“I’m not afraid of investing in agriculture. What I fear is only lacking capital and scientific know-how. If you farm well, it’s even better than running any kind of trading business,” said Nguyễn Đình Khôn of Hamlet 3, Sub-area I (Hát Lót, Mai Sơn, Sơn La).
More than ten years ago, Mr. Khôn moved to Sơn La looking for hired work with well-off households. “I saw how fertile the land was and how little people made use of it, and I felt it was such a waste. So whenever I saved a bit from my wages, I bought small hillside plots that others worked unproductively and were willing to sell cheaply. During the day I worked for hire; at night I reclaimed my own land and planted fruit trees wherever I could,” he recalled. Within just a few years he had accumulated about a hectare of farmland, and the first custard-apple and longan trees were already bearing their first fruit.
“I went back to Hải Dương to bring my wife and children here to build a life together. Many people said farming is too hard, but I think there’s no trade better than agriculture—provided you have some capital, some experience, and you’re willing to study the market. Then every season can be a sure thing,” Mr. Khôn said.
The slopes of Hamlet 3 were once nothing but rocky wilderness and weeds, land the locals didn’t much care for. But Mr. Khôn continued his “land-gathering plan.” Today he owns about three hectares that he has leveled and turned into productive orchards.
He now tends over ten thousand coffee trees, three hundred longan trees, and more than two thousand custard-apple trees, intercropped with peanuts, beans, maize, and other seasonal crops. Each season brings a steady income. With these earnings he has raised six children successfully and built a solid home. Looking at his household today, no one calls farming a fool’s path anymore.
Showing us the custard-apple grove, his wife, Mrs. Lan, shared: “It was lucky that in the early days he spent every bit of savings on buying land. If he had followed others and bought a motorbike or built a big house first, we would still be struggling. We used to toil just to get by; now we’re comfortable—yet he never stops working. See those hundreds of longan trees he just cut back? He plans to graft them with a superior variety that produces larger fruit and bears off-season. Next year when you visit, you’ll be able to eat longans to your heart’s content.”