'To realize the dream of elevating Vietnamese agriculture to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world's agricultural powers, the first thing is to learn how to do agriculture from these countries', Pham Quoc Liem.
The chilly wind gently swayed the wild sunflowers left over from last winter along the straight red dirt road, weaving through the vast green banana fields basking in the early morning sun. Here and there, groups of people were engrossed in their farm work.
The sound of laughter mixed with the sound of machinery. A lively space with healing energy, all just enough for an expected interesting meeting with businessman Pham Quoc Liem, Chairman of Unifarm Company at An Thai high-tech farm.
Pham Quoc Liem discusses with world agricultural experts in the United States, 2014
Unlike the neat way he dresses when appearing on agricultural forums, Liem is simple in his farming clothes, talking to me in his organic banana greenhouse. He now looks more like a farmer than a businessman running a large agricultural enterprise in Vietnam. If anything, his broad forehead with thinning hair, sharp eyes, simple way of speaking and gentle smile but still exudes a confident demeanor are unmistakable.
Listening to Liem tell his own story to sketch a portrait of a businessman, a farmer, and at the same time a person who always has a deep love for agriculture and farmers, is the topic of this meeting.
Liem was born in the early 80s in Phu Hung, a poor hamlet in An Son commune, Thuan An district, Song Be province (now Binh Duong province). His father was an auto mechanic and his mother was a primary school teacher, a rare intellectual family in the area. Separated by a gentle river named Ba Lua - which did not have a single bridge across it, on the other side was Phu Tho ward, Thu Dau Mot town with famous handicraft "kilns" such as clog kilns, cup kilns or carpentry kilns, brightly lit at night by electric lights, on this side was Phu Hung hamlet, a purely agricultural hamlet with rice and vegetable growing, and at night, it was a dim oil lamp.
During his youth, in addition to school time, he followed his grandparents, parents and brothers to the fields to harvest rice. At night, he gathered around the wood stove to listen to old stories and sing vọng cổ, a typical activity of the ancient Southern people.
Pham Quoc Liem: "If I can contribute to improving agriculture and bringing a better life to Vietnamese farmers, I will never hesitate."
"To cross the river, one must rely on a ferry". On days when the river was shallow, Liem waded through mud to cross the river and then walked the long way to class. On days when the water was full, his friends saw Liem drying his books in the middle of the school yard after falling into the river while crossing the river. Circumstances tempered his will. Throughout high school, Liem was a talented class monitor who was good at all subjects (especially literature), sang vọng cổ well, and was passionate about martial arts.
The dream that burned in the heart of the young student was to be able to do something for his hometown's fields and gardens to make life better for his grandparents, parents, and loved ones. It was as if a seed called agriculture had been sown in the field of his mind in the poor hamlet. Even though he did not study agriculture at university, Liem's childhood dream never died.
After graduating from university with degrees in Customs, English and Business Administration, Liem held several positions before taking the position of Human Resources Director at U&I Group of businessman Mai Huu Tin. By the end of 2008, Liem had convinced the Group's leadership to let him manage a new project of nearly 500 hectares on high-tech agriculture, the first of its kind in Binh Duong province, with a commitment that if it was not successful, he would not return to the Group. That year, Liem was just 28 years old.
“To realize the dream of elevating Vietnamese agriculture to the level of the world’s agricultural powers, the first thing is to learn how to do agriculture from these countries.”
Thinking is doing, Liem set out to learn from teachers in many countries, studying and working with the world’s leading agricultural experts from the US, Israel, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc. Not only learning about technology and farming techniques, Liem also focused on understanding the large-scale farm management system, cooperation models between businesses and farmers, and international sales experience. The process of “studying abroad”, as Liem jokingly puts it, helped him become a good expert in technology, operations, and market exploitation later on.
Studying is one thing, but the process of implementing agricultural projects by Liem and his foreign teachers and experts at Unifarm encountered many challenges, from difficulties due to the lack of high-quality human resources, soil conditions to the consumption market.
