Young people are charmed by green agriculture: A stubborn little girl

Instead of working in a comfortable air-conditioned room, in the right field, the young girl prefers "diving" into fields and gardens. She is Tran Mac Van Anh, born 1994. Originally studying Finance - Banking and later having a nice job at a business in Ho Chi Minh City, not long after Van Anh suddenly "turned sideways" to agriculture.

Talking with Van Anh, it was not only passion I saw. It was also responsibility.

It was hard at first

In 2016, after graduating from university, Van Anh participated in a clean water project in the West. During those days there, she found out something: many families spend a small part of their garden growing “edible” vegetables for the family. The vegetables grown for sale were treated with a large amount of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

“Those farmers definitely understand the harm, understand how the health of their families and themselves are being affected, and the consumers will be next. So I want to change those harmful farming habits and refresh the perception of consumers. I want to let them know what organic and clean food is. But it is not simple. Not many farmers, even consumers, understood organic right at that time.”

Also in 2016, Van Anh and a group of friends established Medifood.IO Clean Agriculture Co., Ltd with the main task of supporting and advising organic farmers, as well as providing clean food for the community. Their main tasks were to support and advise farmers to conduct organic cultivation and provide clean food for the community.

"Was it hard at first?", I asked. “It was hard, and unimaginably so. We bought the vegetable gardens that farmers planted separately to eat and encourage them to cultivate according to the process we guided. We even committed to buying the products at a higher price, but later we could only sell at a price equal to or lower than what they used to sell. We were ready to accept losses, all so that we could share with consumers about healthy vegetables and tubers cultivated without chemical fertilizers. We slowly shaped a habit within the people to eat clean fruits and vegetables every day.

“I use to remember the time when we pushed the vegetable cart to apartment buildings in Saigon, ran through all the stairs to distribute flyers, carried each box of vegetables and fruits to their place. It is very arduous, but gradually, consumers also felt that the vegetables and fruits we sell are of real quality, better than what they have bought for a long time. Thanks to that, people started to remember Medifood.IO,” said Van Anh.

Passion - Responsibility - Determination

One of the fundamental differences that make Medifood.IO truly stand out among other organic models lies in their organic farming concept and implementation. They do not use any fertilizers, inorganic drugs, or chemicals. The procedure is 100% natural.

“It all starts from land preparation. Before farming anything, the first factor is that the soil must be clean, without any impurities or toxic residues. After planting the tree, the whole care process is in accordance with nature. Our microbial compost and pesticides are also processed from herbs,” said Van Anh.

At the beginning of 2019, after preparing a relatively stable foundation in terms of human resources, capital and other factors, the friends continued to operate again, stronger than before. Their main focus was to support struggling organic growers and growers who want to shift to sustainable farming.

“Most of these were gardens that are in trouble, almost have to close down. We came to give advice and help cut costs by guiding gardeners to make their own organic fertilizers. Many volunteers and agricultural trainees participated in our programs to lend us a helping hand at the gardens. We then support in terms of output, communication and branding for growers."

Their clean agriculture project is supporting twenty-six organic growers of vegetables, tubers and fruits in five provinces including Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai, Dong Thap, Long An and Lam Dong.

Medifood.IO has up to 400 volunteers at the moment. They are university agricultural students and people who are passionate about organic agriculture. The members take turns going to the garden to provide support in the caring and weeding stage, planting some short-term plants, and nurturing blue worms to fertilize the plants.

“From a farmer support project to the present decision to start up a real business, I feel like I’m choosing a path to test myself, because starting a farming business is never easy. Organic farming is a long-term story. The change cannot happen in a day or two, and it seems impossible for some small projects and a few gardeners alone. It requires the cooperation of the whole community," said Van Anh.