The National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2021-2025 period has many new points compared to the 2016-2020 period. That is, implementing a strategy focusing on people, directly investing in and improving the capacity of the poor; clearly identifying the causes of poverty to fundamentally and thoroughly solve the problems of the poor and core poor areas. The program's goal is to strive for a reduction of 1.0-1.5% per year in the rate of poor households according to the multidimensional poverty standard; and a reduction of over 3.0% per year in the rate of poor ethnic minority households...
In Nghe An, the population living in ethnic minority and mountainous areas is over 1.2 million people (accounting for 36% of the province's population). Of which, ethnic minorities are 491,267 people, accounting for 14.76% of the province's population and 40.93% of the population in mountainous areas.
In reality, a part of the people still have the mentality of waiting and relying, not making efforts to escape poverty. In addition, people are still cautious when approaching new things, afraid of change, afraid of risks, not knowing what to raise, what to plant to suit the characteristics of the land and climate of the locality. This mentality greatly limits investment in livelihood development models.
Therefore, the important and urgent solution now is to strengthen propaganda to raise awareness, change the way of thinking and doing for people; encourage poor households to register to escape poverty. In addition, there is an incentive mechanism for pioneering and exemplary households in economic development; self-reliance, self-reliance, and efforts to escape poverty.
Visiting the fruit-laden macadamia garden of Mr. Ha Van Tam's family in Muong Piet village, Thong Thu commune (Que Phong), we could not help but wonder why many places have failed to implement the macadamia planting model, but Mr. Tam's family has been successful in planting more than 1 hectare with about 350 trees?
Through discussion, Mr. Tam said: 8 years ago, by chance, he visited a relative in Dak Lak, saw that the climate and soil were similar to his hometown, so he bought macadamia seeds to try planting. Unexpectedly, the trees grew quickly, and with the adherence to the techniques he learned from his relative and the Macadamia Association in Nghe An, Mr. Tam's macadamia garden developed well, with an average annual harvest of 7-8 billion fruits with a revenue of 70-80 million VND. "Previously, the product was imported to the South, but recently it has been purchased by a factory in Nghia Dan district" - Mr. Tam's wife shared.
According to Mr. Phan Xuan Hung - Deputy Director of the Agricultural Service Center of Que Phong district: The success of Mr. Tam's family shows that macadamia trees are suitable for the climate and soil of Thong Thu area, so the Que Phong district government has paid attention to surveying and assigned the District Agricultural Service Center to directly guide people on how to care for them, thereby expanding the macadamia gardens in Muong Piet village and neighboring areas. "Currently, 24 households in Thong Thu commune have registered to grow macadamia trees from the national target program fund, each household is expected to have 0.5 hectares" - Mr. Hung said.
In many localities, Party committees and authorities have intervened to change awareness, overcome the mindset of waiting and relying on people; promote the role of Party members and cadres in propaganda and implementation of helping poor households. In Ky Son district, in addition to taking advantage of support sources from State programs and projects, since 2017, the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee has issued Directive 17/CT-HU for Party members and cadres to help poor households. Since its implementation, through 3 campaigns, 71 organizations and 17 individuals who are heads of Party committees, authorities, agencies and sectors have contributed money to buy trees and seedlings to support 345 poor and near-poor families in developing livelihood models. By the end of 2022, 282 households were helped to escape poverty (reaching 81.7%).
In Tuong Duong district, the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee issued Project No. 07-DA/HU on March 8, 2022 on eliminating conservative, expectant, and dependent thinking among cadres, party members, and the masses. The project clearly states that it is necessary to strengthen the effective implementation of setting an example, requiring each party member to be associated with the model of taking charge of households.
In particular, to overcome the mentality of waiting and relying on "rather suffer than work hard" that still exists among the people, in addition to synchronously implementing support policies according to the Resolution of the National Assembly and the Government to invest in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, Tuong Duong district has directed departments and branches to review and supplement a number of mechanisms and policies that are no longer suitable, from "free" to "conditional" support; focusing on supporting product output, helping to connect product consumption channels, and building product brands.
The current policy of supporting sustainable poverty reduction livelihood models is “conditional support”, with reciprocal support, promoting the spirit of the State and the people working together. However, according to Mr. Duong Hoang Vu - Chairman of Que Phong District People's Committee, for border districts where the poverty rate is still high, to maintain the “3 peace” (peace for the people, peace for the area, peace for the border), it is necessary to consider the option of taking short-term to support long-term to ensure food security.
