Born and raised in Hoa Son village (Ta Ca commune, Ky Son), Thai ethnic boy Vi May Mon, like many other 9X, was sent to the city to study at university and college, escaping to have a less difficult life. After failing his third year of study, due to family circumstances, Mon had to keep his results and go to Laos to work for a salary. After many years of working far away, when he had some capital in hand, Mon returned home, looking for a way to start a business on his homeland.
“I am a person who loves to travel, explore and experience. I have been to many places, learned a lot and know quite a bit. I realize that other places, although their potential is not as good as my hometown, still attract a lot of tourists and make a good living by agricultural and community tourism,” Mon confided.
Hoa Son village where Mon was born and raised has a very charming and poetic landscape. There are winding, winding terraced fields, beautiful as a painting; there is Pu Nghieng peak with diverse flora, there is Huoi Giang stream like a giant natural swimming pool. In particular, Hoa Son village is only more than 1km from Muong Xen town, the road to the village has been paved with wide, clean concrete, very convenient for tourists to move. In addition, thanks to the Pu Nghieng range surrounding it, Hoa Son village is like a valley with a cool climate, the temperature difference between the village and the town is up to 7-10 degrees Celsius. Since 2023, Ky Son district has chosen Hoa Son to implement a clean vegetable growing model. The vegetable gardens are cultivated naturally, with water flowing into the fields, creating a variety of vegetable gardens, lush and green, no different from those in Da Lat, Sa Pa, Moc Chau or Pu Luong... "Hoa Son has all the elements to develop agricultural tourism, creating a destination for tourists when coming to Ky Son. However, to start doing it is not easy...", Mon said.
In early 2023, Mon renovated more than 1 hectare of his family's agricultural land, dividing it into functional areas: growing flowers, building huts to shelter from the sun, creating check-in points to serve guests... Mon also did not expect that in just a short time of opening, it would attract a lot of tourists. There were days when the number of visitors reached thousands. "I only collected tickets for a trial period of 1 week, then opened the door to welcome visitors freely. Visitors to Pu Nghieng were more numerous than expected, there were visitors from within the district, many from the lowlands and even from Laos," Mon said excitedly.
After the trial period, Mon now has plans and intentions for developing its agricultural tourism. However, for Mon, how to exploit the potential of nature, landscape, people, culture, and customs of the people in Hoa Son to serve tourism, turn into money, create livelihoods for the people themselves but not destroy what belongs to nature and identity is always a concern for Mon.
Therefore, Mon plans to cooperate with surrounding households to grow terraced rice, beautify the banks, large and beautiful fields to serve tourism and harvest rice. At the same time, coordinate with households growing clean vegetables in Ta Ca, build some typical products, attach signs to vegetable gardens, build beautiful gardens to attract visitors, experience and buy specialty vegetables as gifts. This creates double benefits for vegetable growing households: adding a channel to consume clean vegetables, promoting clean vegetables and earning income from serving tourists.
Mr. Vi Van Dung's household (Hoa Son village) has renovated more than 2,000 m2clean vegetable garden. Each season has its own vegetables, all are cared for naturally, organically and according to VietGAP standards; the garden is also divided into zones, with gravel between the plots for easy access… Last spring, his family earned about 20 million VND from selling clean vegetables to traders.
Starting with that idea, with the support of the Farmers' Association, the agricultural tourism cooperative model owned by May Mon has gathered 10 members, who are households in the village. They cooperated with each other, built terraced fields, made clean vegetable gardens to attract tourists; provided clean food, provided catering services for tourists; became local tour guides to introduce tourists to the village, the streams, Thai culture, Thai cuisine... "We discussed with each other, with the available land area of each household, where to plant flowers, where to plant vegetables and fruits; where to plant lotus, water lilies; where to raise apple snails, ducks...", Vi May Mon shared.
Na Ngoi is a remote commune of the mountainous district of Ky Son, considered the largest peach growing capital in Nghe An. Located at an altitude of 1,600m above sea level, the climate and soil of this land are very suitable for peach trees. In addition to wild peach trees and native stone peach trees, in recent years, many households have boldly invested in growing peach trees, bringing high income, opening a new direction for the Na Ngoi peach growing area...
