In the hills of Phu Thuan commune in Da Nang City (the former Dai Loc District, Quang Nam Province), farmers who earn without abandoning poor land are increasing. On top of intercropping pineapple, they layer specialty livestock of bamboo rats and pigeons, turning several hundred million dong a year in a single household. For procurement staff and producers interested in diversified operations, we break down the revenue structure of this "disadvantaged land x diversification" and read what can be brought into Japan's hilly and mountainous areas.
The basis was three real examples in Phu Thuan commune reported by the local paper Dan Viet (August 6, 2026). What they share is choosing as their stage not prime flatland farmland but dry hills and poorly conditioned plots.
Three conversions that happened on the Phu Thuan hills
Phu Thuan commune is an administrative district formed by merging four villages, including Dai Tan, Dai Chanh, and Dai Thanh of the former Dai Loc District, holding both flatland and hills. The merger enlarged the administrative vessel, but farmers' association head Le Thi Anh says, "the merger opens new room for development while pressing us to reorganize production more efficiently." Reorganizing the vessel ran alongside reshuffling crops and livestock on the ground.
Nguyen Quang Vinh of Thanh Tan hamlet is one of the pioneers who switched a low-profit field to an orchard. To fill the income gap during the few years until the perennial fruit trees bear, he intercrops pineapple. "This area has poor soil and a dry climate. That suits pineapple well." Like sugarcane, pineapple grown on poor soil is rather sweeter, is his read. He earns 70–80 million dong from one season of pineapple.
In Thanh Phu hamlet, not far from the field, To Van Binh stepped into bamboo rat farming. A livestock animal rare at the time, he invested with the backing of funds from the youth union, the social policy bank, and a farmer support fund. He now keeps 300–500 head at any time, with feed covered by local bamboo, grass, sugarcane, and corn. Nguyen Van Lai of the same Thanh Phu hamlet has raised French crossbred pigeons in a closed system since 2013, turning about 2,400 birds over roughly 200 square meters.
The paradox of deliberately choosing poor land
What runs through all three households is the idea of avoiding competition with prime land and turning the nature of poorly conditioned land to advantage. Dry, poor land is unsuited to rice and leafy greens, but it is no disadvantage for pineapple, which gains sweetness, or for specialty livestock raised indoors. If the land's weakness is absorbed on the crop and livestock side, plots light in land rent and development burden can be turned into revenue sources as is.
The reason for choosing specialty livestock is also clear. Bamboo rats have cheap feed, covered by resources on the land such as bamboo and grass. Pigeons can be housed at high density in a small area, with 2,400 birds working in 200 square meters. The less prime farmland a farmer has, the more rational it is to lean toward livestock with high gross margin per unit area. In Dong Nai Province, a farmer wringing out annual net profit of 3 million yen from porcupines at 12 yen a day in feed shares the skeleton of the idea.
Breaking down the revenue structure of the three models
Lining up the figures reveals the differences in how each earns. Pineapple uses almost no fertilizer, with weeding and watering the main costs. Bamboo rats are a low-cost type where feed stays within 10% of sales. Pigeons are a turnover type where sales build up by number of birds times unit price, with cash coming in month by month.
| Model | Operator / location | Scale | Earnings (dong) | Yen equivalent (approximate) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pineapple intercropping | Nguyen Quang Vinh / Thanh Tan hamlet | Poor hilly land | 70–80 million dong per season | About 410,000–470,000 yen |
| Bamboo rat farming | To Van Binh / Thanh Phu hamlet | 300–500 head at any time | Annual sales 120–150 million dong (feed cost about 15 million dong) | Annual sales about 710,000–880,000 yen (feed cost about 88,000 yen) |
| French crossbred pigeons | Nguyen Van Lai / Thanh Phu hamlet | About 2,400 birds, 200 sq m | Net profit over 200 million dong a year (1,000–1,100 birds a month, 55,000 dong per bird) | Net profit over about 1.18 million yen (about 320 yen per bird) |
The exchange rate is an estimate at about 170 dong per yen and about 150 yen per US dollar. Figures are based on the Dan Viet article of August 6, 2026.
