Amidst the scorching sun and the dry Lao wind that has burned fruit trees all summer, in the Western part of Nghe An, tea hills and sugarcane hills in many places have begun to wither, ponds and lakes in many places have dried up, fish and shrimp have died. However, when we arrived at Giai Xuan commune (Tan Ky), we were surprised by the lush banana gardens that were bearing heavy bunches of fruit. Banana gardens stretched from the hills to the fields, this one was the crop that was ready for harvest, that one was the new crop.
Wiping away the sweat on his sunburnt face, Mr. Truong Van Chat - Head of Doi Che Hamlet - owner of the banana gardens led us into his family's sturdy stilt house. He confided: Now I'm less worried, the bananas have taken root, but in June and July, I lay down to sleep with a burning heart, worried that the bananas would wither and die, afraid that all my efforts would be wasted. The South American banana variety is an imported banana variety, expensive, 2,000 VND per tree. On hot, humid days, sometimes at 12 midnight I wake up to water the bananas for hours so that the plants have the strength to withstand the hot weather. Then in the morning I water again. In the afternoon I go weed, pick dry banana leaves, tie trees, and cut bunches for harvest. Those are hot days, and there are also humid days, when it rains heavily, and I worry about the bananas being flooded or getting sick... The work goes on all day, sometimes I think I don't have enough strength because the banana garden has more than 7,000 trees and 2 hectares. “There were times when we wanted to hire more workers but we had no money so our family had to work all day,” said Mr. Chat.
He was talking about watering the second batch of bananas that have only grown to 5-7 leaves. The first batch had 2 hectares of old bananas, planted last year and exported. While taking care of the first batch of bananas and the second batch of "baby", the house only has the couple and their two sons who are in the garden all day. Mr. Chat added: Banana trees cannot lack water, planting the second batch now I have more experience, but this year the sun is too hot. The temperature for many months is 38-40 degrees Celsius, taking care of it is very difficult.
Mr. Chat said: Everything must be tried. As the village chief, at the end of 2021, the commune took me and some people to see the banana growing model in Dong Van commune (Tan Ky). I saw that they could still grow bananas on the hill, thinking that my family had a large plot of land, and that the land was lower, so I could also grow them. I boldly brought a few dozen trees to plant in front of the door, took good care of them, and when they bore fruit, I reported to the commune and accepted the job. After Tet, reading the Resolution of the district and the commune, I was determined to implement it even though I was worried about whether I had enough strength. Then, discussing with my family, the whole family spent 3 months continuously improving the land, building an irrigation system 300m long leading from the stream down, digging holes, contacting to receive seeds... The most risky job was when placing the young banana sprouts (banana embryos) in Giai Xuan land, which was also when summer came.
Up to now, the first 2 hectares of South American bananas have been harvested. Each harvest yields 2 tons, and we have harvested 3-4 times like that. The biggest bunch of bananas made the whole village amazed when it had 16 bunches, weighing 55 kg, sold for 5,000 VND/kg, the whole bunch of bananas brought in 275,000 VND, holding the banana money, the whole family was moved to tears. The family discussed expanding the area again, because doing big business requires a large area to make the investment worthwhile. I expanded by another 1 hectare, this year it was too sunny, luckily the bananas have taken root.
In the house of the leader of the Doi Che hamlet, there is simply a tea table, some familiar wooden furniture, a few bunches of bananas ready to be sold, inside are some bags of rice stored... The wife of the village leader in the past must have been a beautiful Tho ethnic girl, now still has a salty charm, smiling and fanning her husband. I secretly thought she was very lucky, to have married such a studious and hard-working husband. All day long he never stops working on the banana hill. Around the house, there are jackfruit and banana trees with luxuriant fruit, and a flock of chickens. The family raises several hundred chickens, a fish pond with grass carp, silver carp, bighead carp, and common carp... That life is a great happiness in this mountainous region...
The more we talked to him, the more surprised we were about this man. He talked about growing bananas like an expert. “Before, I followed the company’s technical requirements for fertilizing and caring for bananas. But gradually, while applying the technique, listening to the weather, considering how to treat the plants with herbs, I experimented with adding a bowl of lime to each banana tree. I raised chickens to get more manure, mixed lime and chicken manure, put it in the hole, watered it thoroughly, covered it with a thin layer of soil, then placed the banana tree in. Thanks to that, the bananas were not affected by fungus,” said Mr. Chat. He also said that if he planted according to the company’s process, it would sometimes not be okay, because the investment was expensive and too much fertilizer made the bananas susceptible to disease.
