Nghe An sustainably develops medicinal plants

Improve income of people in project area
Located along the Lam River, for the past 2 years, Dong Tre area, Thanh Tien commune (Thanh Chuong) has become a vast, green medicinal herb growing field. In April 2021, businesses cooperated to rent land from local people for production.medicinal plantsIn addition to land rental fees, 18 farming households also have stable jobs, with an average income of over 5 million VND/month from planting, caring for and harvesting medicinal plants.

Her family only has 7 square meters of land to grow corn. During the off-season, Ms. Le Thi Doan in Giang hamlet, Thanh Tien commune has to do all kinds of jobs to earn extra income. Since last year, she has been hired to grow and care for medicinal herbs. “Before, the area was small, the daily wage was 120,000 VND, but since April this year, I have been paid 180,000 VND per day. The job is stable, close to home, and not too hard, so I am very excited,” said Ms. Doan.

Mint medicinal plant in Thanh Chuong district. Photo: Phu Huong

After 1 year of implementation, Thien Minh Duc Company now has 20 hectares of medicinal plant seed production in Thanh Tien commune. In the plan, by the end of this year it will expand to 50 hectares, and from that seed source, by 2024, the enterprise will cooperate with households to mass produce on an area of ​​3,000 - 4,000 hectares in many communes in the district, providing on-site raw materials for the factory.pharmaceutical processing, is expected to be built right in Thanh Tien commune, early first quarter of 2023.

The initial successes not only contribute to creating livelihoods and income for the people but also are an important premise for Thanh Chuong district to continue converting crops and increasing the value of agricultural production. According to Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee, developing medicinal plants is one of the important contents to effectively implement the project of converting the district's crop structure.

Thanh Chuong district leaders inspect the development of medicinal plant growing areas in Thanh Tien commune. Photo: Phu Huong

"Although this is a new model, through practical inspection, these plants are suitable for the natural conditions and soil quality of the alluvial plains of Thanh Tien commune as well as certainly suitable for the alluvial soil along the Lam River in the entire district. In the coming time, when businesses expand their area and build processing plants in the area, this will be an effective direction that the district will direct to review on each specific land field, propagate to the people, consider this a breakthrough in crop conversion, creating enough raw materials for the project area".

Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee

In recent years, the TH Group's medicinal herb growing and production project in Ky Son district has not only created a medicinal herb area with many precious medicinal plants, but also contributed significantly to changing the face of the village, improving and stabilizing the lives of ethnic minorities in the project area. Currently, the medicinal herb growing area has reached 136 hectares, attracting and creating jobs for nearly 20 local workers, with a stable income of 8 - 10 million VND/person/month. The enterprise has also built a medicinal herb extraction factory with modern equipment, purchasing all medicinal herb products in the area.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu visited the medicinal herb growing and processing model of TH Group in Ky Son district. Photo: Nghe An Newspaper

During a recent visit and work trip to Ky Son district, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu said that the characteristics of altitude, climate, and soil of the two communes of Na Ngoi and Muong Long are strengths in developing medicinal plants that not every place has. And not only meeting the demand for raw materials for processing, the medicinal plant growing area is also a very good potential in developing agricultural tourism, contributing significantly.increase incomefor indigenous people

According to Mr. Trinh Hien Trung - General Director of TH Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company, in production activities, the enterprise always prioritizes job creation forlocal laborFrom farmers who only know how to farm, workers are recruited as workers, trained in modern farming techniques, factory production skills, improving capacity and easily adapting to modern production requirements, guaranteed social insurance and health insurance.

Puxailaileng ginseng nursery in Muong Long commune (Ky Son). Photo: Dao Tuan's document

In particular, the company also advocates creating pilot production models for people to visit and learn from, so that they can produce on their own with the support of businesses in both technical issues and purchasing and consuming products, helping local people earn more income right on their own fields. This method is much more effective than cutting down trees to make fields as before.

Identifying medicinal plant development as one of the important directions in production development and increasing the value of agricultural production, in recent years, the province has focused on attracting businesses to participate in production and processing to awaken the potential of medicinal plants.

Currently, in the province, there are 3 large projects invested in and developed in the form of joint ventures, production linkages, and product consumption, with a scale of nearly 2,000 hectares, including many rare medicinal plants. This is opening up many prospects in increasing the value of medicinal plants, creating sustainable livelihoods,settle downstability for people, especially in the western districts of the province.

The Western Nghe An region is recognized by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve with abundant potential for precious medicinal resources. Photo: Nghe An Newspaper Document

Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Nguyen Van De said: Income from growing medicinal plants is 4-14 times higher than that of corn and 2-6 times higher than that of acacia. However, medicinal plants require initial investment capital; the infrastructure system for medicinal plant growing areas is still lacking...

Therefore, to develop medicinal herbs, the most important thing is stillattract businessorganize production, purchase, consumption and processing of products. This is the premise for the province to implement policies to attract businesses to participate in the production and processing chain associated with product consumption in the development of medicinal plants. And in fact, initially some projects have shown very good results.

In the plan, Nghe An strives to develop nearly 18,000 hectares of medicinal plants stably by 2030. To achieve this goal, making medicinal plants a strength for the province's agricultural production development, improving people's lives, especially in disadvantaged areas; in addition to creating favorable conditions for investors to build processing plants, develop raw material areas, and have specific mechanisms to encourage businesses and medicinal plant producers, the province also needs to pay attention to protecting,conservation of valuable genetic resources, applying scientific and technological advances and high technology to develop and expand valuable varieties.