Sweet sugarcane Ha Son

(Baonghean) - We arrived in Ha Son (Quy Hop) on a late afternoon. This is the land known as the "sugarcane capital" of Quy Hop district, a land that is on the rise.

Before going to Ha Son, I called the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee - Mr. Le Van Thanh, on the other end of the line, Mr. Thanh reminded us over and over again that if we go by motorbike, we should go along the Ho Chi Minh road to Milestone 0, from Lat Town (Tan Ky) along the asphalt road through Tan Long, Nghia Hoan, Tan Phu to Tan Xuan Commune, from there, it is only 4-5 km to Ha Son, which is the most convenient. But now the State is constructing a 30 km road from Quy Hop Town to the commune, and it is raining like this, so we cannot go there. Following Mr. Thanh's instructions, we returned to Ha Son in the freezing cold of a day at the end of the year.

Touching the land of Ha Son are the vast green sugarcane hills with fresh air. This season is the sugarcane harvest season, on the hillsides people are busy cutting, bundling into bundles, gathering sugarcane to the end of the field, loading it onto cars to transport to the factory. After a warm handshake with the Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune Le Van Thanh, we felt the warmth and friendliness when we first set foot on this land. Mr. Thanh was the first person to bring sugarcane to plant on Ha Son land. With that achievement, he was able to report on the implementation of Directive No. 03 on continuing to promote "Studying and following the moral example of Ho Chi Minh" at the typical conference of the province, May 2013. And now wherever we go in Ha Son land, in the story of sugarcane, people mention him with admiration and love.

Through Mr. Thanh's sincere and open words, we know that Ha Son is transforming itself to become one of the top communes in the inner area of ​​Quy Hop district. Before the 90s of the 20th century, the lives of Ha Son people were very poor, the agricultural land all year round only knew how to grow upland rice, low productivity, so the rice grains were not enough to feed more than 4 thousand people, most of whom were Tho ethnic people. Therefore, poverty has haunted Ha Son people for generations. As a young and dynamic key local official, in the process of carrying out leadership, direction and management tasks, Mr. Le Van Thanh has always been an exemplary leader, daring to think, daring to do, daring to take responsibility before the collective, actively practicing thrift, fighting against corruption, waste... Therefore, in the local economic development strategy, as a key official, he identified two key areas: growing sugarcane and raising goats for sale. In 1998, Tate & Lyle Quy Hop Sugar Factory came into operation, he was the pioneer in mobilizing people to gradually convert the area from upland rice to growing raw sugarcane. To confirm the economic efficiency of sugarcane, he and the Party Committee and People's Committee of the commune agreed to assign each cadre from the commune to the hamlet to plant first.

Since 2000, Ha Son people have focused on expanding the sugarcane area, combined with investment to increase productivity. Up to now, Ha Son's sugarcane area has reached 1,100 hectares, accounting for 70% of the commune's agricultural land area. It is known that the whole Quy Hop district currently has about 7 thousand hectares of sugarcane to provide raw materials for the Tate & Lyle Quy Hop Sugarcane Factory, so Ha Son commune alone accounts for more than 1/7 of the total sugarcane area of ​​the district. Ha Son's average sugarcane yield is also higher than the district's average, with 65 tons/ha, while the average of the whole district is more than 50 tons/ha.

Mr. Le Van Thanh - Chairman of Ha Son Commune People's Committee guides people on how to harvest sugarcane.

In Ha Son, sugarcane areas with a yield of over 100 tons/ha are not rare. For one thing, the locality knows how to evaluate each type of land to structure the sugarcane variety appropriately. For example, hilly land mainly grows MI sugarcane, while areas with high humidity concentrate on ROC 10 and QD 93 sugarcane varieties. The family of Mr. Truong Van Thuong, in Dong Nang hamlet, is one of the households that got rich from sugarcane. Mr. Thuong and his wife openly said: If they continued to grow upland rice, corn, and cassava like before, the family would not be able to build a solid house to live in, and would not have money to raise their children to study. The couple moved out in 1994, with only a wooden basket, a few earthen pots, and a hut built on the mountainside, along with 10 sao of land. Seeing many areas of abandoned land overgrown with trees and cassava to fill their stomachs, the couple worked hard to reclaim it, opening up a little more each day. The land does not fail the people, when sugarcane started to grow on Ha Son land, the couple already had 5 hectares of land to grow sugarcane. Every year, the couple invested in reasonable fertilizers and took care of the crop on time, so the sugarcane yield every year reached over 70 tons/ha. In addition, the couple also reclaimed 3 sao of land to grow 2 rice crops, the food produced was enough for the family to eat all year round.

Mr. Le Van Thanh was the first commune leader invited by Tate & Lyle Quy Hop Sugar Factory to visit the disease-free sugarcane area in Lam Son (Thanh Hoa). This was an opportunity for him to learn about the experience of taking care of sugarcane from Lam Son land for local application. After that visit, he boldly brought clean sugarcane seeds from Lam Son to supply to the people in the commune, so the sugarcane here is always disease-free, with high productivity. To be able to do that is a concern for every cadre and party member, especially key cadres of the commune like Mr. Thanh.

In order for Ha Son to have conditions for sustainable economic development, in recent years many traffic development projects have come to this land. In just a short time, from Quy Hop Town, Lat Town (Tan Ky), or from Chau Thon of Que Phong District down, there will be asphalt roads going through Ha Son easily and conveniently. Thus, from Ha Son, if you want to go to National Highway 48 or Ho Chi Minh Road to go to Vinh, Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City... it will no longer be as difficult as before. This will be the basis for creating a "push", awakening the agricultural economic potential of this great forest area. Therefore, there are families who intend to plan land for commercial orange growing with an area of ​​1 hectare or more.

Ha Son, anyone who comes here can easily feel the spring spreading from the sugarcane hills, the hard-working life of the people has now changed thanks to sugarcane. In the spring, Ha Son people are always grateful for sugarcane, grateful to commune cadre Le Van Thanh, who has sweetened the prosperity of the Tho ethnic people here.

Xuan Hoang