VietNamNet Bridge – Mr. Vo Van Chung in Cho Gao district, Tien Giang province, is called the King of Rice Seeds in southern Vietnam. He is the most famous “king of seed rice” in the region since 1975. The story about the process to become a king of this man is very thrilling.

Mr. Chung, in Luong Phu B village, Luong Hoa Lac commune, Cho Gao District, Tien Giang Province, is over 80 years old now but he looks still robust and healthy. Dressing in a T-shirt and shorts, with his enthusiasm and the big voice of a southwestern man, he told us about his "golden age" of the "king" of seed rice.

The "king" and two wives

The "King" and his two wives.

On the way to the house of Mr. Chung, we were told by locals that this man was very well-known for living with two wives in peace. He built two houses for the two wives in a farm and they lived together without any conflict.

After greeting and a short dialogue, Mr. Chung invited us to the "other house" to visit his orchard, his pig farm and have lunch, because "this house" could not prepare the lunch in time. During the lunchtime, we asked him about his two wives. He smiled and explained that he got the first wife when he was very young.

He said he did not know how he could convince his wife to allow him to marry his second wife, named Doan Thi Tu. The second wife is 7 years old younger than him.

He arranged two rooms that shared a wall for the two wives. On the wedding night, Mr. Chung still slept with his first wife, also the second and the third night. The second wife cried on her bed.

The first wife kindly advised her husband to "spend one night” with the new bride. Mr. Chung said: "That's your recommendation. I do not want it." Until the first wife begged him to come over the room of the second wife, he “agreed” to sleep with the second wife.

Since then, only when the first wife told him to go with the second wife, he did. The second wife has six children, like the great wife. The two wives have been living in "peaceful coexistence" for over half a century.

Mr. Hai Chung said, when he went to Hanoi as a candidate for the Labor Hero Medal, he satisfied all criteria, except for having two wives. Finally, he won the title “National Emulation Soldier.”

From 7 grains to become the "king" of rice

Chung received an award from the Filippino President.

In 1976, after a talk with students about growing rice in An Giang University, Prof., Dr. Vo Tong Xuan, who is currently the Principal of Tan Tao University in Long An province wanted to give Chung some seed rice which he brought from Iri (Philippines). But he could find only 8 seeds left because all seed rice was given to provincial agricultural departments for research.

When carrying the eight seeds home, Chung lost one seed so he had only 7 seeds left. Some people asked Chung that what would he do with only seven rice seeds? After a sleepless night, he sowed the seven seeds on a pot then covered it with a basket to prevent chicken from eating the seeds. He still remembers that day - 6-7-1976.

Then the seeds became seven beautiful rice trees. He pulled them to plant in the field. Half month later, the rice trees developed into a very big cluster. Happily, he met Prof. Vo Tong Xuan to ask him how to multiple the trees.

Prof. Xuan told him to split all over, separate them into cloves and then grow them again. In the first time, he harvested a liter of seed rice from the original seven rice seeds. From this he had enough seeds for a 3.2 hectare field. After a crop, he collected 7 tons of seed rice per one hectare. One year he planted three crops, yielding more than 60 tons of seed rice.

Meanwhile, in 1977-1978, brown plant hoppers broke out in the rice fields of the Mekong Delta. After crop failures, rice seeds became very scarce. The 60 tons of seed rice of Mr. Chung was very precious at this time.

He said, at that time 20kg of seed rice was equivalent to 1/10 tael of gold and if he sold the 60 tons of seed rice, he would have been very rich. But Chung gave the seed rice for free to farmers in the Mekong Delta and the Southeastern region. Thus, this new rice variety IR36 became popular in the region and contributed to save the difficult situation due to crop failure in 1979-1980.

The rice variety that made Mr. Chung the "king" of rice seeds is IR36, imported from Iri (Philippines). This is a pest-resistant rice variety. Later the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development renamed it as 3A Agriculture variety.

From the "king of rice” to the "king of pigs”

Mr. Chung became the "king" of pigs accidentally, like the way he became the king of seed rice from seven rice seeds.

Late Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet stayed with Chung to see how he planted rice and to listen to this honest farmer talking about his dreams and ambition on the field.

One morning before leaving Chung’s home, Mr. Kiet said: "You are so good at planting rice. Let’s try to do animal husbandry."

A few weeks later, a state car ran into the village, with two breed pigs on the car. Several officers opened the trunk and carried the pigs to Chung’s home. It turned out that these are breeding pigs that HCM City had just imported from France. They were the gift from Mr. Kiet.

Mr. Chung tried his best to take care of the pigs. A few months later, the two breeding pigs delivered the first 20 baby pigs, including 16 female pigs. He kept breeding the pigs until he had a herd of several hundreds of pigs.

Over the past 30 years, Mr. Chung cannot remember how much breeding pigs that he has provided to the market.

He took us to visit his pig farm. He is currently raising more than 1,000 pigs, in which more than 200 sows, 50 male breeding pigs. Each year the farm provides 4,000-5,000 breeding pigs and a lot of pig sperm to the market.

This year, Chung planned to develop his sow heard to more than 300 to satisfy the market demand. "It can be said that the pair of breeding pigs of Mr. Kiet made the turning point of my life, helped me to success and get fame with pig farming as it is today," said Mr. Chung.

NLM