A "Tu Sang" brand combine harvester
As a farmer himself, Nguyen Van Lang clearly understands the difficulties of farm work. There has been a lack of machines in agricultural production in Tien Giang province, as in the rest of the Mekong Delta region. In 1980, using his engineering knowledge, Lang began researching a new kind of harvester to help his fellow farmers.
After many failures, Lang succeeded in making his first harvester, which was cheap, light, and harvested rice faster. He has produced more than 2000 “Tu Sang” brand harvesters which have been much sought after throughout the Mekong Delta region.
The idea of building a combine harvester came to Lang when he thought about how to address the shortage of laborers at harvest time. After 10 years of research, Lang produced his first combine harvester, which can cut, winnow, and clean the rice at the same time. Lang’s combine harvester weighs 2 tons, can harvest 2-3ha per day with less waste, and replaces up to 50 laborers. Tu Sang brand combine harvesters can now be seen in fields all over the Mekong Delta region thanks to their cheap price and high productivity, which is equal to that of harvesters imported from abroad. And Tu Sang combine harvesters perform well in soft, muddy soil. Lang told VOV: "I spent a long time researching and making mistakes. I learned from my failures and made it better. I produced the first harvester for my family’s use only, but other farmers asked me to make one for them as well."
Today, Lang spends most of his time on research to improve the quality and efficiency of agricultural machines. Lang now owns two machine shops employing hundreds of workers which produce cheap agricultural machines for the entire region. Lang won first prize in the Mekong Delta region’s combine harvester’ contest in 2008 and his combine harvester was named “Queen of the field”. Nguyen Van Phuoc is a farmer in Tang Hoa commune, Go Cong Tay district, Tien Giang province: "Farmers like us find Tu Sang combine harvesters very useful as they harvest quicker and cleaner with less waste. I think farmers should not hesitate to invest in one of these combine harvesters."
Lang son’s Nguyen Hong Thien, who is also an engineer, is now studying to improve his father’s combine harvester. Thien plans to produce a new combine harvester with continuous rubber tracks to help it avoid getting stuck in mud and allow it to harvest rice in the rain. With his father’s help, Thien has produced a machine to help local farmers collect straw to feed animals and grow mushrooms. Nguyen Van Lang and his son are planning to create even more agricultural machines to make farmers’ lives easier.