Dong Thanh (Yen Thanh) - a rich and dynamic countryside

Dong Thanh is a mountainous commune in the northwest of Yen Thanh district, 7 km from Yen Thanh town. The total natural land area is 3,086.98 ha. The cultivated land area is 356 ha of 2-crop rice land, the population is 2,206 households, 8,480 people.

Pride of revolutionary land

Dong Thanh commune used to be a place of rugged jungle, surrounded by rocky cliffs, with streams, lakes and dams. This used to be the base of Mr. Nguyen Xuan On in the Can Vuong movement against French colonialism. In 1929, the first branch of the Indochinese Communist Party of Nghe Tinh province was born here. In the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement, on November 7, 1930, a large number of people in Dong Thanh commune participated.

On June 26, 1939, Yen Thanh District Party Committee held a meeting at Tien Ky communal house to establish an anti-imperialist youth group to propagate and mobilize people to prepare in all aspects to seize power when the opportunity came. Since then, the patriotic movement of the people of Dong Thanh commune has grown day by day.

On August 22, 1945, under the leadership of the Party cell, the people rose up to seize power amid the joy of the country. From then on, the people devoted all their responsibility and revolutionary enthusiasm to contributing to the work of building and consolidating the government.

On September 18, 1945, the first Party cell in Dong Thanh commune was established with 9 comrades, with comrade Luong Can as Secretary. Under the leadership of the cell in the two wars against French colonialism and American imperialism, Dong Thanh people contributed 4,224 tons of rice, 162 tons of food to the frontline, 867 young people joined the army, 83 Youth Volunteers, 164 frontline laborers. The whole commune had 87 martyrs who heroically sacrificed for the Fatherland, more than 100 wounded, sick soldiers, people infected with toxic chemicals, and 3 Vietnamese Heroic Mothers.

Actively enrich

In order to create jobs and increase income for the people, in recent years, Dong Thanh commune has promoted propaganda, mobilization, and encouraged people to boldly invest in production development. Transforming the structure of crops and livestock, applying scientific advances in production, focusing on economic development, and expanding the scale of household economic development.

The commune has prioritized organizing production, expanding the scale of craft villages, small-scale handicrafts, aquaculture, beekeeping, rice processing... In particular, the commune has mobilized people to take advantage of over 200 hectares of basalt land around the mountains and rocky cliffs suitable for growing citrus trees such as oranges, grapefruits...

Some households have boldly invested in growing oranges, like Mr. Truong Van Bien invested in a large-scale, quality orange farm, especially cared for according to VietGAP organic procedures and pest control with biological products, so it is considered a clean orange, with an annual profit of nearly 1 billion VND. Mr. Truong Van Viet's household in Dong Tro hamlet has renovated 15 hectares of hills, planted 10 hectares with over 6,000 orange trees, and has an annual profit of over 1.5 billion VND...

The whole commune currently has more than 125 hectares of Vinh oranges, mainly delicious orange varieties such as Xa Doai long vang, Van Du... Of these, over 60 hectares of oranges have been granted VietGAP standard certificates. It can be affirmed that orange trees have helped Dong Thanh people improve their lives, many households have revenue of up to billions of VND each year.

The entire Dong Thanh commune is estimated to harvest 1,400 tons of oranges, generating an income of over 50 billion VND. Dong Thanh oranges have affirmed their brand, participated in many fairs and exhibitions in and outside the province and have been certified as clean, safe and high-quality oranges according to VietGAP standards.

Up to now, the commune has 20 production models with high economic efficiency and stable output for products. Every year, 2 agricultural service cooperatives and orange cooperatives have joint ventures and cooperated to consume agricultural products for farmers with a scale of hundreds of hectares per crop.

The commune has also built a Treo Vong commercial honey bee farming and processing village, creating jobs for hundreds of local workers with an average income of 4-5 million VND/person/month. In 2023, the Treo Vong honey product of the village was recognized by the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district as a 3-star OCOP product. In 2021, Dong Thanh orange product was recognized by the People's Committee of Nghe An province as a 3-star OCOP product.

With over 356 hectares of rice, the commune has built a concentrated rice production area associated with consumption according to the chain, such as the model of linking and consuming rice varieties TBR225, Khang Dan 18, VNR20... The commune promotes industrial development with occupations such as construction materials production, the area has 3 stone quarries, 1 brick factory, 2 cooperatives and 1 craft village creating stable jobs for hundreds of local workers. Thanks to the continuous efforts, Dong Thanh commune has changed dramatically, the economic growth rate is increasing, the total average income per capita has reached 62 million VND/year.

Efforts to build a commune that meets advanced new rural standards

Mr. Ngo Van Tuan - Chairman of Dong Thanh Commune People's Committee said: Determining that building "New rural areas only has a starting point, not an ending point", right after receiving the decision to recognize the commune as meeting new rural standards in 2017, Dong Thanh commune continued to implement many solutions to maintain and improve the quality and effectiveness of the criteria with the destination of advanced new rural areas.

The commune determines a specific roadmap for each task to be completed and the completion time for each village. At the same time, it assigns specific tasks to each member, regularly follows the grassroots, listens to the opinions and aspirations of the people, thereby making appropriate adjustments to reality, promptly removing difficulties in the implementation process.

During the implementation process, Dong Thanh commune has always implemented the motto "people know, people discuss, people do, people inspect and people enjoy". Cadres and party members must take the lead, set an example; adhere to the principles of democracy, publicity and transparency, thanks to which the movement to build a model new countryside in Dong Thanh has achieved outstanding results.

Up to now, Dong Thanh commune has had a synchronous infrastructure system and cultural institutions. The rural traffic system has been asphalted and concreted to ensure meeting the traffic and travel needs of the people. The irrigation canal system and intra-field traffic have been invested in upgrading and solidifying to ensure good service for production.

The school system has been invested in, the medical station has been upgraded, providing good medical examination and treatment services. The broadcasting system has been effective in serving the daily needs of the people. Free Wifi network has been installed to serve community activities; 9/9 hamlets have been recognized as Cultural Villages, of which Dong Hoa Village has been recognized as a typical Cultural Village at the provincial level.

Dong Thanh commune today is wearing a "new shirt", the new model rural appearance is a clear proof of the continuous development, with the efforts of the Party Committee, the government and the local people joining hands to build the homeland to be more and more rich, beautiful and civilized.