Nghe An: Nearly 10,000 households benefit from program 135

(Baonghean) - With practical projects from the 135 program, thousands of poor households in the mountainous districts of Nghe An have the opportunity to overcome poverty. In 2016 alone, nearly 10,000 households benefited from the production support component of the 135 program.

Practical effectiveness

Con Cuong district has 9/13 communes benefiting from the production support policy of Program 135. In 2016 alone, Program 135 spent more than 2.25 billion VND to support production development. In particular, focusing on native plant and animal varieties such as breeding cows and black sows. In particular, to improve production efficiency, the project also allocated nearly 500 million VND to support 60 households to buy machine tools such as: pesticide sprayers, tea pickers, grass cutters, plows, harrows, rice harvesters...

Rice production in Ban Na, Huu Lap commune (Ky Son). Photo: Thu Huong

Ms. Vi Thi Thoa - Head of the Con Cuong Mountainous Rural Development Board affirmed that the most obvious effect of the project is to help the ethnic people of Con Cuong access high-yield plant and animal varieties, and the production practices and techniques of the ethnic people have changed towards commodity production, contributing to reducing the poverty rate of the district to 30.69%.

In Tan Ky district, in 2015 and 2016, the program's Production Development Support Project supported 235 female calves worth nearly 3.5 billion VND, provided 1,052 Mong Cai sows, 48 ​​goats and thousands of local chickens for hundreds of poor households to develop production. In addition, the project also implemented 50 infrastructure projects worth more than 26 billion VND in particularly difficult areas. The effectiveness of the program has changed many villages, many households have escaped poverty.

In particular, with the motto of "giving the poor fishing rods instead of fish", the Production Development Support Project component of Program 135 is increasingly becoming more substantial, becoming a sustainable development resource for people in poor districts in Western Nghe An. Local breeds of cows, black pigs, and chickens have been adopted by the people and developed into specialty products of the 135 localities. According to statistics, from 2016 to May 31, 2017, the number of people benefiting from the production support component of the program was 9,596 people.

In which: supporting people with 71 hectares of hybrid corn, 4.3 hectares of passion fruit, 14 hectares of hybrid acacia; 3,964 livestock (calves, pigs) and 3,600 poultry (duck, native chicken) along with animal feed for more than 7,000 households. The project also provided 150 machines of various types such as multi-function plows, threshers, transplanters, harvesters, rattan splitters, rattan slicing machines... for more than 300 households.

The total disbursed capital up to May 31, 2017 was 31,323 billion VND/ 35,043 billion VND, reaching 89.38% of the plan. The Infrastructure Investment Support Project of the program has paid off debts and supplemented capital for 100 works of 135 phase 3 with an amount of 14,578 million VND; completed 246 new works...

It can be affirmed that Program 135 has made an important contribution to the continued development of the mountainous and ethnic areas of Nghe An province. Infrastructure works such as inter-village and inter-hamlet roads, schools, medical stations, electricity, water, community cultural houses, etc. have been completed and handed over for use, contributing to changing the lives of ethnic minorities in remote and isolated areas.

Promoting sustainable efficiency

In addition to the obvious effectiveness, there are still some limitations in the implementation of the program: Some initial design surveys were inaccurate, so when organizing construction, the total investment had to be adjusted; some communes selected contractors, signed contracts and organized construction and projects before the decision on capital allocation by the Provincial People's Committee was made; the activities of the community investment supervision board and supervision consultants in some communes and some projects were still weak; the construction progress of the 135 projects in 2016 was still slow; the central capital allocated was not enough according to the norms of Decision 551/QD-TTg, leading to confusion in planning and capital allocation...

Graphics: Huu Quan

In addition, the projects are often supervised and inspected by the Commune Supervisory Board, but this Board is mainly part-time and lacks professional expertise in construction and therefore faces many difficulties and confusion in the supervision stage. The management and maintenance of works has not been focused on, so many works have not been able to fully serve the people and the life of the works is not long.

The People's Committees of the districts have not allocated funds for maintenance and repair work in accordance with the regulations of the Provincial People's Committee. They mainly use the funds to upgrade and repair works, so the funds for management, maintenance and repair work are lacking. The quality of seedlings is not uniform; the same type of seedling, the same production conditions, but in this household, it develops very well and brings in high income, while in some households, it develops poorly and cannot recover the initial investment capital.

Some investment support items are one-time in nature such as poultry, pork, corn, rice... after an investment cycle, some households do not reinvest so the sustainable income for people is low. The distribution of agricultural machinery is not reasonable, some places are wasteful because that village has no fields and flat land but still provides high-capacity multi-function plows...

Tan Hop Commune Health Station, Tan Ky District, received investment from Program 135. Photo: Chau Lan

Mr. Luong Thanh Hai - Head of the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee said: Currently, Program 135 is entering phase IV (2016-2020). The Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee is making efforts to do a good job of building plans from the grassroots level, with the extensive participation of the people; orienting the sustainable development of commodity economy according to the advantages of each region, focusing on a number of investment items that have clearly promoted efficiency in the area, contributing to the transformation of the crop and livestock structure in each district.

At the same time, focus on directing districts to approve the final settlement of investment capital for completed projects in the period 2012 - 2016 to arrange capital to pay off debts in phase III; strengthen the direction, inspection, examination and supervision of the use of investment capital, support for the Program, ensure maximum capital efficiency, prevent loss and waste.

In addition, continue to mobilize and integrate investment capital sources for particularly difficult communes and villages, associated with the socio-economic development investment program of the Western region of Nghe An province in the period 2016 - 2020 and the National Target Program on New Rural Construction.

Chau Lan - Minh Hanh