Swallow Farming in Vietnam: Poorly Planned, Manipulated by Companies

According to surveys by the city’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the city now has some 500 swallow farming houses, of which nearly 200 houses are found in Can Gio district. Revenue from bird nest farming is more than 20 times higher than average agricultural production value (VND230 million per ha a year) and 4.8 times higher than floriculture and ornamental fish culturing. However, swallow nest farming has caused a number of problems concerning land planning, environment, disease prevention and cityscape.

 

Mr Pham Van Duc of the Economics Department of Can Gio district, said, according to the pilot bird nest farming scheme of Can Gio district in 2009, bird nest farming houses are allowed to be built on agricultural land. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment stipulates that in case households or enterprises want to build bird nest farms, they must apply for licence to convert the purpose of land use from agricultural land to farm land. This inconsistency is hampering the development of bird nest farming. This is evidenced by the fact that Can Gio only built 10 bird nest houses out of 90 pilot ones started in 2009 while the rest was stopped.

 

He said the Decision No. 29/2011 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment dated April 18, 2011 also specified that when registering the conversion of land use from agricultural land to farm land, swallow farmers are obliged to make environmental impact assessment reports. Then, a small house must also have an environmental impact assessment report. According to the decision, one evaluation council at the city level will be established and performed a two-round evaluation which is said to be costly and time-consuming. Previously, farmers only need to make environmental commitments to the district authorities but now, without land conversion certificate and environmental certificate, they will be disallowed to build houses for raising swallows. Therefore, to avoid additional expenses and complex paperwork, they dodge the law by building residential houses and raising swallows there.

 

Can Gio now has more than 50 violating houses but they are unable to be handled because of insufficient legal provisions.

 

In reality, bird nest farming has appeared more than 10 years in the largest city in Vietnam but this industry lacks clear development planning. This is not only difficult for local authorities to manage but also for dealing with disease outbreaks and environmental protection.

 

Mr Nguyen Hoang Tuan, General Director of Saigon Alpha Bird Nest Joint Stock Company, said that swallow farming planning is very important and it is necessarily done as soon as possible to avoid segmented and spontaneous development. He said that Can Gio now can build centralised development zones. For example, a company without much capital should invest in 2 ha with the density of one house of 250 square metres on 1,000 square metres of land or 20 houses, or 20 houses on 2 ha. This layout ensures good distance from house to house. If that company builds houses of swallow birds for nest with a distance of 2 - 3 km, it will be a waste of land fund. Moreover, each company has its own ways to culture swallows, resulting to difficulties in using common techniques.

 

Mr Tuan said “I did a lot of business but I finally find out that swallow farming is a highly profitable business. For example, I spend VND3 billion for a swallow house, I will recover my investment capital in just two years. The investment efficiency is also high because it requires one-time investment.” Swallow farming in Can Gio district in particular and Ho Chi Minh City in general needs planning because it brings in double-effects, that is, tourism and bird nest.