Help Chieng villagers grow clean vegetables

(Baonghean)Based on the province's assignment that each provincial department and agency help a particularly disadvantaged commune in Western Nghe An, the provincial Ethnic Committee has selected a model to guide and help people grow green vegetables in Chieng village, Tri Le commune, Que Phong district to test winter vegetables. Up to now, after more than 3 months of implementation, the model has been a great success. Not only that, the model is also a model for ethnic minorities in the mountainous areas to learn and think about changing their farming and business habits.

Mr. Ngan Van Thich (80 years old) - one of the households selected as a model, confided: At first, when the Management Board held a meeting to mobilize and receive vegetable seeds for planting, I discussed with my wife and thought that I would only receive a few seeds for planting for fun, not thinking that the vegetables would grow well as the staff instructed and introduced. I am very grateful to the Party, the State and the Provincial Ethnic Committee.

Mr. Vi Van Duc, a representative of the model and also the village chief, said: At first, the mobilization of people encountered many difficulties, but thanks to perseverance and the family had to set an example. Now the vegetable fields are green and lush, the families can sell 50-60 thousand VND each day on lean days, which is truly precious and beyond imagination...



People in Ban Chieng take care of vegetable garden.

For the people of Chieng village, since they were born and have been attached to this land, families mainly depend on the fields, the fields, growing cassava, pruning corn and rice seeds on the fields to make a living. If they grow vegetables, they also try to hoe a little land, sow some Mong mustard seeds on the fields to find green vegetables to eat, but because the soil is dry and the fields lack water, Mong mustard plants cannot grow. The land is left fallow and there is a lack of green vegetables...

However, since the Provincial Ethnic Committee invited farmers with experience in growing vegetables in Quynh Luu to coordinate with the local government for guidance, after 3 months, for the first time, Chieng village had over 1 hectare of green vegetables, with the following types of vegetables: kohlrabi, cabbage, watercress, lotus leaf, coriander, lettuce... Some households not only eat but also sell. Because the vegetables are clean and grown by relatives in the village, without spraying pesticides, not only acquaintances but also more and more customers come to buy.

Chieng village currently has 76 households, 362 people, the poverty rate is 77%; for generations, people have mainly lived on slash-and-burn farming. The village has a small amount of rice fields but only produces one crop, the rest is abandoned. Poverty clings to it all year round. However, since the vegetable growing model was introduced, the long-abandoned rice field fund has been awakened, wherever people go, they introduce and talk about clean vegetables in Chieng village. From the vegetable growing model chosen as a pilot by the Provincial Ethnic Committee (now handed over to the district and the commune People's Committee for continued guidance), it has proven that land, including rice fields in mountainous areas, can be grown in the winter crop to help people have jobs and increase their income.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Yen - Deputy Head of the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee, said: Since the Committee was assigned to help Que Phong, the Committee's leaders have been concerned because in reality, there are many programs and models, including growing clean vegetables, that have been brought back. It is said that growing vegetables can be done anywhere, but growing vegetables, especially growing vegetables in the fields, is difficult for ethnic minorities. People in the highlands have the habit of only growing 2 crops, then resting. Therefore, the Committee has chosen to grow vegetables in the fields to affirm that vegetables can still be grown in mountainous fields. The model is simple but very practical and important, helping people to follow. Growing vegetables in the 3rd crop not only increases income but also helps people change their thinking and working methods on their own land to achieve sustainable poverty reduction.

Deputy Secretary of the Tri Le Commune Party Committee, Dam Thien Huong, said: From the clean vegetable growing model with high results in Chieng village, the commune will soon direct and guide people to expand to other villages, where the land area is fallow, to improve people's lives.

Nguyen Hai