What direction for the "oasis" Huu Khuong?

(Baonghean) -Located in the heart of Ban Ve hydroelectric lake, surrounded by vast water and mountains, the villages of Huu Khuong commune (Tuong Duong) have become "oases". Inadequate infrastructure, difficult transportation, and limited educational level are the main reasons that "imprison" Huu Khuong people in poverty and backwardness...

Let me start this article with some alarming numbers: The current poverty rate of Huu Khuong commune is 522/537 (accounting for 97.2%). With this number, perhaps this is the commune that holds the "record" for the poverty rate in Nghe An that we have ever known. Because, previously we knew of Nhon Mai commune (Tuong Duong) with a poverty rate of 92%, or Xieng My (Tuong Duong), Keng Du (Ky Son) with a number of around 90% must have been at the top, but were still left behind by Huu Khuong by quite a distance. It is known that the remaining 15 households (2.8%) in Huu Khuong are all cadres, workers and teachers.

Only when you are here during the rainy season can you fully understand the difficulties and hardships that the Khmu, Thai and Mong ethnic groups face every day. The seemingly incessant rains cause the water in streams and creeks to rise and flow rapidly, washing away temporary bridges and threatening the safety of lives. At night, Con Phen village (the commune center), where the commune People's Committee, health station and schools are located, has no lights at all.

Mr. Lo Van Chuyen - Secretary of the Commune Party Committee explained: "Although the commune is located in the hydroelectric reservoir area, 7/7 villages of Huu Khuong still do not have access to grid electricity, people mainly use mini hydroelectric power for lighting. Now it is the rainy season, people are afraid that the water will wash them away and it is unsafe, so they have to put away all the turbines, waiting until the dry season to bring them to the stream to reinstall them."

The way to the "oasis" Huu Khuong

The current Huu Khuong commune was established on the basis of gathering the villages that were relocated (not resettled) from the old Huu Khuong commune and Huoi Pung village of Huu Duong commune. The main source of income for the people here is still nothing other than slash-and-burn farming. The terrain is mainly steep hills and mountains, farming techniques are still backward, and the application of scientific and technological advances is limited, leading to low efficiency.

These are the figures showing the total cultivated area of ​​the whole commune in 2011: upland rice: 330 ha (264 tons); wet rice: 22 ha (55 tons); corn: 130 ha (96 tons). The total output of the above crops, divided by the average population of the whole commune of 2,393 people, we can find the explanation for the 97.2% poverty rate. Although there are advantages to develop large-scale livestock farming, up to now, the total herd of buffaloes and cows in Huu Khuong is only at about 2,000 heads, and the herd of pigs has not reached 2,000 heads.

Livestock farming in Huu Khuong is still basically free-range, so cattle and pigs often face the risk of disease and freezing to death in the low-temperature winter. Not to mention the risk of environmental pollution and the spread of disease to humans. The above figures show that life in Huu Khuong is still heavily self-sufficient, and most people here still do not have the mindset of developing a commodity economy.

Mr. Tran Anh Tuan (primary school teacher) said: “The food source for teachers must mainly be purchased from Hoa Binh Town. Every time we return home or go on a business trip to the district center, we have to buy rice, dried fish, and eggs for long-term use. If we are too busy to return, we have to call our family to buy and send them. Here, it is very difficult to buy a kilo of rice, a chicken, or an egg, because people only grow and raise enough for their family's needs during holidays, New Year, and festivals; almost no one thinks about growing them to sell.”

Ms. Luong Thi Van Anh - who has just been assigned to be Vice Chairman of Huu Khuong commune for a few months. Van Anh is from Cha Coong village, Huu Duong commune (old), and her family has now moved to the resettlement area of ​​Thanh Son commune (Thanh Chuong). Graduated from Hue University of Economics, this girl born in 1985 registered to participate in the program of 600 young intellectual volunteers and was assigned to her old hometown. According to Van Anh, the key issue of Huu Khuong's socio-economic situation at the present time is that the infrastructure is not guaranteed, especially lacking two leading factors: electricity and roads. Without grid electricity, people do not have the conditions to improve their spiritual and material life, improve their understanding and learn about science and technology.

Without electricity, people have to suffer many disadvantages in production and daily life. Up to now, the only way to get to Huu Khuong is to take a motorboat upstream of Ban Ve Lake. The Yen Tinh - Huu Khuong road is under construction, but terrain and funding factors do not allow for completion in a short time. Regarding internal transportation, from the commune center to the villages, there are only ways to go by motorboat and on foot. The farthest village in the commune is Cha Lang, which takes about half a day on foot. Coming here, we remembered the scene we had just witnessed two women from Con Phen village patiently carrying cement panels (from the program to support building barns and developing livestock) across the stream in the midst of the rushing water.

It can be said that the difficult traffic is the factor that hinders the development and socio-economic exchange of Huu Khuong, keeping the people here in a self-sufficient way of doing business. Besides, because the commune has just been re-established, the administrative apparatus at the commune level and the villages are not working evenly, the qualifications of the staff are still limited. Most of the young cadres have just graduated from school and have no experience and the new village cadres have not gone through basic training courses, so the work of advising, directing and developing plans and projects is not effective.

Regarding the search for a way out of poverty for Huu Khuong, young female intellectual Luong Thi Van Anh said that when she learned that she was assigned to work here as Vice Chairman of the commune, she developed a project to develop cage fish farming and local pig herds. Her project was approved and highly appreciated by the Recruitment Council. The practical basis of this project is to rely on the water surface of Ban Ve Lake to develop fish farming, first of all to meet the needs of local people, then expand the market to the central communes and continue to build a brand to expand to the downstream districts and Vinh City.

The local black pig breed is currently becoming a specialty food in restaurants, so breeding and increasing its quantity will bring people a significant source of income. Currently, Oxfam Hong Kong is implementing a project to support cage fish farming and develop local pig herds for Huu Khuong commune. People have been trained in breeding techniques, cage construction and barns. In addition, taking advantage of the terrain to develop livestock (buffalo, cow, goat) in the direction of commodity economy, expanding the reclaimed rice area (currently the whole commune has only more than 20 hectares) is also an important direction to help Huu Khuong people improve their living standards, gradually eliminate hunger and reduce poverty.

Through the discussion, Mr. Lo Van Chuyen - Secretary of the Commune Party Committee said that in order to help Huu Khuong escape poverty, the commune needs to be supported to soon complete the infrastructure system, especially the road system and the national power grid. Along with that is support for the construction of public welfare works, training to improve the ability to apply scientific advances in production for the people. The staff must constantly improve their qualifications and professional capacity to meet the requirements of the job. In particular, the people must overcome the mentality of waiting and relying on others, build awareness to rise up to escape poverty and backwardness, and innovate the way of doing business from self-sufficiency to the direction of the commodity market...

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