Artemisia vulgaris in Quyen village

(Baonghean) - I feel like the cool, sweet taste of the bowl of water from that land is mixed with the sunshine and wind of the green mountains to create a unique flavor. That's right! That bowl of water seems ordinary but cannot be found anywhere else...

Following the Chau Thon - Tan Xuan route to the section running through Quang Phong commune (Que Phong), we stopped at Quyn village. Having made an appointment in advance, the commune and village officials were waiting at the top of the small slope. Holding my backpack in front of the motorbike, Mr. Vi Van Lai - Head of Quyn village kindly said: "The road is steep, let's put it up here so the journalist won't get tired". When I was settled in the back of the motorbike, Village Chief Lai tilted his head and said: "The commune officials have said it, now let's take you to visit the garden of wormwood!"...

In the past, Quang Phong commune and Cam Muon commune (Que Phong) were the same administrative unit called Cam Muon. "Cam Muon" in the language of the Thai people means "joyful gold", the golden land. The "joyful gold" land lies along the Quang River, rich in water, alluvium as well as placer gold. Later, Quang Phong commune was separated, but the typical, endemic values ​​of nature and identity remained unchanged. The most prominent in Quang Phong is probably the natural medicinal herb garden distributed throughout this land. This time, I wanted to go to Quyn village to "witness" how people grow the plant.

Mr. Vi Van Thang in Quyn village (Quang Phong, Que Phong - blue shirt) introduces the plant Artemisia vulgaris.

While riding a motorbike, climbing up the slopes, tiptoeing through a few dry streams, we finally arrived at the garden of wormwood planted on the mountainside. We were greeted by a man about 30 years old. He wore a dirty T-shirt and pants sewn with clover flowers. That was Vi Van Thang, the owner of the garden of wormwood. Thang led me into the garden that he had painstakingly created for nearly 2 years.

Reaching out to pick a branch of the plant, Vi Van Thang said: "Look, the plant of Quyn village has purple flowers, lots of essential oils so the scent is very strong. Only our village has this special plant." I looked around, the sloping forest had been converted into a plant garden. When asked how large it was, Mr. Vi Van Minh - Vice Chairman of Quang Phong Commune People's Committee estimated: "About 1 hectare!"...

A few years ago, people in Quyn village and many other villages in Quang Phong commune saw Vi Van Thang groping around in the forest every day. At first, many people thought he was picking bamboo shoots and cutting them down. It turned out not to be true. Thang went into the forest to find the plant. When he saw it, he dug it up and brought it home to plant. Then, despite many people's gossip, Vi Van Thang still climbed mountains and waded through streams every day to find more plants. On Huoi Ha hill, at first he planted 100m². This is also a family farm located independently in the middle of the forest, more than a kilometer from the residential area of ​​​​Quyn village. Thang grows wormwood and monitors it every day, every week, every month.

In the mountainous areas, life is still full of difficulties, hunger and poverty are still present with the villagers, so isn’t it idle for Thang to “sit around” and watch the garden of wormwood? That’s not true. The young man who graduated from the intermediate level of agriculture and forestry - Nghe An College of Economics and Technology (now University) has his own reasons. The former 30a cadre of Quang Phong commune believes that the wormwood plant on this land is a specialty that cannot be found anywhere else.

Many regions and localities also have this plant, but in terms of quality, taste, and medicinal properties, it cannot be compared to Quang Phong's. Climate, terrain, soil, water source... are the conditions that make Quang Phong's plant different from many other places. Moreover, for a long time, people in Quang Phong villages such as Quyn, Ca, Pao, Cao, and Tin Cang have gone into the forest to find and uproot the plant, dry it, and then bring it to the market to sell. Each bundle of 7-10 plants is sold for 50,000 VND. People and visitors passing through Quang Phong often stop to buy the plant to make a drink. This is the reason why Vi Van Thang lost sleep and appetite many nights before deciding to go into the forest to find the plant to plant on the hillside that his family had renovated.

