Imprints of the Association's work and the Farmers' movement in Nghe An province in 2023

A clear mark in 2023, the Provincial Farmers' Association focused on directing the successful organization and completion of the plan for the Farmers' Association congresses at district and grassroots levels for the 2023-2028 term; successfully organized the 10th Provincial Farmers' Association Congress for the 2023-2028 term, which was highly appreciated by Party committees and authorities at all levels. The role and position of the association were increasingly affirmed and enhanced, creating trust and attracting more and more farmers to the association.

The work of propaganda and political and ideological education for members and farmers has been given attention, focused direction, and strong innovation by the Association at all levels with rich content and diverse forms, in which the application of information technology and social networks for propaganda has been promoted, bringing high efficiency, creating positive changes in the awareness and actions of members and farmers.

Grassroots organizations are taken care of. The construction and development of professional farmers' branches and professional farmers' groups continue to be promoted; the rules of branch activities are consolidated; inspection, supervision and social criticism have made much progress. The whole province has recruited 10,995 members, reaching 102% of the target. During the year, the whole province established 13 branches and 265 professional farmers' groups. Associations at all levels mobilized and supported the establishment of 82 cooperative groups and 10 cooperatives.

The role of the Association in the movement "Farmers compete in good production and business, unite to help each other get rich and reduce poverty sustainably" has been more clearly affirmed; many examples of good production and business, effective economic and social models have appeared. As a result, 447 association bases in 21 districts, cities and towns have organized and launched for 253,143 member households to register for the title of good production and business farmers at all levels; 147,097 households have been recognized as meeting the criteria of good production and business farmers at all levels, reaching 107.6% of the assigned target.

During the year, the Association advised the Provincial People's Committee to award Certificates of Merit to 30 outstanding farming households in production and business in the period of 2020 - 2023; the Central Executive Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Association awarded the title "Outstanding Vietnamese Farmer" to Mr. Pham Viet Duc in Thanh Chuong district and Ms. Nguyen Kim Tien in Thai Hoa town.

The work of mobilizing farmer members to help each other overcome difficulties, escape poverty and become rich has always been of interest to all levels of the association; during the year, 550 poor households were helped with many good models and creative ways to support the livelihoods of poor farmer members to escape poverty sustainably, organized by all levels of the association, such as: Supporting livestock breeds, food, training in livestock farming techniques, fertilizers for crops, the "Cow Bank" project... to help poor households develop their economy and escape poverty.

The Association directly supported the construction of 168 effective economic development models that promote the potential advantages of each region and have good spillover effects.

The Standing Committee of the Provincial Farmers' Association organized the Launching Ceremony of the "Bricks of Love" Program to support poor members to build and repair houses for 3 years (2023 - 2025). In 2023, the organization launched the program and received the support of officials, farmer members, organizations and individuals, and donated a total amount of over 4,043 million VND. That amount has supported the construction and repair of 131 houses and is continuing to survey and select support for construction and repair.

The role of the Association in implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Development has been affirmed. Many programs and plans implemented by the Association have brought about clear results, created good impressions, and made positive contributions to the process of building new rural areas in the province. During the year, farmers in the whole province contributed more than 510 billion VND, donating more than 97,132 m²land, participating in nearly 405,939 working days of rural infrastructure construction.

At the same time, the association at all levels has guided and supported the construction of 555 environmental protection models, 636 models of organic microbial fertilizer production, producing 33,932 tons of organic fertilizer; built 481 farmer model gardens, 190 new rural standard gardens, 424 "Farmer tree rows in gratitude to Uncle Ho"; 40 "Farmer tree gardens in gratitude to Uncle Ho", with a total number of trees planted in the year reaching 92,238 trees, bringing the total number of trees planted from 2021 to present to 1,010,386 trees, completing the plan to plant 1 million trees in the period 2021 - 2023.

Farmers' Associations at all levels continue to effectively implement the Project "Propaganda, mobilization, guidance for farmers in production, business, and consumption of safe agricultural products and food in the period of 2020 - 2023", supporting the opening of 14 stores and business points of safe agricultural products and food in districts, cities, towns and establishments.

Activities to support farmers in terms of capital were focused on and promoted by all levels of the association. During the year, the growth of the Farmers' Support Fund reached 10,506 billion VND, bringing the total capital of the Farmers' Support Fund in the province to more than 103 billion VND. Outstanding loans entrusted to social policy banks reached nearly 3,500 billion VND, an increase of 356 billion VND compared to the beginning of the year, overdue debts decreased sharply to just over 0.04%, down 0.002% compared to the beginning of the year. Outstanding unsecured loans from the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to farmers reached nearly 2,700 billion VND.

Continue to coordinate with credit enterprises to support farmers in borrowing materials, seeds, animal feed, and fertilizers for production. The results so far have created conditions for over 250,000 farmer members to borrow over 18,075 tons of various fertilizers, 126 tons of animal feed, 145,500 poultry breeds, 45 tons of plant seeds, with a loan value of over 152 billion VND for farmers.

Farmers' Associations at all levels have coordinated to open 198 short-term vocational training classes for 6,525 rural workers. Through vocational training results, over 80% of students after vocational training have created jobs for themselves or found new jobs.

In addition, the Association at all levels has well organized activities to support members and farmers in promoting and consuming products. During the year, the Association at all levels in the province organized 415 booths to display, introduce and promote OCOP products.

Along with directing the construction of booths, the association at all levels also focused on propaganda, mobilization, and implementation of the construction of 1 commune, 1 OCOP product. As a result, in the year, it supported the construction of 82 OCOP standard products, bringing the total number of OCOP standard products to 485 products.

Continue to promote the implementation of the Cooperation Agreement between the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union and Vietnam Post on supporting farmers in digital transformation in agricultural production and consumption, introducing and promoting products, and bringing agricultural products to the Postmart e-commerce platform.

The quality and proactiveness in advising the Party Committee and government, and the coordination with departments, unions, and business organizations of the Association at all levels have been improved.