."