Therefore, in addition to forestry trees and some medicinal plants, many localities have also proactively implemented short-term tree and animal models that can rotate quickly for high income, focusing on the linkage chain to create output for products. For example, many districts have taken advantage of water surface areas and hydroelectric reservoir areas to develop cage fish farming livelihood models, establishing cooperatives and production linkage groups. Typically, in Tuong Duong district, in 2022 there were over 501 fish cages; the output of fishing and aquaculture reached 595 tons, an increase of 14% compared to 2020. In Que Phong district, the aquaculture area has been constantly expanded, the whole district has 902 fish cages, the output of fishing in the past 2.5 years reached 1,840 tons, bringing a stable source of income for many households.
According to Mr. Nguyen Ho Lam - Deputy Head of the Provincial Rural Development Department: The implementation of projects and models to support production development, diversify livelihoods and replicate poverty reduction models in the period of 2021-2025 needs to focus on two main groups. For the crop group, the focus should be on native fruit trees and citrus trees. In the field of livestock, 3 districts 30a focus on raising breeding cows, fattening cows, and native livestock and poultry; the remaining districts invest in Sind crossbred cows and pigs, chickens of all kinds.
Because the projects and models supporting production development in the above two groups both meet the requirements of rapidly increasing income and are suitable for customs, practices and community needs; at the same time, these are products that serve the essential needs of the people, are easily linked in the value chain, the products produced have a consumer market; in case of natural disasters and epidemics, they are easy to resist, easy to treat, and losses are limited.
However, to have a sustainable model, livelihood diversification activities must be proposed by the community, in accordance with customs, practices, and needs of the people, and in accordance with the goals of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2021-2025 period and legal regulations.
According to the discussion of Mr. Phan Van Manh - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Ky Son district: In parallel with the implementation of projects, it is necessary to promote the synchronous formation of cooperative models and cooperative groups to connect members who are poor households, connect with the community and represent connections with businesses. Because the construction of models of trees and animals for livelihoods still requires the most important value chain from input to output for products.
Regarding this issue, Mr. Tran Quoc Thanh - former Director of the Department of Science and Technology also said: The program of livelihood development for the poor must be part of the overall livelihood development, socio-economic development of the entire community in the village, commune, even in the district and province.
However, each household has different conditions, circumstances and capacities, so supporting community development also needs a suitable roadmap and cannot be done at the same time and in the same way. This issue requires a systematic, persistent and synchronous implementation at all links of the product value chain, especially needing the support of the entire political system as well as the social community and businesses.
Nghe An has the largest planned forest area in the country with 1.16 million hectares, accounting for 71.6% of the total area of the province. For generations, people's lives have been closely linked to the forest. On July 18, 2023, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 39 on building and developing Nghe An province to 2030 with a vision to 2045, including the criteria: "Developing forests along with the carbon credit market; focusing on developing the production of non-timber forest products, especially medicinal plants"...
According to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan, Resolution No. 39 is a very important document for Nghe An province, however, what is needed now is "let's shift from the mindset of hiring people to protect the forest, to the mindset of the State supporting the creation of livelihoods and jobs under the forest canopy.
People who find income there will have the responsibility to protect the forest. Because it is easy to understand, people see that without the forest, there will be no more livelihood under the forest canopy. If we want to have a livelihood, we must join hands to protect the forest, then we will be successful". Agreeing with this point of view, Mr. Nguyen Van Hai - Secretary of Tuong Duong District Party Committee said: Livelihoods for poor households in mountainous areas need to be linked to the forest to protect the forest and reap benefits from the forest.
At the working session between the working group of the National Assembly's Supervisory Delegation and the People's Committee of Nghe An province regarding the implementation of 3 national target programs on new rural construction, sustainable poverty reduction and socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the province taking place in June 2023, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Bui Dinh Long raised the issue: Currently, the system of decrees, circulars and instructions of the Government and central ministries and branches for application and implementation is too much; there are even some contents that do not have a legal basis for implementation.
While Nghe An has 11 mountainous districts and towns and ethnic minority areas; the socio-economic conditions as well as the living standards of the people are still difficult, mobilizing people's participation in programs is still limited. On the other hand, the level, capacity of management, direction, operation, and implementation of programs and projects of the staff, especially at the grassroots level, has certain shortcomings. Allocating counterpart funds to implement projects, especially in districts and communes of ethnic minority areas, is extremely difficult...
Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Bui Dinh Long requested the working group to make recommendations to the National Assembly and propose to the Government to direct central ministries and branches to develop specific procedures and methods for implementing national target programs on the basis of integrating decrees, circulars, and instructions, creating favorable conditions for local levels.
Looking at reality, it can be seen that the implementation of programs and projects to support sustainable poverty reduction in general and the development of livelihood models for the poor in particular is a very necessary and humane policy. However, to ensure feasibility, when put into practice, it is necessary to ensure the right subjects, the right purposes, focused and key investments, creating motivation and opportunities for people to rise out of poverty; avoiding the mentality of waiting and relying on State protection.