At that time, there were successful models in terms of cultivation techniques such as tomatoes, bell peppers, asparagus, etc., but difficulties in consumption because these products were mainly sold in the domestic market in small quantities and the price did not cover the production cost. There were agricultural products with good markets such as eggplants and okra exported to Japan, but the crops were not well adapted to the hot, humid and rainy conditions in An Thai.
Even with the project of growing melons and bananas that has made Unifarm's brand in the international market today, the initial problem of human resources, farming techniques and consumption markets has never been easy. There was a time when Liem and his experts had to work almost 24 hours a day to "talk to the plants" to find a farming method suitable for the soil and specific conditions of the land. At the same time, Liem himself had to work hard to bring the products to consumption, from personally delivering melons to supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City at night to understand how the industry operates, to the days of eating and sleeping in Seoul - Korea or Tokyo - Japan to market Vietnamese bananas.
During this time, Liem always pondered over the strategy and philosophy in production and business to enhance the competitiveness of Vietnamese agricultural products in the international market. He proposed the principle: "One highest product standard for all markets" so that Unifarm's agricultural products were always accepted by all major markets in Asia, whether it was Korea, Japan, China or the Middle East.
It can be said that each export market opened was a great joy to compensate for the tireless efforts, not only for Liem and his colleagues but also for the high-tech agricultural industry of Vietnam at that time.
The principle of “One highest product standard for all markets” ensures that Unifarm's agricultural products are always accepted by all major markets in Asia, whether it is Korea, Japan, China or the Middle East.
After some initial successes at Unifarm, Liem has implemented technology transfer programs for businesses, cooperatives and farmers in many provinces and cities in Vietnam. Many of the businesses that received the technology transfer have grown to become large and prestigious units in their industries. Therefore, many people have jokingly called Liem: the teacher of agricultural kings.
“I have determined that agriculture is never about competing with or replacing the role of farmers, but about creating models and platforms for suitable products and supply chains, from which to transfer and replicate to businesses, cooperatives and households. The ultimate goal is to elevate Vietnamese agriculture, helping farmers have a prosperous life from their fields and gardens. That is how I realize my childhood dream,” Liem concluded.
To many people, Liem is not exactly an outgoing person, even somewhat reserved and not wanting to show off in front of a crowd. However, when it comes to sharing about agriculture, Liem becomes a completely different person with detailed and tightly prepared information and arguments, and a way of expressing himself that is no different from a professional speaker or writer. Every time I meet Liem, I see him pondering over a different topic.
Pham Quoc Liem constantly discusses solutions to attract high-quality human resources to agriculture.
Once upon a time, Liem was worried about the Panama wilt disease on banana trees that had destroyed large banana growing areas in the world and had spread to banana growing areas in Vietnam. Then, a few years later, he happily "showed off" that he had successfully selected a banana variety that could resist this dangerous disease at a rate of up to 95% while still maintaining good commercial quality.
Sometimes, Liem was worried about the situation of rapid development in quantity but uncontrolled quality of some of Vietnam's main agricultural export products, along with lessons and solutions that he had painstakingly consulted in previous countries. Recently, I heard Liem constantly discussing solutions to attract high-quality human resources to agriculture, improve product quality, management capacity, equip automation technology, biotechnology and digitize fields to create competitive advantages for Vietnamese agricultural products in the international market, in the era of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) explosion.
At first, I thought, perhaps because of the love for agriculture and the sense of responsibility towards farmers that was nurtured from childhood, through the process of relentless striving, combined with the physical strength, mental strength and intelligence of a Vovinam practitioner, this 44-year-old man has a seemingly endless source of energy for issues in Vietnam's agricultural sector. “No valuable revolution can be easily implemented without spending a lot of effort, money and time. If I can contribute to improving agriculture and bringing a better life to Vietnamese farmers, I will never hesitate,” Liem concluded.
There are many ways for a person to express his love for his country, his homeland and his fellow countrymen. The way that young people like Liem have been doing brings strong belief that Vietnamese agriculture will develop prosperously in the near future. And that is patriotism!
According to Le Thieu Nhon (Agriculture Newspaper)