Seeing the effectiveness of banana trees from Mr. Truong Van Chat's model, up to now, Ms. Cao Thi Hien's family in Nuoc Xanh hamlet, also a Tho ethnic household in Giai Xuan commune, has decided to follow his example to grow this type of banana on an area of 1.2 hectares.
Passionate about banana growing, Mr. Chat said happily: “Since planting bananas, I have taken the opportunity to read online to find out where South American bananas from Tan Ky district are exported, what is the value of bananas that the world loves so much. Bananas are very good, especially for nourishing after tiring work”. We enjoyed South American bananas with the owner, this banana variety is moderately sweet, fragrant, large, and has a hard skin. Bananas are harvested from the garden, every day Tan Ky - Vinh buses pass by, Mr. Chat just has to send the bananas to Vinh, from here someone will receive them and process them for shipping to the South.
Giai Xuan is a mountainous commune located quite deep in Tan Ky district, where droughts often occur, people's lives are still difficult, but it is a key industrial crop of the locality with sugarcane and oranges. The commune has about 2,300 households and about 9,000 people, of which 70% are Tho people, most of the people here are hard-working, united in business, and patriotic. In the area, there are also many well-off and rich households, Mr. Truong Van Chat is a typical example, he is a prestigious person in the community, has been the village chief for 15 years.
Decades ago, on this land of Giai Xuan, corn and rice were mainly grown, with low productivity and constant threat of hunger. In 1994, Mr. Chat was one of the first people to experiment with growing sugarcane. After success, the villagers gradually converted the ineffective crop areas to sugarcane, which was purchased by the factory, so the villagers had income. He also listened to the cadres to convert the sugarcane to the fields, intensively cultivating it for an efficiency of up to 80 tons/ha.
In addition to his efforts to develop the economy, Mr. Truong Van Chat is also a pioneer in mobilizing people in the hamlet to comply with the regulations of the State, locality, and village and hamlet conventions. He called on people in the hamlet to donate thousands of square meters of land and fences to build new rural areas and internal roads, actively convert land, and ensure that trucks and cars can travel smoothly in the fields and hamlets. He and the Party Committee, government, and organizations mobilized people to build cultural houses, buy gong sets, and promote the unique cultural and artistic movements of the Tho people. With Mr. Chat's efforts, people in Doi Che hamlet have eliminated backward customs, such as lavish feasts on funerals, dowry customs, leaving the deceased in the house for a long time, and reducing the rate of third children.
Talking about Mr. Chat, Mr. Vu Ngoc Son - Chairman of Giai Xuan Commune People's Committee proudly said: "Hamlet Chief Truong Van Chat is one of the people who has made great contributions to spreading economic, cultural and social development movements in the locality for decades and has always received the love and respect of the people as well as the government. He is a prestigious ethnic minority in the community, a pioneer in economic business and guiding the people, creating motivation, changing the way of thinking and working for the people. Mr. Chat's model of growing South American bananas shows that expanding banana trees is feasible, but still needs the district's support and attention in terms of output."
Previously, as reported by Nghe An Newspaper, Tan Ky district promoted the cultivation of South American bananas for export, because it saw this as a highly effective crop, guaranteed to be consumed, and the company provided seeds and technical guidance. The mountainous commune of Dong Van (Tan Ky) has successfully grown this banana variety.
South American banana is a banana variety with high commercial value, once accounting for 47% of the total global output, effectively grown by Mr. Le Van Chien and other households in Dong Van commune on 6 hectares, earning 1-2 billion VND each year. Bananas have been developed by Tan Ky district into a 3-star OCOP product and the district is planning to attract investment capital to build a processing factory in the area for export to other countries.
With his proven ability right in the barren lands of Tan Ky district, along with his iron will and determination to get rich, Village Chief Truong Van Chat has written miracles in his hometown of Tan Ky. Introducing a new plant variety, applying science and technology to expand it, and creating economic efficiency has contributed to changing the way of thinking and working of ethnic minorities in Nghe An. They do not wait or rely on others, but are willing to choose difficult and good things for their fellow countrymen to learn and follow.
This year, 64 years old, Mr. Truong Van Chat was awarded many certificates of merit by the Provincial Ethnic Committee and the Chairman of the Tan Ky District People's Committee for his outstanding achievements in the village elder movement, a prestigious person who has done many good deeds for ethnic minorities, associated with the National Target Program on building new rural areas, developing the economy - society for people in the highlands. Coming to Giai Xuan now, visitors can not only admire the unique thousand-year-old "chicken raspberry" bonsai tree in Tan Ky, which has been recognized as a Vietnamese heritage tree, but also witness the tourism spirit of the Tho people, the economic movement from growing bananas, sugarcane, passion fruit... from ordinary people like village chief Truong Van Chat.