There are no books or documents that teach the techniques of planting and caring for the plant. With the knowledge of someone who studied agriculture and forestry, Thang planted, monitored the growth of the plant, and learned from experience. Gradually, Thang expanded the area of ​​planting the plant to 500 square meters and now it is more than 1 hectare. Through the process of experimenting with this special medicinal plant, Mr. Thang said that he can grow 2 crops each year. The first crop is in February and March, and the second crop is in May and June. And the characteristic of the plant in Quang Phong is that it only flowers once a year, during the planting season in June, and during this season, in addition to harvesting the plant for sale, Mr. Thang also collects seeds for seeds.

When asked about the benefits of the plant, Vi Van Thang only said that from his garden, 16 households have come to learn, approach and buy seeds to plant. Notably, not only people in Ca village, Pao village, Quyn village of Quang Phong commune but also people in some villages of the two "neighboring" communes of Cam Muon and Chau Thon have come to learn how to replicate the model. Thang said that at first, he planted the plant with the desire to both preserve the precious plant species of the countryside forest and find a way to promote the unique value of this medicinal herb. And Thang was surprised by the spread of his model. Just the seeds he provided to households in need were enough to plant more than 100 hectares of the plant.

Unfortunately, in 2015, due to the harsh weather, the Western region of Nghe An experienced record cold, so most of the general crop area, including Quang Phong wormwood, was severely affected. However, this short-term medicinal plant still showed its strength.

Ms. Lo Thi Thanh, a resident of Quyn village, one of the households that directly bought the plant from Mr. Vi Van Thang, said that she currently has 3,000 square meters of the plant on her family's hillside garden. She affirmed: "Last year, we earned nearly 10 million VND from the plant by selling and promoting it. It's very easy to sell. Not enough for people to buy..." And Ms. Thanh also said that with just one crop of the plant, she can earn around 20 million VND. This is a source of profit that no other rice field can compare to.

Mr. Vi Van Thang and the newly harvested Artemisia vulgaris plant.

As for Vi Van Thang, he cherishes making more people know about Quang Phong wormwood, preserving medicinal plants and developing the economy with the potential of this land. Thang also said that he used to grow bon bo trees and some other plants when looking for a business direction for his family, but in the end, only wormwood was the most suitable.

“Quyn's Anthurium does not need to be fertilized or sprayed with pesticides, it just needs to be cordoned off, fenced off to prevent cattle and buffaloes, and watered during the hot season,” Vi Van Thang shared. And to find customers as well as promote his products, and those of Quyn's Anthurium, Thang has consigned bundles of dried Anthurium to sell at shops in the commune, then taken to Kim Son town (Que Phong) more than 30 kilometers away to deliver directly to customers. However, this also makes Vi Van Thang worried. It is true that Quang Phong's Anthurium has no "competitors", but because it is not strong enough, it still has to struggle to reach consumers.

In fact, around 2012, Que Phong district had a project to preserve and propagate the plant in Quang Phong commune, but for many reasons it was not successful. At the beginning of this year, in the project to preserve and develop medicinal plants in this locality, the plant in Quang Phong continued to be included in the group of plants that need to promote their strengths. An officer of the Department of Agriculture of Que Phong district said that the quality of the plant in Quang Phong has been tested and confirmed over time; the district is also looking for ways to develop and enhance the value of this plant species.

Saying goodbye to Vi Van Thang with his garden of purple flowers, we returned to the steep road running through Quyn village. When we reached the gentle slope, Village Chief Vi Van Lai suddenly stopped the car, his two feet still on the ground, pointing to a small hut and said to me: “Actually, the first person to collect and grow wormwood in Quyn village was Mrs. Vi Thi Ngan. Before her husband passed away, it was thanks to the wormwood garden that the two of them still had food and clothing. Her husband passed away, and Mrs. Ngan returned to live with her children. Now, fortunately, thanks to Secretary Thang, we were able to do it.” Oh! Only now did I know that Vi Van Thang was the Secretary of the Quyn village Party Cell. Another impression of a Party Cell Secretary who “does a lot of work”!...

Dao Tuan - Nhat Lan