Lau Ba Ha, a Mong man born in 1994 in Ka Noi village (Na Ngoi commune), is a pioneer in bringing peach trees to grow on upland. “Growing rock peach trees and wild peach trees takes 5-10 years to harvest, so the income is not high. Meanwhile, the market trend is to grow peach trees with a more and more curved shape, which are easy to consume and sell for a good price. Therefore, I thought of bringing this peach variety to grow on upland for a trial…”, Lau Ba Ha said. To bring peach trees originating from the northern provinces to grow on upland in Na Ngoi, Lau Ba Ha had to “study with a master” in Bac Giang for a whole year. After that, he collaborated with Tran Van Thanh, an experienced person in growing peach trees in Bac Giang, to go to Ky Son to renovate the peach plantation.
“Growing a peach tree with a curved shape is quite elaborate and hard. The peach tree must be planted from a small embryo and nurtured into a straight tree 4-5m high within 2-3 years. Then the canopy is created and the shape is shaped. To have a curved shape, each peach tree must be bent for about a year to get into shape. Usually, there will be basic steps such as burying a fixed stake, choosing the height of the tree to bend. The climate and soil of this land are very suitable for growing peach trees, the peach trees grow well, the flowers are big, beautiful, and long-lasting,” said Mr. Tran Van Thanh, who cooperates with Mr. Lau Ba Ha to grow peach trees.
Compared to native peach trees, the mysterious peach trees are much more difficult and elaborate, having to stick to the hill from planting until harvesting, each time is a different stage. “Weeding and hoeing are done by hiring seasonal local workers. However, for canopy shaping and shaping, only the two of us do it, at peak times we have to hire workers from Bac Giang and Son La. Although it is hard and elaborate, in return, the economic value from mysterious peach trees is 3 times higher than that of native peach trees. Each peach tree, if well cared for and technically ensured, can be exploited up to 10-12 times from the sprouts,” Lau Ba Ha shared.
Accordingly, in the 2023 Lunar New Year, Mr. Ha's peach garden sold the first batch of 100 branches, bringing in a revenue of 300 million VND. Now, on an area of 5 hectares, Mr. Ha planted nearly 6,000 trees in the form of intercropping. Some hills will be cut and sold by the 2024 Lunar New Year, some hills are about 2 years old, some hills are only a few months old. According to Mr. Ha's plan, in the coming time, he will expand the area on his family's farmland, borrow more land from the commune or cooperate with other households in the village and commune to grow peach trees. Because according to him, to become a commodity, there must be a large enough growing area to attract traders to buy, currently the market demand is high, while traffic is convenient, in the locality there is still a lot of land suitable for growing peaches.
Mr. Lau Ba Cho, Vice Chairman of Na Ngoi Commune People's Committee, informed that with the natural conditions of hilly land and forests, the favorable climate of the mountainous region is very suitable for peach trees to grow, develop and create the beauty and unique brand of peach blossoms. Peach growing has been in the locality for a long time, but in the past, people mainly grew peaches on a small scale to celebrate Tet or sell in the region. About ten years ago, households in the area started to grow commercial peaches. Up to now, all villages have peach growing areas, concentrated in Ka Noi, Tong Khu and Ka Tren village.
The whole commune has nearly 400 hectares of peach trees with hundreds of households growing peach trees, mainly peach trees cut branches to sell during Tet, only a few dig for fruit. Of these, the main varieties are stone peach trees, moldy peach trees that people call "forest peaches", cut branches to sell for prices ranging from several hundred thousand to tens of millions of VND/branch. However, the time for stone peach trees to form lumps, covered with moss and mold to sell "at a good price" takes dozens of years. Therefore, revenue and profit are not high.
Mr. Lau Ba Ha's pioneering in planting peach trees, double-petal peach trees and bonsai peach trees in experimental conditions has opened up a new direction for the peach growing area in Na Ngoi. It is estimated that at harvest age, an average of 1 hectare of peach trees brings in an income of 200 - 300 million VND/year, many times higher than growing other types of trees. Innovating production methods, bringing high-value crops such as peach trees to combine agricultural production with community tourism is the direction that the Na Ngoi commune government is aiming for.
Walking in the middle of the lush green peach garden, the Mong ethnic boy's eyes sparkled with confidence. Lau Ba Ha hopes that the vacant land, bare hills, and fields of the local people will soon be covered with green peach trees, blue peach trees, and peach trees. The income of hundreds of millions per year per hectare of peach trees will no longer be far away from the people. From now on, Na Ngoi will not only be known for Puxailaileng peak - the "roof" of the majestic Truong Son range, but also known as the "capital" of peach trees like Nhat Tan (Hanoi), Bac Giang...
The lives of people in the highlands are still difficult, but it is the 9X generation like Vi May Mon and Lau Ba Ha who have “lit up” the future for each village. It is their pioneering work that has opened up new livelihoods for the people…
