New momentum in the wasteland

(Baonghean) - Imbued with President Ho Chi Minh's teaching "... if you are good at mass mobilization, everything will be successful", the Party cell of Hamlet 8, Khai Son Commune (Anh Son) has had many creative solutions, mobilizing people to promote the potential and advantages of the locality to promote the movement of planting, protecting and developing the economy from forests.

Leading us along the winding road, visiting the green tea gardens that are about to be harvested, the lemon gardens that are spreading their branches, Secretary of the Party Cell of Hamlet 8, Khai Son Commune, Comrade Le Thi Lien could not hide her pride: “The road we are taking is the road of the people, the people in the hamlet contributed their efforts and money to open the road into the forest according to the policy of the Party Cell. The great success of the hamlet is to turn the barren land into models with high economic efficiency, chosen by the Party Committee of Khai Son Commune as a point for replication”.

Hamlet 8 has 147 households with 487 people. The locality's characteristic is that the land is fragmented, and people's lives mainly depend on agriculture. In previous years, with the strength of forest land, the rice field area was only 14 hectares, but there were hundreds of hectares of abandoned forest land. Realizing that the potential of forest land was being wasted, the Party Cell of Hamlet 8 was concerned and organized many meetings for party members to contribute ideas and discuss land and forest allocation plans. At the same time, find effective methods to mobilize people to change their habit of thinking that they are afraid of difficulties and hardships. Mobilize people's strength, turn abandoned land into a forest garden model that not only brings economic efficiency to people but also contributes to forest protection.

Forest planting model of Party cell secretary Le Thi Lien in hamlet 8, Khai Son commune (Anh Son).

The plan was developed and implemented by the Party cell and the hamlet executive committee to mobilize people to plant forests and develop the economy from forests. The Party cell proposed a resolution on developing raw material forest planting. To put the resolution into practice, the Party cell of hamlet 8 organized a meeting to disseminate the policy in the hamlet front command committee and mass organizations. Then, the policy was disseminated to all people, analyzed so that people could clearly understand the effectiveness of forest planting and let people participate in giving their opinions. From there, the Party Committee grasped the ideological situation and aspirations of the people.

The major difficulty in implementing the afforestation policy is that there is no road. Therefore, the first thing the Party cell is concerned with is to open a road to facilitate access to the forest. The War Veterans Association and the families of cadres and party members who have forests are the pioneers in opening roads. The policy is agreed by cadres and party members in the village, the way of mobilizing contributions is also flexible, households with large areas contribute more. Thanks to the reasonable way of doing things, households with forests contribute money and working days, small households contribute from 5 - 6 million VND, some households contribute 30 - 40 million VND to open 3 roads into the forest, motorbikes and trucks can enter.

The Party cell of Hamlet 8 has promoted the pioneering role of cadres and party members in contracting land for forest planting. A typical example is the Party cell secretary, Le Thi Lien, who contracted 2 hectares of wild forest to plant acacia and cassava. After the recent harvest, the family boldly introduced a number of new plant varieties into the pilot program such as: growing food tea, lemon trees, aromatic roots and some perennial plants such as Dalbergia tomentosa, yellow cottonwood trees, etc. Ms. Le Thi Lien shared more: “As a cadre and party member, in addition to being a pioneer in the forest planting movement, we have to accept more remote and difficult places. The important thing is that from the economic efficiency of the model, people see and follow, not just empty words.”

From the exemplary leadership of the Party cell secretary, during the mobilization process, cadres and Party members in the hamlet actively participated in receiving forest planting contracts. For example, the household of Mr. Nguyen Dau Thin, Head of the War Veterans Association, received 4 hectares, many families such as Mr. Nguyen Huu Thoi, Nguyen Van Linh, and hamlet chief Nguyen Xuan Van received several hectares of forest planting... Learning from the previous generation and promoting the role of the youth, Nguyen Huu Dung, Secretary of the Youth Union 8, received land contracts, invested in building a VACR model with 3 hectares of raw acacia forest, raising pigs for meat and breeding sows, deducting expenses, earning more than 200 million VND/year. His model created jobs for 4 regular workers and 20 seasonal workers. In 2013, Mr. Nguyen Huu Dung was honored by Anh Son district with the title "Excellent production and business", in 2014, he was recognized with the Luong Dinh Cua Award by the Central Youth Union.

With a large area of ​​wild, fragmented forests and difficult roads, when cadres and party members set an example, they have turned into effective forest planting models and attracted the participation of the majority of people. From 20 households participating in forest planting, up to now, Hamlet 8, Khai Son Commune has 110 households contracted to plant nearly 100 hectares of forest.

Mr. Nguyen Dau Thin, a resident of Hamlet 8, shared: “The Party cell’s policy seems difficult to implement, but when cadres and Party members are all exemplary and put all their heart into the models brought to life, people trust and follow. Thanks to that, the movement of the whole people planting forests has created a new atmosphere on the land that has been barren for many years.”

Thanh Le