Breaking down the pigeon sales, shipping 1,000–1,100 birds a month at 55,000 dong per bird gives monthly sales of roughly 55–60 million dong. In annual terms that is 660–730 million dong, from which, after feed and equipment, net profit works out to over 200 million dong a year. In gross margin rate the bamboo rats stand out, but the pigeons stabilize the operation in that cash comes in every month. Having incomes of different character coexist in a single operation is this hamlet's strength.
How diversified operation spreads risk
Vinh's pineapple is built in as a "bridge" until the fruit trees grow. Where a single crop would make the fruit trees' initial investment a wholesale burden, the cash income from intercropping supports it. On the livestock side too, combining cheap, fast-turnover bamboo rats with monthly-selling pigeons means that even if one collapses over feed prices or disease, the other remains. Weaving together crops and livestock, long-term and short-term, makes the downside shallower than betting on a single item.
Another key is that support schemes and local players are involved. Binh launched with funds from the youth union and policy finance, and now serves as a group leader of a livestock cooperative, handling technical guidance and outlet-building, spreading a bamboo-rat concentration area around him. A circuit that extends an individual's success to the whole area is at work. Switching low-profit paddies to lotus and tourism, the production-area building in the same Da Nang's Dai An area is also an example where administration, organizations, and residents meshed and moved.
Implications for Japan's hilly and mountainous areas and diversified operation
In holding many poorly conditioned slopes and small plots, the Phu Thuan hills are close in geographic troubles to Japan's hilly and mountainous areas. On land hard to compete on through flatland scaling-up, the combination of crops that make use of poor land's nature and livestock with high gross margin per unit area takes effect. There are three takeaways here.
- Choose items on the premise of weaknesses Rather than correcting dry, poor, and narrow as defects, redirect them to fruit that gains sweetness and indoor-type livestock.
- Have long and short incomes coexist Support the main bet with heavy initial investment (fruit trees, perennial crops) with the cash of fast-turnover intercropping and livestock.
- Place a player who extends from individual to area A role like a group leader who bundles technical guidance and sales channels turns a point of success into a production area.
How specialty livestock is chosen also connects to Japan. From poor borderland, as in the case where a company buys up the entire sweet-corn crop a design that turns the land's constraints to advantage and decides the buyer before producing can be transplanted to Japan's production areas too, which tend to be on the defensive over wildlife damage and aging.
Practical points to watch in procurement and cooperation
When viewing this kind of diversified production area as a trading partner, the points to grasp are as follows.
- Supply stability Bamboo rats and pigeons are centered on live-animal shipment, with a thin processing and cold-storage regime. To move them for Japan, processing and logistics design is a premise.
- Lots and seasonality Pineapple concentrates in season and pigeons are monthly; the supply rhythm differs by item. Year-round offtake takes a way of bundling multiple items.
- Background of institutional funds A production area where policy finance and funds support the launch tends to have the administration or cooperative as a point of contact. Entering through an organization rather than individual farmers moves things along faster.
- The production area's cohesion As a post-merger commune, a policy has also emerged to aim for mass-retail distribution with traditional rice paper (banh trang) making at its core. Room remains to bundle it as a production-area brand.
How poor land is used divides a production area's true strength
What the three Phu Thuan households showed was a field where the premise that "you can't earn without good land" collapses. Poor hills bring out pineapple's sweetness, pigeons are housed at high density in narrow plots, and cheap feed secures the gross margin of bamboo rats. Depending on how items are chosen and long and short are combined, disadvantaged land transforms into a revenue source. The Japanese side's move is not to appraise such a production area as a single-item source but to take the diversified operation itself into procurement design, supplement the missing pieces of processing and logistics, and reorganize it into year-round supply. The next place to visit may be not prime farmland but a slope no one wanted.
