Khe Mu, green and warm

(Baonghean) - After only a few days of warm spring sunshine, the young shoots of plants and trees, especially the tea trees on the tea hills in Khe Mu village (Thanh Thuy commune, Thanh Chuong district) are sprouting profusely. In all the countryside, apricot branches, peach branches, bauhinia flowers, and plum blossoms have become symbols of spring, but for the people of Khe Mu, their "spring colors" are tea trees. No one knows since when tea trees seem to have had a "fate" with them. Tea trees give them food, clothing, and bring about warm, changing springs.

Just hearing the name Khe Mu, I imagined a remote, isolated mountainous area, with a few lonely houses located halfway up the mountain. But strangely enough, before my eyes was the endless green of tea hills stretching from both sides of the Ho Chi Minh road to the foot of the immense mountain ranges of this borderland. Interspersed with that lush green were the red and yellow of the spacious houses that had just been built by the villagers. In the distance, I could see the silhouettes of village girls hurriedly harvesting the last tea crop of the year to sell for Tet. The rural picture was adorned with many bright colors, in which the green of tea was the main color.

People of Khe Mu village (Thanh Thuy commune, Thanh Chuong district) grow tea industrially.

Walking on the clean, high concrete road connecting the tea hills, Mr. Nguyen Cong Thanh, Secretary of the village Party Cell, shared with me: “Khe Mu is a special village of Thanh Thuy commune because it borders Bolikhamxay province (Laos) with a terrain that is mainly mountainous. The villagers have planted many types of trees to develop agriculture, but only tea trees are most suitable for the terrain, weather, and soil here. In the past, planting and harvesting tea mainly relied on experience and manual labor. Only when the rain and wind were favorable did the people have enough to eat, otherwise hunger and cold would always follow. In recent years, thanks to knowing how to apply techniques to tea planting and opening more roads to the tea hills, the opportunity for fresh and dried tea products of the village has also had the conditions to reach further...”.

For generations, people in this mountainous area have lived industriously, enduring hardships and working hard regardless of the sun or rain. The hilly land is dry and rocky, but the weather seems to tease and test their endurance. Some years there is a long drought, other years there is continuous rain. Even the tea tree, which seems to be able to withstand all weather conditions, is withered by the Lao winds. Not surrendering to the harshness of nature, the Party Committee, the government and the villagers have boldly proposed to the competent authorities solutions to support and help them. Many training courses on techniques for planting and caring for tea trees have been organized, and the villagers seem to have found a solution.

Under the guidance of district and provincial agricultural extension officers, people have boldly abandoned the previous native tea trees and replaced them with LDP1 and LDP2 tea varieties. The characteristics of this new tea variety are strong growth, wide canopy, early branching, and quite high bud yield (10-year-old trees reach 15 tons/ha). This is a variety that is easy to propagate, can live for over 30 years, is especially resistant to drought, pests and diseases, and can be pruned by machine. Actively applying technical measures from the stage of nurturing new varieties, planting, caring with microbial fertilizers, adequate irrigation to harvesting, so the yield and quality of tea are increasingly improved. While harvesting the last crop of the year on her nearly 2-hectare tea hill, Mrs. Nguyen Ngoc Thao excitedly said: “Since planting this new tea variety and taking care of it according to the instructions of the agricultural extension officers, my family's tea has provided income all year round. After deducting investment costs and fertilization costs, I earn nearly 7 million VND per month. I have paid off all my debts and built a new house! In the near future, we will make full use of the land fund to expand the tea growing area...”.

Picking tea by machine at Khe Mu tea hill, Thanh Thuy commune, Thanh Chuong.

Appearing and disappearing among the vast green of the tea hills are winding concrete roads. These roads were previously just small, narrow trails, dusty in sunny days, and muddy and muddy in rainy days, only motorbikes and bicycles could pass through. During the tea harvest season, people had to put tea in sacks and carry it to the Ho Chi Minh trail to hire a vehicle to transport it to processing factories for import. Although they put in a lot of effort, the tea was crushed, the leaves withered, and no longer retained its original flavor. That hard reality made them realize that in order to escape poverty and suffering sustainably, in addition to applying science and technology to tea plants, they also had to actively expand and concretize roads deep into the tea hills in the mountains. No matter what, only when traffic was convenient could the economy develop. Therefore, in addition to the support capital under Program 135 and capital from the new rural construction program, people together contributed working days to open more roads to each household's tea hills.

With the dynamism of the people, the Party Committee and the People's Committee of the commune also mobilized the forces of departments, branches and organizations, in which the core is the militia force and requested Thanh Thuy Border Guard Station to help the people in the process of expanding the roads into the village. Each road construction period with the people in the village is like a big festival because there are many forces participating. In just 3 years, dozens of kilometers of winding roads around the tea hills in the village were quickly formed. Since the road was built, cars from everywhere can go to the tea hills to buy fresh tea products right after harvest. Thus, the fresh tea brand of Khe Mu village has spread more and more widely in the market. The people's lives have gradually escaped poverty.

Saying goodbye to Khe Mu when the swallows began to soar across the sky. Somewhere on the tea hills, there still lingered the image of shy smiles of village girls, the satisfied eyes of the elderly watching children playing in new clothes, I knew a new warm spring had returned to the simple, honest people in this border region.

Nguyen Duc Cuong