Poverty alleviation by following the press

(Baonghean) - Having overcome poverty and being confident in their new business plans, they all excitedly said that although each person has their own way of doing things, it is mainly from the desire to overcome difficulties, access and grasp scientific and technological information in production; and surprisingly, they confided that what they learned into practical lessons and experiences was mainly thanks to the provincial Party newspaper. They, as farmers in Tan Ky, are striving to rise up to do new business...

The cadre of Tien Phong 2 hamlet, Ky Son commune (Tan Ky) took us to the family of Ms. Dang Thi Hai, who escaped poverty nearly a year ago. Ms. Hai enthusiastically confided: “Our family is inherently poor. We struggled and always lacked food. We blamed our fate and the sky many times. My husband and I rarely read newspapers, and we rarely watched TV. Luckily, we have a daughter in grade 12 who loves to read newspapers. Every day, if there is an article about production experience, she discusses it with her mother, or borrows the newspaper for the family to read together. One time, my daughter brought home a Nghe An newspaper that published an article about the experience of growing green vegetables and raising breeding cows with the will to escape poverty... I heard that it was suitable for my family's conditions, so I decided to ask the local government to prepare a loan application from the bank to invest in breeding cows. At the same time, I learned carefully to apply the experience of producing commercial vegetables right in my garden land.”

Mrs. Dang Thi Hai, Tien Phong 2 hamlet, takes care of the vegetable garden.

Just like that, in 2011, Mrs. Hai's family borrowed 10 million VND from the District Social Policy Bank Branch, along with a little money the family had saved, she bought a cow to raise. A short time later, the cow gave birth to a male calf. With full confidence, taking advantage of the grass in front of the village, and knowing how to take care of it, Mrs. Hai's cow gives birth to a litter every year, and now there are 3 cows and calves in the barn. The family will soon sell a cow to have money to pay the bank. Not only that, last year the family was lent money by a brother to buy a breeding buffalo. Thanks to careful care, the buffalo has now given birth to a calf. Raising cows and buffaloes has given Mrs. Hai's family a large asset compared to life in this rural area.

In addition, the 2 sao of home garden land, each season has its own crops, in the spring and summer, corn is grown, in the winter, green vegetables are grown. Taking advantage of agricultural by-products, Mrs. Hai's family produces organic microbial fertilizer, along with composted manure, to fertilize plants, reducing investment costs, and making the soil loose, so plants grow quickly. This winter, in Mrs. Hai's family garden, there are many types of vegetables: cabbage, kohlrabi, herbs... which are cared for in batches.

Mrs. Hai boasted: “Every afternoon, I use a pump to water the vegetables. In the morning, the whole family gathers to pick vegetables, then I carry the vegetables to the market to sell. Thanks to diligence and knowing how to apply science and technology, during the vegetable season, the family has income every day.” Thanks to knowing how to do business scientifically, although the income is not high, Mrs. Hai’s family has truly escaped poverty according to the State’s criteria. Recently, her family invested nearly 200 million VND to upgrade their house to be spacious. With enough food and savings, Mrs. Hai and her husband are really excited and confident in life.

Arriving at Dong Van commune of Tan Ky district, we were introduced by local leaders to the Chairman of the Commune Farmers' Association who, thanks to applying information from books and newspapers, had built a high-income integrated livestock farm. That was the truly "new-style" old farmer Nguyen Nhu Phuc in Vinh Thanh hamlet.

Coming from a poor farming family, after building their own family, the young couple encountered many difficulties. Farming work was hard, working hard all year round on a few fields but the income was not much, so Mr. Phuc's family economy remained poor.

In 2002, Mr. Phuc participated in local social work, from the village chief to the current Chairman of the Commune Farmers' Association. As soon as he joined the Farmers' Association, Mr. Phuc realized that if he just talked in organizing and mobilizing members, it would not be effective. Words must go hand in hand with actions! Mr. Phuc managed to find a way to develop his family's economy in a very unique way in a difficult land. As an association officer, he was exposed to the press every day, of which the most useful information was information from the local party newspaper. He diligently read and applied a lot of knowledge about production, animal husbandry, ways to get rich from farms... Since 2007, Mr. Phuc decided to invest in raising wild boars, soft-shell turtles, frogs, super-lean sows and cows. Mr. Phuc confided: “Society gives me determination. I must say that the transmission of that spirit is thanks to the press, especially the provincial party newspaper. My wife sells goods at the rural market all day, my 5 children have their own families, I am the only one responsible for raising livestock, but I am still happy because of the results. During office hours, I go to the association's headquarters to work, and when I get home, I eagerly rush back to work.”

