Hundreds of poor households in Quy Chau were given 'fishing rods' to create livelihoods.

Creating trust in poverty reduction

Holding the list of households receiving support for breeding animals from the fund ofNational Target Program, we went to Hoi 3 village of Chau Hoi commune (Quy Chau), and visited the family of Ms. Vi Thi Hai - one of the households supported with local black pigs while she was feeding the pigs.

Ms. Hai confided that her family has 8 members, including 2 grandparents, Ms. Hai and her husband and 4 children. The whole family only depends on 1.2 sao of rice, so every year there is always a shortage of food. Ms. Hai and her husband are the main workers but do not have stable jobs so their income is low, poverty is persistent.

Four years ago, Hai and her husband boldly borrowed 40 million VND from the bank to invest in breeding cows. With that money, Hai and her husband bought 4 breeding cows to raise, earning extra income. Since then, the herd of cows has spawned 2-3 more cows each year, and every year her family sells 1 cow to make ends meet.

“Although we have income from selling beef, our family is in need of everything and cannot save money. The wooden house built decades ago is now damaged and dilapidated and cannot be rebuilt. Therefore, we have not been able to escape poverty,” Ms. Hai shared.

Led us to visit the pig farm area built with bricks, roofed with fibro cement sheets, the area in front of the farm is about 100m.²surrounded by B40 steel mesh.

Ms. Hai excitedly said: In early 2023, the family received support from the commune and district with 4 local black pigs to raise to develop the economy, step by step.poverty alleviation. Thanks to daily careful care, adequate feeding of vegetables, bran and full vaccination, the herd of pigs has developed well. In early 2024, 2 sows gave birth to 12 piglets, and recently the family sold 10 piglets to households in the village for nearly 10 million VND. Currently, 2 sows are pregnant, will give birth soon and will have more income.

“The local black pig breed is easy to raise, but each litter does not produce as many piglets as crossbred sows. However, the income from the pig herd has created conditions for my family to have new directions in raising and producing pigs, creating confidence to escape poverty in the coming years,” Ms. Hai expressed.

We visited Mr. Lang Van Hung's family in Hoi 1 village, Chau Hoi commune, and saw in the barn area 6 local yellow cows, one of which had a tag on its ear. Being a poor household, Mr. Hung's family always wondered how to escape poverty soon. After learning about the models, he decided to raise fattening and breeding cows to increase his income.

Every year, the family buys skinny cows to raise in captivity, combined with grazing, along with the State providing a breeding cow. Every day, the cows are grazed on the hill, and at night they are fed with elephant grass grown by the family, along with full vaccination as recommended by veterinary staff, so the herd of cows develops stably.

“The fattened cows will be sold by the family when they make a profit, and the female cows are provided by the State, so the family can raise them for breeding, with the hope of multiplying them into a herd. This will be the main source of income to help eliminate poverty in the future,” said Mr. Lang Van Hung.

According to Mr. Nguyen Sy Luan - Chairman of Chau Hoi Commune People's Committee, the project of raising calves and pigs under the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas in 2023 has provided 45 poor households with 1 breeding cow, a local breed. In addition, 21 poor and near-poor households were provided with local black pigs, each with 4 pigs. After providing the livestock breed, the commune assigned professional staff and village staff to regularly remind households to take care of them.

Through monitoring, it is shown that most households, after being provided with cows and pigs, build barns and are responsible for taking good care of them. Many households have had a source of income after the sows were given breeding.

“The number of pigs given to each household is 4 to facilitate the care process; but with cows, each household is only given 1 cow, which is still too little. It needs to be increased to 2 cows/household so that people have a chance to escape poverty faster,” Mr. Nguyen Sy Luan wishes.

Not only Chau Hoi commune, but also other communes such as Chau Binh, Chau Thuan, Chau Hoan... people enthusiastically boast that the State has provided local calves and pigs to raise. The grassland area is small, so people take advantage of garden land to grow grass and vegetables, supplementing food for cows and pigs. Many households have stored food from dry straw, built thoughtful barns, and the cows have developed well.

Hundreds of poor and near-poor households are provided with breeding animals.

The National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas has been implemented by Quy Chau district since 2022 and has benefited hundreds of poor and near-poor households.

Mr. Le My Trang - Director of the Agricultural Service Center of Quy Chau district said: From the capital of the National Target Program on sustainable poverty reduction in ethnic minority and mountainous areas and livelihood diversification, developing poverty reduction models in 2022 and 2023 up to now, Quy Chau district has deployed the provision of 473 local calves to 473 households (each household is provided with 1 calf) and 604 local black pigs to 151 households (each household is provided with 4 pigs), along with over 10 tons of bran.

The total cost of buying calves, pigs, feed and building barns is nearly 11.1 billion VND. Of which, the State budget is nearly 10 billion VND, and the capital contributed by the people to build barns is more than 1.3 billion VND. With the above calves and pigs, a part of poor and near-poor households in the communes of Chau Thuan, Chau Binh, Chau Thang, Chau Hanh, Chau Hoi, Chau Binh, Chau Nga, Chau Hoan, Chau Phong and Dien Lam have been provided to raise, contributing to increasing people's income, gradually escaping poverty.

“The budget capital of the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas and Diversifying Livelihoods, Developing Poverty Reduction Models in 2024, localities are collecting people's opinions and making specific statistics, and will deploy the provision of breeding animals in the coming time. For hundreds of poor and near-poor households, after more than 1 year of providing local calf and pig breeds, it shows that most of them are being maintained, in which many households have had income from selling breeding animals after the sows give birth,” said Mr. Le My Trang.