Nguyen Kim Hung at his workshop in Xuan Lai Commune, the northern province of Bac Ninh’s Gia Binh District. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Thuong

Hung, 62, was called a “farmer inventor” by his local peers, thanks to his 30 years of experience researching and manufacturing agricultural machines.

He is well-known for three major products, namely a sea-water resistant water pump that is used in aquaculture, a multi-purpose mud vacuum cleaner used to clean ponds and an aquaculture paddlewheel aerator to provide oxygen for fish and shrimp.

Among his products, Hung is proudest of the multi-purpose mud vacuum cleaner.

He created the machine to help farmers clean pond bottoms, supply oxygen for fish and shrimp and pump water for aquaculture.

He said the accumulation of sludge, impurities and waste on the bottom of a pond leads to the appearance of harmful bacteria, including toxic gases that cause diseases and affect the development of fish.

However, farmers often had to hire several people to clean ponds, costing a lot of money and time, as well as interrupting the farming process, he said.

Water pumps in combination with the sludge suction devices only allow users to vacuum sludge in one place, causing many difficulties for the users, he said.

Therefore, Hung created his own machine - the multi-purpose mud vacuum cleaner. Thanks to the floating buoy system, the machine can move around the pond's surface to vacuum mud, supply oxygen for fish and shrimp as well as pump water.

Dang Danh Luong, of Dai Lai Commune, Gia Binh District, said he had used the multi-purpose mud vacuum cleaner for his 2,000 sq.m fishing pond.

Fish farming was now much more leisurely thanks to the vacuum cleaner, he said.

If you raised fish with high density without providing oxygen, the fish would easily die, he said.

However, the multi-purpose mud vacuum cleaner helped him clean the pond bottom, provide oxygen and vacuum mud.

It not only saved time, money and but also raised productivity in aquafarming, he said. 

From bicycle mechanic to inventor

After returning from his military service in 1979, Hung opened a small shop at home to repair bicycles to earn a living. However, some villagers also brought him agriculture machines to repair. He started to get acquainted with agricultural machines since then.

Hung was born in a family that earned a living by farming, therefore, he understood the hardship of farmers. Thus, he always wanted to create and manufacture agricultural machines to support farmers.

In 1990, he decided to open a mechanical workshop to repair agricultural machines to serve local farmers, he said.

Talking about his first product – a centrifugal pump, Hung said in 1986, he realised the demand of local farmers on using water for crops and aqua-farming was very high. At that time, the current pumps, which were run by generators, consumed a lot of fuel.

Thus, he researched and made a pump that operated on the principle of centrifugal force, creating hydro-dynamic flow thanks to a propeller motor in the pump, making it easy for people to use, he said.

Hung then established his own company specialised in manufacturing agricultural machines in 2003.

In 2004, he made the high-capacity water pump with a capacity of 3.7 kW, which could replace 20 workers to water for 1ha of crops.

“It helps farmers save their labour as well as expand the scale of production and farming,” he said.

He also manufactured many water pumps with diverse capacity and design to better serve the needs of farmers.

In 2017, he started to manufacture the seawater resistant water pump. The product was welcomed by farmers in the northern provinces of Thai Binh and Nam Dinh. He sold more than 300 water pumps right after the product was introduced in 2018.

His products have been consumed in many provinces and cities nationwide thanks to their efficiency and reasonable prices.

Hung earns about VND8-10 billion (US$345,000-431,700) each year. His company has created jobs for 40 labourers, with an average income of VND6-8 million (US$259-345) each month. 

Dao Duy Huu, vice president of the provincial Farmers’ Association, said Hung made many products that helped local farmers cut costs and improve labour productivity as well as create jobs for local labourers.

Hung was a good example for other farmers to follow, he said.  VNS

Niche inventions lessen load on farmers

Despite just a few years of schooling and with little in the way of formal training in mechanical engineering, Nguyen Thanh Hung from Hong Ngu District in Dong Thap is nonetheless famed locally