At first, I thought Mr. Phuc's garden was a large hilly area, but it turned out that the impressively profitable land was just his garden in the middle of a crowded village, with a very modest area. Observing the garden, I saw that everywhere was used to plan livestock barns in many different ways. The largest land at the back, he built a wall about 1 meter high, surrounded by B40 steel to create an area for raising wild pigs; next was a barn for raising super lean sows, in the middle were several cement tanks for raising frogs, soft-shell turtles, and in the back was an area for raising chickens, geese, and ducks. In addition, the family also has 7 hectares of hilly land that is currently being fenced off and raised in combination with grazing cows.

Mr. Nguyen Nhu Phuc checks the soft-shell turtle breed before selling.

Mr. Phuc shared his experience: “Everything is mainly thanks to the press. Thinking that I was content with being a poor farmer, I read the newspaper to learn about the excitement of business, how to seize opportunities, and the will to rise up to do business of the people. So I started to take action... The method later also came from learning from books and newspapers: For wild pigs, I feed them corn, vegetables, and bananas every day. My family has more than 1 hectare of land to grow corn. Every year when we harvest corn, we leave the whole corn, dry it, and each meal we bring out a little corn for the pigs to eat. The same goes for vegetables and banana stems. We leave the whole plant for them to gnaw and tear, not chop it up like the pigs we usually raise.

There was a time when the wild boar herd grew to 100, including 10 sows. Recently, due to having to invest in building houses for the pigs, dozens of pigs were sold to restaurants and hotels in Vinh City, selling prices from 150 - 180 thousand VND/kg. Raising wild boars requires a high initial cost to buy breeds, but the cost of investing in feed is low, and raising them wildly is not difficult, so the income is high, and the market is easy to consume, especially during holidays. Frogs and soft-shelled turtles are also easy to raise. Just build a few sunken tanks, add water to a depth of about 30 cm, put a layer of sand about 3 - 5 cm thick at the bottom of the tank, cover the water surface with water hyacinth, then release the soft-shelled turtles to raise. When the soft-shelled turtles are ready to breed, build a high compartment about 1 - 2 m2 wide, fill it with sand for the soft-shelled turtles to crawl up and lay eggs. When the eggs hatch, release them into a separate compartment for breeding.

Mr. Phuc added that currently his adult turtle herd has hundreds of turtles weighing over 1 kg. The turtle breeding herd is also large, and many people in the area have come to buy turtles to raise. Turtle food mainly uses daily surplus food, such as fish and minced meat. The price of each turtle breed is from 20 to 50 thousand VND, and turtle meat is sold for 300 thousand VND/kg. Frogs are also easy to raise, reproduce quickly, have low investment costs, and have a strong consumer market.

Therefore, in Mr. Phuc's frog farming system, there are always many frog products, and customers can have them immediately. Thanks to his business knowledge, each year Mr. Phuc's family earns hundreds of millions of dong, and has the conditions to give his children capital to do business after starting a family. Knowing that the Chairman of the Commune Farmers' Association is good at doing business by raising mixed animals, every year many members in the commune come to learn from his experience, and at the same time buy breeding animals to raise, and are enthusiastically and meticulously guided by him. Because for him, one more member who knows how to do business to escape poverty is another joy for the association.

As the Chairman of the Commune Farmers' Association, with his own experience, whenever a member comes to learn about how to do business, Mr. Phuc tries to convey and guide the members to grasp the Party's policies and guidelines, to apply scientific and technological advances in production, to help each other eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, contributing to the positive development of the farmers' economic development movement...

“A day on the road” teaches a lot, “a basket of knowledge”. On this occasion of Tan Ky’s work, we learned another interesting fact: Farmers are really dynamic. If the State has timely and practical propaganda and encouragement, including the press, they themselves will promote their internal strength and qualities very well to rise up to do business and improve their own lives effectively.

Xuan Hoang