Nghe An farmers contribute over 5,500 billion VND to build new rural areas

That was the suggestion of comrade Bui Thi Thom - Vice President of the Central Executive Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union, Head of the Steering Committee for summarizing 10 years of implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Development (NTM) for the period 2010 - 2020 of the Central Union at a working session with Nghe An province on the role of the Farmers' Union in participating in NTM construction and collective economic development on the morning of August 14.

Working with the delegation of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union, Nghe An province had comrade Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial Steering Committee for National Target Programs and representatives of relevant departments and branches.Photo: Thanh Phuc

Increase income for members through economic models

During the 10 years of implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction, in addition to promoting and raising awareness among members about new rural construction, all levels of Farmers' Associations in the province have launched movements and carried out specific tasks to contribute to the completion of criteria for new rural construction in the locality.

Nghe An farmers play a leading role in implementing the criteria for building new rural areas. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Accordingly, people in the province (mostly farmers) donated over 5,960,682 m2 of land, contributed 4,953,163 working days; over 5,500 billion VND to implement the new rural construction program.

In addition, through the implementation of the movement of farmers competing in good production and business, uniting to help each other get rich and sustainably reduce poverty, farmers' associations at all levels have organized many activities such as: Fertilizer loan services with deferred payment, unsecured loans, building economic development models, training in transferring scientific and technical advances, vocational training, visiting good business models... creating a sustainable foundation to increase people's income.

In the first 6 months of 2019 alone, farmers' associations at all levels in the province have propagated and mobilized 252,811 farmer households to register to strive to become good farmers and business households at all levels, achieving 103% of the assigned target; implementing the construction of 29 economic models in the fields of livestock, cultivation, and processing.

Village well in Yen Thanh was restored and renovated with contributions from local people. Photo: Thanh Phuc

The Provincial Farmers' Association has directly mobilized and guided the establishment of 313 cooperative groups and 42 cooperatives; the average income of a regular worker in the cooperative is 4.4 million VND/month.

At the conference, the Provincial Farmers' Association proposed that the Central Association propose to the Government a mechanism to support the development of cooperatives; have specific policies to create conditions for Farmers' Associations at all levels to carry out training for association officials, propaganda work on collective economic development, build pilot cooperative and cooperative models for widespread replication; support funding sources for Farmers' Associations to promote the transfer of scientific and technological advances, vocational training, and build economic development models...

Comrade Dinh Viet Hong affirmed the role of farmers and the contributions of Farmers' Associations at all levels in building new rural areas in the province. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Promoting the role of farmers as the main subject

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee affirmed the role of the subject and resources of farmers in building new rural areas; acknowledged the contributions of Farmers' Associations at all levels in propagating and mobilizing farmers to participate in building new rural areas; launching many movements and arousing people's strength in building new rural areas with creative ways.

At the same time, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee pointed out that in the coming time, the construction of new rural areas in localities will still face many difficulties, therefore, the Association needs to strengthen propaganda among the people about the construction of new rural areas; organize for farmers to visit and study typical new rural construction models; Associations at all levels must closely follow the criteria for building new rural areas to identify and select specific tasks to register for implementation, contributing to the completion of the criteria for building new rural areas in localities.

Leaders of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development highlighted good practices in building new rural areas in Nghe An. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Concluding the working session, Comrade Bui Thi Thom - Vice President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union highly appreciated the contributions of Nghe An Farmers' Union at all levels in implementing the National Program on New Rural Development; commended the good practices and good models undertaken by the union at all levels, implementing the construction of new rural standard gardens; Propagating, mobilizing, guiding farmers in production, business, and consumption of safe agricultural products and food...

Comrade Bui Thi Thom also said that building a new rural area has a starting point, no ending point and is the task of the entire political system, in which farmers are the main subject and the core, therefore, all levels of the association need to maximize their role in building a new rural area, improving the quality of criteria in a sustainable manner.

The Farmers' Association promotes the role of propaganda, raising awareness of cadres and farmer members about collective economy; awareness of production cooperation among members, supporting farmers, helping members and farmers have conditions to develop production and business, strengthen production linkages, focusing on developing branches and professional association groups.