Lesson 1: A fertile strip

(Baonghean) -Ho Chi Minh Trail - the "fire line" in the resistance war against America to save the country of our army and people. In Nghe An, Ho Chi Minh Trail runs through 29 communes of 4 districts: Nghia Dan, Tan Ky, Anh Son and Thanh Chuong, 134 km long. It has been 6 years since Ho Chi Minh Trail was put into use, bringing cultural light to the people along both sides of this road...

In the early days of May, the sun was blazing hot, we decided to take a trip along the Ho Chi Minh road. The starting point was km 632+300, on the other side was Nhu Xuan district (Thanh Hoa), on this side was Nghia Lam commune, Nghia Dan district (Nghe An). The first impression of this border was the image of 2 factories, on the Thanh Hoa side was the Industrial Wood Processing Factory - Thanh Nam Corporation (Ninh Binh); on the Nghe An side was Nguyen Loc Stone Powder Factory. Trucks full of acacia wood from Thanh Hoa to Nghe An, providing raw materials. Nguyen Loc Stone Powder Factory is currently inactive. Along the entire length of the Ho Chi Minh road are newly built schools, luxuriant residential areas with tiled roofs, and lush fruit gardens. There are sugarcane slopes, green acacia forests in the harsh sunlight. There are many different voices. They are the people who contribute to beautify this road...

People of Nghia Lam commune (Nghia Dan) transport
banana goods

I stopped at a roadside tea shop, the owner is a man around 50 years old, named Binh. He is a farmer, unfortunately had a work accident, paralyzed both legs. For more than 10 years, he has been in a wheelchair. Selling goods has been the only job for him to support his wife and children for many years. Mr. Binh talked: When the road was under construction, he discussed with his wife to boldly buy a piece of garden land from someone to make a small shop, selling refreshments to passersby. As for his wife, because she had no fields, she received hilly land to grow cassava and sugarcane, and when she had free time, she worked for hire. Mr. Binh confided: Luckily, this area has 2 factories, so the workers here have jobs. There are few fields, the young labor force has no fields to produce, so they work as manual workers for the factory. Although the wages are not high, it creates jobs on the spot, and the income is higher than farming.

Along both sides of the road, through two communes: Nghia Lam and Nghia Son, it is the watermelon harvest day. The immense watermelon fields stretch far to the foot of the hills. Trucks with Thanh Hoa, Ha Tay, Ninh Binh license plates... park on both sides of the road to buy watermelons and transport them for consumption. Mr. and Mrs. Van Bay, in Nghia Lam commune, planted 25 sao of watermelons this season, but according to them, the profit is not as much as last year when they planted 15 sao. The reason is that the selling price of watermelons this year is much lower than last year. This year, if sold wholesale in the field, it is 2.5-3 thousand VND/kg, if sold retail along the road, it is 4-5 thousand VND/kg. Last year, selling in the field was 4-5 thousand VND/kg. Last year, the couple earned 150 million VND from 15 sao of watermelons, but this year, they only sold 25 sao of watermelons for over a hundred million VND.

In addition to watermelons, we also saw banana fields from afar on the hillsides. Occasionally, we saw people riding motorbikes loaded with green bananas heading downstream. Minh, from Cau Giat (Quynh Luu), who specializes in selling green bananas, confided: “The bananas grown here are all bananas, bananas, used to burn incense on the first and fifteenth of every month. Every day I go up to this area to buy bananas to serve the needs of people in the lowlands. Buying from the garden, a small bunch costs 20,000 VND, a large bunch costs 30,000 VND. Each trip, a motorbike carries about 200 kg of bananas to the lowlands...”.

The center of Nghia Lam commune, about 1 km from Ho Chi Minh road, is a place for people from many neighboring localities to exchange goods, because there is Nghia Lam market, which meets once a day, and is a place for people from the communes of Nghia Lam, Nghia Son, Nghia Yen, Nghia Minh and employees of TH Milk Company. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Vinh - Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune said: Thanks to Ho Chi Minh road running near the center of the commune, people's lives have improved, from business services, and the appearance of the population is becoming more and more beautiful.

The locality's advantage is rich, fertile soil, very favorable for growing short-term crops. In particular, in recent years, the commune has a policy of growing commercial watermelons, which have been grown by the people and brought high efficiency. In 2012, the whole commune planted 70 hectares of watermelons, this year it increased to 109 hectares. When the watermelons are grown, on harvest day, customers from the North drive cars to the fields to buy them all. In addition, people also take advantage of the time and the Ho Chi Minh road, setting up temporary tents, selling on both sides of the road for passersby.

Ms. Vinh added: Since the TH Milk Company has been operating in the area, 500 young, skilled workers have been recruited to work for the company. And 450 hectares of production land of the commune have been transferred to the TH Milk Company. Besides, there have also been problems for some local workers. That is, there are about 300 workers over 40 years old who are not skilled and are not recruited by the TH Milk Company. There is no more production land, which means no jobs. People are forced to find all kinds of livelihoods, from service businesses, trading at the market, to going to the South to find work. Besides the advantages brought by the Ho Chi Minh road, there are also unfortunate consequences, which are traffic accidents and the trade of banned goods. Many fatal traffic accidents involving motorbikes and cars have occurred on Ho Chi Minh Road, and some people have taken advantage of this route to trade and transport goods illegally, which have been discovered and handled by authorities.

Dong Hieu Crossroads - the intersection between Ho Chi Minh Road and National Highway 48, is one of the bustling spots on this route. At the intersection, there is an electronics supermarket, along with many other types of services that are very rich and diverse. On the way, we saw many cultural village gates, then we also stopped at the gate of Dong Ha Cultural Village (Dong Hieu Commune) which was solidly built right next to Ho Chi Minh Road. Entering the village gate, the cool feeling emanated from the acacia forest on both sides of the concrete road leading to the village. Mr. Hoang Duc My - the village chief, said that the village has 126 households, a gathering place for many voices, from Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Nam Dan, Thanh Hoa... since the establishment of Dong Hieu Farm, in 1956 until now. Therefore, most of the elderly here are retired cadres and workers of the farm. The red basalt soil here is very favorable for long-term crops: coffee, oranges, so up to now, people have stuck with these crops. The only problem is that children are not given land, so when they grow up, they have no jobs, and are forced to find work in many different ways: working abroad, going to the South, going to the North...

The village chief's family has 3 children who have reached adulthood. Because they did not pass the university entrance exams, all 3 children went to work abroad. Talking about Ho Chi Minh road, Mr. My affirmed that this is not only the pride of the country but also the "backbone" for many localities to develop their socio-economics. Not to mention big things, even the people in the village, in the past, could grow banana trees, when the fruit was ripe, they could not sell it and could not use it all. But since Ho Chi Minh road was built, vehicles can travel easily, each bunch of green bananas can be sold for 30 thousand VND. This land is very suitable for growing bananas, so every family grows bananas to sell to traders. Even the village gate, which used to face Highway 15a, but since the State surveyed to invest in upgrading Ho Chi Minh road, the village has changed direction to face Ho Chi Minh road. Whenever people in the village need to go somewhere far, they just need to walk to the village entrance to catch a bus.

Each locality has its own advantages and its own way of doing things. We all feel the richness of this land, and the people here are taking advantage of the Ho Chi Minh trail to develop the economy, culture, and society...

Article and photos: Xuan Hoang