Appropriate practices in disadvantaged communes

(Baonghean) - Mountainous districts and communes are facing many difficulties in building new rural areas. Quy Hop district is no exception, but thanks to mobilizing comprehensive resources and having appropriate methods, it strives to exceed the province's target of 20% of communes reaching the finish line by the end of 2015.

How to do it in commune 135

Quy Hop district has 20 communes, of which 14 communes belong to Program 135 (area 3). Chau Cuong commune is one of the 14 disadvantaged communes of the district, only meeting 5/19 NTM criteria. However, the commune's approach promises to speed up the progress.

Model of raising cows in Chau Cuong commune (Quy Hop).

On a high-chassis pickup truck, we went with the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, Mr. Luu Xuan Diem, to "inspecte" the road that had just been renovated according to the new rural standards. The road to the two villages of Ky - Teo, the two furthest from the commune center, was over 5 km away. Despite the rain the night before, the car was still running smoothly. A merchant from outside the town opened a shop providing all services to the two villages of Ky - Teo, confirming: "Previously, after a rain like last night, traffic to these two remote villages had to stop. Because the roads were impassable, the only means of transport was walking. At the end of 2014, thanks to the help of businesses, plus contributions from the people, the road was upgraded with gravel and stone powder. Businesses supported stone powder, leveling machines, and drainage ditches, while people contributed money to rent trucks to transport materials. In just a short time, the road over 5 km long was upgraded."

Mr. Luu Xuan Diem jokingly told us that he did not know what grade the road was, but if it rained, it would not be muddy, and cars and motorbikes would not have to wait. Then he said: “Chau Cuong still has many difficulties. When he was appointed as chairman here, with so many worries and concerns, the commune leaders chose the breakthrough in traffic. The commune set a goal of how to make the traffic system in the whole commune not muddy during the rainy season. The advantage of the commune is that there are stone and stone powder processing enterprises in the area. The commune leaders held a meeting to invite enterprises to discuss the road opening plan. The enterprises fully supported and were willing to provide stone powder, leveling equipment, and the commune paid for the transportation vehicles. In total, 15 km of inter-village and inter-hamlet roads were completely upgraded in 3 phases.”

From the success in road construction, people's confidence was raised, allowing the commune to implement many other programs. On the occasion of the Muong Ham Festival, the commune launched a campaign for businesses and people to plant trees, build fences, and yards of relic sites; and assigned the hamlet party cell to renovate the cultural house grounds. In just a short time, the cultural houses of hamlets were neatly and cleanly decorated, in accordance with the standards of the NTM criteria set. Not only focusing on building traffic infrastructure, but production development work is also given special attention. Currently, Chau Cuong's average income is only 12 million VND/person, a low level compared to the district. To achieve this target, the commune must strive to implement many production and livestock development programs to increase people's income. Therefore, for the first time, the winter crop production project was built on a commune-wide scale. The total area is 141 hectares with 80 hectares of corn, 42 hectares of sweet potatoes, 10 hectares of peanuts and vegetables...

Implementing the policy of renovating mixed gardens, the commune has contracted with Nasu Company to plant 60 hectares of high-yield sugarcane. The company is responsible for plowing, providing seeds and fertilizers, providing technical guidance and consuming the products. The commune provides money to rent root diggers for each household. Another project has also been implemented: Planting grass to raise cows in captivity, undertaken by the youth union. The commune borrowed 600 million VND from the preferential fund of the Policy Bank, and assigned the youth union to buy 40 breeding cows as a model for implementation. Mr. Le Van Ca and his wife in Ha Dong hamlet destroyed the mixed garden, planted 2 sao of grass and built a barn, and raised a pair of cows. Seeing the effectiveness, many households came to his house to ask for grass seeds to plant to develop livestock farming. The eldest brother said: Next year, his family will have a calf. Since participating in the project, he and his family have learned many things, from techniques for raising cattle and buffaloes to how to calculate profits and losses in raising costs... From the effectiveness of the model, it has been widely replicated among the youth union members, using this as the core force to popularize new methods for people in the village.

Chau Cuong has not registered to become a new rural commune, but with appropriate methods, it is changing the way of working and thinking of the people every day, gradually rising up to escape poverty.

Strive for each criterion

In 2011, Quy Hop district selected 4 communes to focus on building new rural areas to reach the 2015 finish line: Chau Quang, Dong Hop, Tam Hop, Nghia Xuan. In 2013, Minh Hop commune was added. Up to now, Minh Hop and Nghia Xuan communes have been recognized as new rural communes, the remaining 3 communes are striving for each criterion, so that by the end of the year, all 3 communes will be recognized.

Vice Chairman of Chau Quang Commune People's Committee told us: The commune has achieved 16/19 criteria. There are 3 remaining criteria for traffic - irrigation, culture and environment. For the traffic criterion, 3/4 of the criteria have been achieved. The commune has 30.6 km of village roads, 15 km of which have been hardened. Currently, 45 tons of cement are needed, the amount provided by the province in 2015 has run out, the commune has also planned to mobilize to complete this target from now until the end of the year. For irrigation, the contractor is speeding up the progress of 0.31 km of canals to achieve 50% of the solidification, expected to be completed by the end of August. Regarding the environmental criteria, the difficulty the commune is facing is that it has not found a location to plan a centralized landfill. After the district's landfill is completed, the commune will use it together. Currently, to solve environmental sanitation, the commune has assigned the Women's Union to organize women to classify waste at home, and destroy it by incinerator according to household size. With 60 million VND in support from the district, the commune organized a contract for workers to centrally produce incinerators for each household. For cadres and party members, they had to buy them themselves at a price of 200,000 VND/unit. For households that were provided, they had to pay back 50,000 VND to get capital for production rotation. With that approach, the environmental problem was temporarily solved.

Dong Hop commune has 3 unmet criteria: traffic, rural market and environment. Tam Hop commune has 4 unmet criteria: traffic, environment, school and security and order. These localities are also looking for ways to overcome difficulties to reach the finish line in 2015 as registered. To help localities speed up the progress, the district Steering Committee has proposed practical solutions. According to Mr. Hoang Van Thai, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Deputy Head of the district's New Rural Area Steering Committee, to help localities overcome difficulties, district leaders are assigned to urge and assist localities. Achievements in building new rural areas in their assigned areas are included in the task completion targets of each individual. From there, members in charge of the areas have made efforts to coordinate with the district's working group to propose solutions to overcome difficulties for the grassroots, helping to speed up the progress of building new rural areas. With creative methods suitable to the local situation, Quy Hop district is considered to be the locality with the leading new rural construction movement among mountainous districts.

Article and photos:Mr. Tuan