Story about the resolution for sugarcane in Ha Son

(Baonghean) -Amidst the vast forests and mountains, Ha Son land is being awakened to its potential by the Resolution on sugarcane. After 15 years of sugarcane growing on this land, there are still many concerns of the Party Committee and local authorities to help the homeland escape poverty sustainably and catch up with the general development speed of society.

From Highway 48, I had to roll along the degraded raw material road for about 20 km before I reached Ha Son commune - a land still facing many difficulties in Quy Hop district. On the gentle hillsides, there was the enthusiastic working atmosphere of the farmers. I asked and found out that it was the sugarcane season so farmers were taking advantage of the harvest to sell to the factory to have enough money to prepare for the upcoming Tet Quy Ty. Luckily, in the sugarcane field that day, I met veteran Truong Dinh Tang - former Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, who was harvesting sugarcane with his children and grandchildren in Xiem hamlet.

Mr. Tang was one of the first people to directly buy sugarcane in Tho Hop commune, Chau Quang to plant and distribute seeds to the people nearly 15 years ago. Recalling that period, the veteran who had gone through life and death in the "fiery summer" on the Quang Tri battlefield shared: "After receiving information about the construction of a sugarcane factory in the district and the development of raw material areas in the commune, I cycled to contact to buy sugarcane seeds to distribute to farmers. My family was one of the first households to plant 3 hectares of sugarcane."



Veteran Truong Dinh Tang harvests sugarcane.

In 1998, Ha Son was a poor commune, despite its huge land potential. But on the fertile hillsides, people only knew how to grow upland rice, corn... so life was very difficult. Grasping the policy of building raw material areas for sugar cane factories, the Commune Party Committee proposed a resolution to change the crop structure, in which sugar cane was identified as a crop to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty for the locality. Veteran party members such as former Chairman Tang had to work hard to bring seeds back and mobilize people to follow. In the first crop, Mr. Tang's family planted sugar cane just to build trust with the people and provide them with seeds. "Seeing that sugar cane was growing well, many families came to buy seeds to plant, led by party members and veterans. They not only wanted to escape poverty for their families but also pioneered in doing it first so that people could see and follow," Mr. Tang recalled.

One of the party members and veterans who pioneered sugarcane growing is Mr. Truong Anh Liem. The day I met him, he also received the 40-year Party membership badge. Before having 7 hectares of sugarcane with a net profit of over 100 million VND/year like today, Mr. Liem's ​​family was very poor. That poverty was due to having many children, the economy only depended on cassava, corn, and rice on the fields. "In 1978, I was demobilized and returned to my hometown to build a family. After 10 years of military service, returning to civilian life, with many children, life was extremely difficult and difficult. In 1998, I stopped growing cassava and corn and switched to growing sugarcane. Since then, my family's life has been stable and prosperous day by day," Mr. Liem said with admiration. With a fairly steady income over the past ten years, veteran Liem's ​​family life has become increasingly prosperous. Now he only keeps a small area of ​​sugarcane for himself to grow enough for his old age, and divides the rest among his grown-up, married children to take care of. As he said, that is the initial capital to create a new life for his children. Thanks to that, his parents' thoughts are also more secure and excited.

Saying goodbye to Mr. Liem, I met Mr. Le Duy Khan - former Party Secretary of the commune from 1986 to 2005. Mr. Khan used to be a teacher, then did party work in Quy Hop district. After returning to his hometown and continuing to do party work, facing the reality of poverty in his hometown, he and his comrades had many concerns about how to develop people's lives and escape poverty sustainably. And, when the policy of introducing sugarcane to Ha Son land in the past 15 years, from the initial testing, then witnessing the success until today, he was extremely excited, because it was the result of a long journey spanning 2 centuries with many hardships and worries. “At first, people were not familiar with growing sugarcane as raw materials, so they were very hesitant. The Commune Party Committee issued a resolution identifying this as a crop to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty for Ha Son, so they were determined to do it because the output was very favorable, while the potential was available. After more than 6 years, people trusted and followed it and achieved quite high economic efficiency. The Party Committee continued to identify this as a crop to enrich the people.

During the time of growing sugarcane, the economic efficiency brought to Ha Son has been clearly seen. However, according to the leaders of the Commune Party Committee, there are still many difficulties to help the homeland escape poverty quickly and sustainably. The above assessment comes from the local reality that the number of poor households in the commune by early 2013 was approximately 35% of the total 916 households with 4,063 people, the infrastructure, mainly the transportation system, is still weak... Mr. Truong Van An - Secretary of the Commune Party Committee said: "Although sugarcane has proven to be economically effective, the development of sugarcane acreage is still facing difficulties because the land fund has been almost fully utilized. Meanwhile, in the past few years, sugarcane has been affected by grass shoot disease, leading to reduced productivity, and prices are not as stable as in previous crops. Therefore, farmers are less happy". In order to achieve sustainable poverty reduction, the Party Committee and local authorities have determined that in the coming time, they must make efforts to shift the crop structure, combined with the State's support policies under Program 135 to find new directions for farmers to produce more effectively and develop the economy evenly and comprehensively. "The direction is clear, but in reality, we are confused in finding suitable crop and livestock varieties for the locality. Therefore, the locality must be highly determined to implement it in the near future," Mr. An affirmed.

The road ahead for the Tho ethnic people is still bumpy with many difficulties. But we believe that with enthusiastic party members and the right direction of the Party Committee and local government, Ha Son will gradually rise up and escape poverty, with sugarcane being the main crop.

Thanh Duy