'Leverage' for Que Phong people to rise out of poverty

Commitment before receiving the offspring

Returning to the Hua Na hydropower resettlement area in Pieng Cu village of Tien Phong commune, Que Phong district today, it is easy to see that every household's garden grows many fruits, vegetables, tubers, etc. However, the great confidence of poor households here is that the State has supported breeding cows for raising, creating a "leverage" for them to have the opportunity to rise up and escape poverty.

Lo Van Thuy's family is one of dozens of households in Pieng Cu village that have just been given a breeding cow by the State. Mr. Thuy is excited: The family resettled here since 2010, living year-round on income from 1 hectare of acacia land, 200m of rice fields, in addition to whatever work people hire them to do and going to the forest to collect bamboo shoots, so they have not escaped poverty.

In 2023, after the village officials reviewed the family's list of cows to be provided by the State for raising, the family built a barn and set aside a plot of land of more than 100 square meters on the side of the acacia hill to grow elephant grass as food for the cows. The family was excited to be given a cow and took good care of it, by herding it and vaccinating it properly.

“The local yellow cow breed is easy to care for. Every family member is aware of taking good care of the cows so that they can develop into a herd in the future, which is an opportunity for the family to escape poverty,” said Mr. Lo Van Thuy.

Pieng Cu village chief Ha Van Phong said: The village has 141 households, of which 60 are poor and 14 are near-poor. In 2023 and early 2024, all poor and near-poor households will be provided with cows by the State for breeding. All households that are provided with cows are committed to building barns, planting grass and taking care of them to ensure reproduction, creating a lever to escape poverty in the coming years.

“After the households were provided with cows, out of 74 cows, 2 died due to illness, and the supplier promptly re-supplied the cows to the people. Overall, the households that were provided with cows to raise are developing stably,” said Mr. Ha Van Phong.

Tien Phong Commune is one of the localities where hundreds of poor and near-poor households have just been given cows to raise. Mr. Vo Khanh Toan - Chairman of Tien Phong Commune People's Committee said that the locality's viewpoint is to focus on eliminating poor households in each village, so cows are given to each village, not scattered with a few cows in each village as before.

In addition, households that are given cows must commit to the commune and village to build barns, grow grass, and raise them in a herding and confinement manner, and not let them roam freely in the forest. Every year, they must be fully vaccinated according to the recommendations of veterinary agencies.

“The purpose of providing cows centrally to each village is for households to compete in cow care and for one household to learn from another household’s experience in cow care; disease prevention work will also be more convenient,” Mr. Vo Khanh Toan shared.

In 2023, Chau Kim commune was also provided by the district with 93 local black pigs for 31 poor and near-poor households to raise (one household was provided with 3 pigs) from the capital of the National Target Program.

Mr. Kim Ngoc Luong - Vice Chairman of Chau Kim Commune People's Committee said that along with providing piglets, households are also provided with a certain amount of bran. After nearly 1 year of raising pigs, it shows that although the survival rate of pigs is not 100%, most households are highly responsible in caring for them. People take advantage of available local vegetables: jute, sweet potato vines, wild bananas... mixed with rice bran, corn bran to feed pigs every day.

“Also from the capital of the National Target Program for the period 2021 - 2025, the commune is currently proposing the district to support local cows, chickens and cinnamon trees for people to raise and grow. This is truly a lever for poor and near-poor households in the commune to rise up and stabilize their lives,” said Mr. Kim Ngoc Luong.

Disbursement of nearly 11 billion VND to support poor households

According to data from the Que Phong District Agricultural Service Center, implementing sub-projects to support production development in the agricultural sector and diversify livelihoods, develop poverty reduction models under the National Target Program for the period 2021 - 2025, in 2023 and early 2024, Que Phong district has provided 806 cows, 420 pigs, 4,800 Quy ducks and thousands of aquatic breeds, macadamia trees, and Quy cinnamon to nearly 1,000 poor and near-poor households in communes and towns in the district for raising, growing, and developing the economy, with a total amount of nearly 11 billion VND.

Through monitoring in localities, it shows that most households that are provided with seedlings and animals are highly responsible in raising and growing them.

Mr. Pham Hoang Mai - Director of the Que Phong District Agricultural Service Center added that currently, localities are proposing to support trees and seedlings based on people's needs, so from now until the end of 2024, the district will continue to support people according to the capital source of the National Target Program. However, in the last 6 months of 2024, the district's policy is to focus on supporting people to plant 600,000 Quỳ cinnamon trees.

With the policy of providing trees and seedlings according to the wishes and specific proposals of the people in each locality, it is hoped that the support capital of the National Target Program for the period 2021 - 2025 will be a "leverage" for hundreds of poor and near-poor households in the border district of Que Phong to have the opportunity to escape poverty and stabilize their lives. This is also an opportunity for the people of Que Phong to have more income, contributing to raising the income criteria in building new rural areas. Que Phong district is making efforts to eliminate "blank" new rural communes in the coming time.