Outstanding Vietnamese farmer invents herbal extraction machine

Although he is a master of chemistry, Mr. Pham Thanh Loc (Tan Thuan Dong commune, Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City) is passionate about researching and applying science and technology to agricultural production in the context that agricultural land in Ho Chi Minh City is increasingly shrinking and people's demand for clean, healthy food is increasingly high.

In 2015, he and his colleagues successfully researched and manufactured the Ero-farm vegetable growing machine system using vertical aeroponics technology, which helps to save initial investment costs, optimize production efficiency, and save energy. This system is not inferior to Israeli technology, but the investment cost is much lower.

This system has been granted exclusive protection by the Intellectual Property Office and has been well received by many people in Southern urban areas. Because this system does not require much care, does not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers, and can be applied to agricultural production right in urban areas, producing products that ensure food safety and are traceable.

Not stopping there, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, ginger farmers in some provinces could not sell it. Mr. Pham Thanh Loc was "buried" in the laboratory, researching and learning from mechanics, welding, refrigeration, electronics, etc., to assemble, distill, and extract, and had to repeatedly implement to find a method to extract essence from ginger.

The research project on the nanotechnology process of mixing ginger essence and some medicinal herbs extracted by CO2 technology received funding from the Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City in 2022-2023 and was successfully accepted.

It can be said that Nano Emulsion Technology, Ultrasound at the forefront of processing essential oils and vegetable oils with the nanoemulsion process, aims to create products with active ingredients from herbs such as oils, essential oils, and extracts, thereby yielding health protection products. The technology uses green energy instead of classical mechanical stirring, thereby creating emulsion particles with particle sizes up to nanometers. The optimal production capacity of this system is about 5 liters/minute of herbal active ingredients in nanoform, helping to increase productivity and reduce product costs.

Currently, Mr. Loc has brought to the market healthy products from ginger under the brand SAGUCHA, such as mouth spray, massage, mask spray essential oil, and sauna essential oil. These are products that won typical rural industrial products of Ho Chi Minh City and the 3^rd Ho Chi Minh Innovation Award (2023).

"Research on ginger in 35 provinces and cities shows that ginger in Tay Ninh, Dong Nai, Binh Phuoc, and Dak Nong is of good quality and suitable for extraction. Currently, there are not many customers, but those who have used it will come back to buy it because of its uses. On average, every month I buy about 8 tons of ginger from people. Revenue in the herbal segment is about VND 500 million, a quite modest number. Therefore, we have to outsource to other units to support ourselves. When the time is right, we will promote the market, develop more herbal cosmetic products, and invest in building a closed factory," Mr. Loc said.

Returning from the 'Proud of Vietnamese Farmers 2024' program, Mr. Pham Thanh Loc was excited because the efforts of farmers in 63 provinces and cities were recognized by leaders of the Party, State, Ministries, central branches, and localities. He said he and his colleagues will continue to develop and apply science and technology to help farmers in high-value, good-yield agricultural production, serving the needs of domestic and international consumers.

The 'Proud of Vietnamese Farmers 2024' program chaired by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union took place on October 13 and 14 in Hanoi to celebrate the 94^th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnam Farmers' Union.

In the program, 63 outstanding Vietnamese farmers in 2024 from 144 nominations and 63 typical cooperatives nationwide launched, mobilized, and guided to establish by the Farmers' Union were honored.