High economic efficiency

Currently owning an orchid garden of more than 5,000 ^m2 with many different species in Pham Van Coi commune, Cu Chi district (HCMC), Mr. Bui Xuan Thang excitedly shared: "Previously, when I propagated myself, the seedlings were very weak when brought to the garden, with a high mortality rate. But now thanks to Tien, who has both supported the propagation and guided me through the process and care, the plants in the garden live well, have a very low loss rate and achieve higher economic efficiency."

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Mr. Thang is one of many households that Duong Phu Tien (29 years old), residing in Nhuan Duc commune, Cu Chi district, has supported in breeding, guiding the process and transferring technology... From there, he has reduced failures, increased profits and revenue for crops. It is not an exaggeration to call Tien a man of initiatives. Over the years, Tien and his colleagues have had many initiatives that have brought hundreds of millions of dong in profits to businesses and people. One such initiative is the application of plant tissue culture techniques to produce medicinal seedlings of Cot Khi Cu. Tien said that in this initiative, with in vitro breeding technology, it helps to create a large number of Cot Khi Cu plants in a short time, with uniform quality, healthy and disease-free plants. In addition, the combined process of culturing on a temporary immersion system helps increase the shoot multiplication coefficient by 6.46 times, reducing the labor cost of culturing and the amount of media used as well as energy consumption, thereby saving production costs and reducing the cost of producing seedlings. The profit in 1 year of producing 20,000 seedlings of the rootstock for the applying unit is 130 million VND.

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This initiative has been transferred to Vina In-Vitro Seed Production, Trading and Service Company Limited. Since then, the company has provided more than 8,000 seedlings to customers within 4 months; previously it took at least 8 months to have this number of seedlings. Another quite impressive initiative of Tien is the propagation of the long-spiked daisy plant by tissue culture method. This propagation can produce more than 35,000 plants in a year in the nursery and bring in a profit of 140 million VND for the unit applying the initiative. Or the initiative of applying the method of plant tissue culture to propagate ginseng also brings high economic efficiency. The profit in 1 year of producing 50,000 seedlings is 140 million VND for the unit applying this initiative.

Go down to the garden to learn about people's difficulties

Previously, with the desire to return to his hometown to do farming, Tien chose to study biotechnology. After graduating from Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry (now Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade), Tien was accepted to work at the High-tech Agricultural Business Incubation Center, located in the Ho Chi Minh City High-tech Agricultural Zone (Pham Van Coi Commune, Cu Chi District). "In the past, when I was still at home, I always thought that agriculture was just farming, but when I went to school, I realized that there were many related industries and fields. That's why I chose the field of plant tissue culture to be able to provide a large number of seedlings in a short time, promptly meeting market demand, helping farmers improve their income," Tien shared. Of all his initiatives, Tien is most impressed with the in vitro propagation of the medicinal plant ginseng. The young man said that facing the risk that medicinal plants are currently imported from China, with unknown origins, the medicinal value of the product is unknown. Therefore, the center's orientation is to proactively source medicinal plants, ensuring the best quality and medicinal properties in the product. "In nature, ginseng is mainly propagated by tubers, so it will encounter disadvantages such as low success rate, insect attacks or watering methods affecting quality. When put into tissue culture in completely sterile conditions, these disadvantages will be controlled," Tien explained. Although he is not a farmer, Tien's daily work and concerns are closely linked to farmers. Over the years, Tien has always worked diligently every day in the laboratory and nursery for research. Because he is so passionate about his work, Tien even goes down to people's gardens to learn about the reality, proactively finding solutions through research to help farmers overcome the difficulties they are facing. When asked: "What is the most interesting thing about this job?", the young man replied: "There is nothing more interesting than being able to grow thousands of trees in a very short time from just one shoot, helping many farming households increase economic efficiency."

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Although it is interesting, difficulties still exist and Tien revealed that failure is a common thing. That is when sterilizing samples (ie sterilizing, disinfecting samples) but still cannot be done. There was a case where Tien sterilized a sample for 6 months but could not finish. "Failure in sterilizing samples is common. Because there are some special varieties that take samples from the ground, many different sterilization methods must be used, but the success rate is very low. Because the samples are taken from the soil and are in contact with many microorganisms, sterilization will be more difficult," Tien said and said that with imported varieties, the first generation tree is temporarily not adapted to the weather conditions in Ho Chi Minh City, when put into tissue culture and created a complete tree, but when brought to the rear garden for culture, it cannot survive. That is also a challenge. Although it is difficult, Tien has never been discouraged. The young man always asks himself questions and seeks answers to overcome the challenges. Tien also applied a new method of using an ultrasonic tank to remove microorganisms that are invisible to the naked eye from the sample before sterilization. This method has helped increase the sterilization efficiency. For example, the rate of sterile samples is 80%, when applying this method, it increases to 90 or 100%.

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Mr. Nguyen Van Toan, Head of Plant Cell Technology Support Department, High-tech Agricultural Business Incubation Center, said that Tien is currently the Secretary of the Youth Union of the center, so he is very enthusiastic, energetic, and not afraid of difficulties and hardships in his work. He is also very enthusiastic at work, completing all assigned tasks well, especially with many innovative initiatives in his work. "Tien has had initiatives such as renovating some machines to replace manual work, helping the center save human resources, as well as costs and increase work efficiency. For businesses and farmers, Tien's research topics not only help preserve the genetic resources of medicinal plants, but also transfer technological processes and seedlings. From there, help businesses and farmers apply them to increase productivity and income," Mr. Toan highly appreciated Tien's initiatives. Devoting much to the agricultural sector, when asked about his wishes, Tien simply said: "My biggest wish is to help farmers increase their income. Because I see that our farmers are getting poorer and poorer."