(VOVworld) – Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Youth Union Secretary of Tam Quan Commune, Vinh Phuc province, has made a fortune from growing medicinal plants. Nguyen Hien reports:

Nguyen Ngoc Tu has been a pioneering in growing medicinal plants in Quang Ngoai hamlet. Tu said he decided to grow medicinal plants in 2010 as a way to escape poverty: “Vietnam has abundant medicinal plants. Some plants have a different name in each region. Sometimes it takes me several months to determine the exact names of certain plants.”

Tu has received advice from local agriculture officers and financial support from the local youth union. After 4 years of hard work Tu now grows more than 200 varieties of medicinal plants on approximately 1 hectare of sloping land. The quality of his products is high and output is steady. Tu said: “I faced lots of difficulties, particularly in funding, in the beginning. I also lacked experience in growing and caring for medicinal plants, so the initial outcome was not good.”

Tu used 3,000 square meters of land to build a net house for breeding and uses the rest to grow medicinal plants. His products, which earn him hundreds of thousands of USD a year, are sold to pharmaceutical companies across Vietnam. Tu has shared his technical know-how with other people in the area. He has cooperated with a number of pharmaceutical companies to buy their products. Nguyen Hoang Anh, who helped Tu secure financial loans, said Tu’s model has proved effective: “Growing medicinal herbs has been a way of developing the province’s economy. Tu’s model has helped to reduce poverty and restructure crops. Tu was named one of the province’s outstanding youth role models in developing the economy in 2014.”