Prepare well the conditions for spring forest planting

(Baonghean) - In recent years, planting raw material forests has contributed to helping local people improve their lives, many households have become rich. At this time, local people and enterprises (agricultural - forestry farms) are focusing all the best conditions to plant forests in the spring crop.

In Tam Quang commune (Tuong Duong district), many families are actively clearing vegetation and digging holes to plant spring forests. This year, Tam Bong village registered to plant over 50 hectares of forest, and has now cleared over 30 hectares of vegetation. Mr. Lu Thanh Long in Tam Bong village said: With the State's support for people to plant forests, my family registered to plant 5 hectares of forest. At this time, due to the influence of climate and dry weather, my family mobilized a force of over 10 people to clear vegetation and dig holes according to the instructions of technical staff to prepare for planting trees. Currently, over 90% of the area is ready, around January 6 (lunar calendar) we will receive fertilizers, seeds and start planting forests.

Mr. Ho Viet Son - Chairman of Tam Quang Commune People's Committee said: This year, the commune received support from the State for 153 hectares of seedlings, however, people registered to pay for planting more than 50 hectares of forest themselves. Up to this point, the design has basically been completed, the commune is actively following the grassroots, directing people to speed up the progress of clearing the ground cover, preparing the site for spring forest planting. In the past few years, due to the difficulty of selling acacia trees, this forest planting season, Tam Quang commune planted a mixture of xoan, lat and met. According to Mr. Son, to plant a mixture of xoan and lat, it is necessary to follow the correct technical process. If acacia is planted at a density of 1,500 - 1,600 trees/ha, then planting a mixture of xoan lat is only from 950 trees/ha (including 600 xoan trees and 350 lat trees). During the first forest planting season, people can take advantage of the land to plant corn and other crops to increase economic efficiency.

Mr. Lo Van Thanh - Deputy Head of the Agriculture Department of Tuong Duong district said: This year, the district has planted 1,386.4 hectares of raw material forests. Since the beginning of 2015, the district has completed the Forest Planting Steering Committee, assigned members to direct the communes to properly prepare the field for spring forest planting. Focus on propagating and disseminating forest planting policies and regimes to all people in the area. The District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development presides over and coordinates with the People's Committees of the communes to contract consultants to survey and design production forest planting areas in the area and contract to buy seedlings with qualified forestry seedling production companies to provide to households for planting in the right season. The Village Management Board supervises the forest planting of households and individuals in the village; publicly announces in the village the list of households and individuals participating in forest planting regarding the area, tree species, and amount of money received in the year of project implementation. To effectively plant raw material forests, Tuong Duong district has combined 30A capital and the district budget to support 5 million VND/ha, equivalent to nearly 7 billion VND (mainly for fertilizer, seeds and care). To facilitate product output, the district focuses on planting xoan, lat, and met. Up to this point, the whole district has processed the ground cover of over 50% of the area. In addition, Tuong Duong Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. has prepared over 1 million quality seedlings of all kinds for spring forest planting.

Delegates and youth union members plant trees at Phan Dang Luu Square. (illustrative photo)

In Con Cuong district, some communes have completed the vegetation treatment and are digging holes for forest planting. Mr. Nguyen Duc Son - Director of Con Cuong Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. said: The province assigned the unit to plant over 600 hectares of forest under Project 147, but people registered for 1,100 hectares. Immediately after receiving the plan, we issued a document instructing the communes to organize households to register for forest planting. The design has been completed so that people can be proactive in timely vegetation treatment for the forest planting season. The design ensures the right plot, the right subject, the right area, technical guidance, urging vegetation clearance, digging holes, and preliminary acceptance of the site. Up to this point, the company has treated over 80% of the area and dug 30% of the holes. According to the plan on the 5th and 6th of Tet, the company directed the communes to dig holes to plant forests, and it is expected that in the spring crop, 350 - 400 hectares of forest will be planted. According to Mr. Son, the new feature in this year's forest planting work is 100% using imported Australian acacia varieties (the company has prepared over 1.2 million imported Australian acacia seedlings). Planting Australian acacia varieties has a long cycle of 6 - 7 years, but it yields large timber, increasing economic value per unit area, so people are very responsive.

The current difficulty is that the forest planting sites are mostly in remote areas, with difficult transportation. Many places have not yet invested in raw material roads, making it difficult to transport seedlings, fertilizers and take care of the forest after planting. Mr. Lo Van Nam, in Ke Trang village, Mau Duc commune (Con Cuong) said: The family received funding from Project 147 to plant 0.5 hectares of forest, but we still invested in planting an additional 4.5 hectares; currently, we have treated the ground cover of 4 hectares, dug holes for trees and intercropped with high-yield cassava for more than 2 hectares. According to Mr. Nam, after digging holes for trees, the people also cooperated to maintain the raw material roads. Mau Duc commune was assigned a target of planting 300 hectares this crop, but the people registered for 450 hectares. The whole commune has treated the ground cover of over 300 hectares, mobilized forces to maintain and repair damaged and degraded raw material roads to transport materials for spring forest planting.

Mr. Dang Xuan Minh, Head of the Provincial Forestry Sub-Department, added: In 2015, the whole province planted over 15,000 hectares of raw material forests, of which 7,000 hectares were planted under Projects 147, JICA, and WB3, and the remaining 8,000 hectares were planted by the people themselves. In the spring crop alone, over 4,200 hectares will be planted, concentrated in the districts of Quy Chau, Quy Hop, Nghia Dan, Tuong Duong, Con Cuong, Anh Son, and Tan Ky... To ensure conditions for afforestation, up to this point, the design stage for afforestation has been completed according to registration. The people and forest owners have proactively processed the vegetation cover of the designed areas to plant forests in January of the year of the Goat. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has directed districts and communes to stick to the locality, coordinate in guiding the technical process for forest planters; and clearly explain to the people to avoid taking advantage of the State's afforestation policy to "destroy forests" for afforestation. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has also directed agricultural and forestry units, forestry service cooperatives... to cultivate over 20 million seedlings of various types, focusing mainly on domestic and imported Acacia mangium. In addition, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has established a team to control the quality of forestry seedlings before they leave the nursery, encouraging people to plant large multi-purpose timber trees to improve the economic efficiency of forestry. Functional sectors and management boards of forestry development projects proactively inspect and accept the stages of forest planting to ensure quantity and quality.

Van Truong