Happy season in Muong Choong

(Baonghean.vn) -TIn the scorching June sun, visiting Muong Choong today, in all the villages near and far, people are busy harvesting crops.

Located in the center of Muong Choong, Chau Ly commune (Quy Hop) has a total area of ​​317 hectares of rice fields, and is one of the few highland communes with many rice fields in Quy Hop. For the past three years, Chau Ly has had a continuous good harvest, with the average yield continuously reaching 65 quintals/ha, creating a rare joy in the rice fields here.

Some people say that the good harvest is due to the "heavenly time, favorable terrain, and harmonious people" in Chau Ly over the past few years; others say that the Nam Choong water source is pure, so the rice "dropped" down takes root, has firm grains, and plump flowers; others say it is thanks to the new variety... Well, the good harvest is probably due to many reasons, but the joy of a good harvest is real, the joy of prosperity gently spreads in every home.

Rice fields in Lau village, Chau Ly commune are full of grain. Photo: Cao Duy Thai

As a long-time local official, who has held the positions of: Head of Tham-Xet-Bon Cooperative, then Chairman and Party Secretary of Chau Ly Commune, Mr. Vi Van Hoa told me about the journey of bringing water to the fields so that Chau Ly can have what it has today, 317 hectares of rice fields without having to leave any field fallow.

Since the time of the centralized economy under the Cooperative model, the irrigation sector has received special attention from the cadres here. Since 1977, the Dong Cong irrigation dam has been built. Thousands of working days, along with a large amount of funding, have created the shape of an irrigation dam across the Nam Choong River, providing irrigation water for the fields throughout Bung village, Choong village, Tham village...

At that time, the dream of building a water canal system to turn the alluvial plains of Dong Vinh and Dong Can into rice fields was still unfinished. This water canal was dug right in front of the current Choong Temple relic site, and was only filled in when the locality restored the Choong Temple relic site in 2014. Until today, after many devastating floods, Dong Cong irrigation dam, although bearing traces of landslides, still provides irrigation water for a large area of ​​rice fields in the region every year.

Later, Dong Ngon dam, Bai Quen dam... were also built. Mr. Vi Van Hoa explained: The elders were right, when growing rice, you have to keep in mind "first water, second fertilizer, third diligence, fourth seed". It's easy to say it briefly, but it's hard to do it. In this "first water" aspect, the locality has to be disciplined and save money to invest from year to year.

I still remember in 1990, when he was still the Chairman of Tham-Xet-Bon Cooperative, in the time of "reaching out to draw green fields", he and his colleagues also did a lot of work effectively. The most impressive was the Bai Hin construction, hundreds of households in the whole region had to look to the rice fields for food, but the weather was unpredictable, during the crop season, they had to pray to God and Buddha for rain to sow and plant. Not willing to sit still, he and his colleagues in the management board discussed building a dam to store water, the cost was... saved from the Cooperative's revenue. After a period of accumulation, having 10 million VND, he and his colleagues designed and hired workers to construct. After several months of construction, Bai Hin was formed in the indescribable joy of the Management board and the villagers. Bai Hin dam provides irrigation water for the fields of Dong Choong, Dong Tham...

Along with the maintenance of previously built irrigation systems; from investment capital sources, in recent years, the dams of Ban Vuc, Ban Xet, Khe Luong irrigation dam... have been built and put into use. The concrete irrigation canal system has been completed throughout the fields of Chau Ly commune. It can be mentioned that the concrete canals of Ban Ngon were built in 2010, 2015; Ban Vuc was built in 2011; Ban Choong was built in 2012, Bon Bun was built in 2014, Ban Bang was built in 2016 and the upcoming concrete canal system will provide irrigation water for the fields of Ban Lau.

People in Chau Ly commune take advantage of sunny days to harvest and thresh rice right in the fields. Photo: Cao Duy Thai

Taking me to visit the fields in Lau and Bang villages, the officer in charge of agriculture in Chau Ly commune - Nguyen Thi Lam happily boasted that the average rice yield of the commune this year reached 65 quintals/ha. Typical fields reached over 85 quintals/ha. New varieties such as Thien uu 8, Kinh so uu, SL 9... are all present in the commune's variety structure. The Lau and Bang villages were selected by Nghe An Agricultural Materials Joint Stock Company to invest in a model with Huong uu 98 and NA6 rice varieties, all of which gave good results, creating a premise for the following seasons, helping people confidently put new high-yield rice varieties into production.

In the conversation with the elderly and the young, I appreciate the diligence of the people here even more. For example, the Ban Lau field that I witnessed, used to be acidic and alum soil, the rice planted was yellow and stunted, the people together broke rocks, burned lime to have tons of lime to spread in the basin to clean and improve the soil. Or the Ban Choong area is famous for taking care of rice plants, each planting season, all the fields have composted manure, and are also fertilized and weeded according to technical procedures.

Thanks to the favorable weather and the land that did not disappoint the hard work of the people... it has contributed to today's joyful season in Muong Choong.

Cao Duy Thai