Rubber trees are destined for the land of Que…

(Baonghean) - When the Provincial People's Committee approved the planning of 3,089 hectares of rubber on Que Phong land, many outsiders still thought that Nghe An Rubber Development Investment Joint Stock Company (under the Vietnam Rubber Group) was "unreal", because before that, there were many forest planting projects, many types of long-term trees that were the hope for the land potential here, most of which never became reality, some were replaced, and were gradually cut down because of ineffectiveness...

However, the poor forests of the former Youth Volunteer Force 7 (now Que Phong Rubber Plantation merged into Nghe An Rubber Investment and Development Joint Stock Company) and the bare hills of Tien Phong and Hanh Dich communes today have been filled with new fertile soil, with lots and rows of rubber trees. According to Mr. Le Huu Huy, Deputy General Director of Nghe An Rubber Investment and Development Joint Stock Company, immediately after the provincial People's Committee approved the plan for the company to plant 3,089 hectares of rubber in September 2013, the unit mobilized all resources to have 450 hectares of "standing" trees with green canopy as they are now.

The rubber variety that the company chooses to grow here is both suitable for the soil and ensures frost resistance and high wind and storm resistance, so the growth quality of rubber trees on Que Phong land is not inferior to that of those in the Southeast region. In the process of developing rubber trees on any land, the company will recruit local human resources including workers and seasonal workers. Currently, the company has officially recruited 88 workers who are children of Thai ethnic groups in Hanh Dich, Tien Phong, Dong Van communes, with an average salary of 5.8 million VND/month. When the production process of over 3,000 hectares (including the latex processing factory with a capacity of 5,000 tons/year) is stabilized, it will be able to receive about 1,000 workers from Thai, Kho Mu... ethnic groups in the area.

Regarding seasonal labor, the company currently employs more than 200 people from the local area every day, paying from 120,000 to 150,000 VND/person/day. With the plan to plant 1,200 hectares in 2014, the company plans to employ 4-500 seasonal workers per day. At the same time, the company also allows workers who receive plots to plant secondary economic crops under the canopy, the company will provide interest-free loans for seed investment, technical support and especially ensure output for the products (like in Thanh Chuong, there is a plot of workers planting aromatic roots earning 120-130 million VND/ha/year)...

Transfer rubber from Na Bon nursery to rubber planting plots.

We were led by Mr. Ho Van Muoi - Director of Que Phong Rubber Plantation to visit the rubber plots on the top of Pu Mai at an altitude of nearly 900m above sea level, in Tien Phong commune. Indeed, if rubber trees did not "return" to Que Phong, Pu Mai would probably continue to be a poor forest with spontaneous fields, quietly covered in clouds all year round. First of all, the wide road was opened to the top of the mountain, with an investment of 4 billion VND, which has awakened the endless Pu Mai now covered with rubber plots. The vitality of Pu Mai is also in the lovely huts of young workers who awaken the land and mountains of their homeland.

Luong Thi Hoa, a Thai ethnic (born in 1985) in Dong Moi village, Dong Van commune, has just been recruited by the company as a worker since February 2014. She is working with other young workers to weed the rubber trees and till the soil so that they can plant lemongrass, ginger and sticky rice under the canopy of the rubber plot they have contracted. Huong said: “We are very happy to be recruited by the rubber company as workers. We will be paid a stable salary and especially have a significant source of income from growing secondary economic crops. In general, we feel very secure in our work and try to complete the assigned tasks well.”

Down at the rubber nursery in Na Bon, young workers are urgently covering the nursery pots with plastic to prevent weeds from growing, and are just transferring the rubber seedlings that have spread their canopy onto cars to transport them to the plots for planting. Mr. Ho Van Muoi said that this nursery alone has 700,000 pots, and will soon open another nursery if they find a place. Talking to Mr. Vi Van Mui, a Thai ethnic (born in 1979) in Cang village, Muong Noc, he said: “I was accepted by the company to work as a worker since December 2013. The first month I was paid 4.5 million VND, the second month I was paid 5 million VND. My family and I are very happy, if it continues like this, our family will soon escape poverty!”. At the Na Bon nursery, there are also seasonal workers like Vi Van Duyen in Om village, Hanh Dich, who is paid 120,000 VND/day. Duyen said her family was a farmer and went hungry all year round. Now she works for the company and gets paid every day, enough to buy rice to eat.

Having settled in Que Phong, rubber trees have contributed to the love of the land and people here. Not only that, they have also had a strong impact on helping ethnic minorities change their old working habits and their children have more good job opportunities when Que Phong truly becomes a "key" rubber area of ​​the province and the region.

Mr. Vu