Professor Ngo Van Hoang: Contributions to Phu Quy land
(Baonghean) -On June 24, 2013, Professor Ngo Van Hoang passed away at the age of 94. He devoted his entire life to science, especially the development of the Vietnamese coffee and rubber industries.
He graduated from the Indochina Agricultural School in 1944, joined the revolution in 1945, and accompanied the two long resistance wars of the nation until the day of national reunification. Phu Yen was his birthplace, but more than half of his life, youth and intelligence, he was attached to the Western Nghe An. He left many marks in the scientific community in the field of agriculture on the rich red basalt land of Phu Quy.
In 1946, Ngo Van Hoang was a member of the Ministry of Agriculture assigned by the Government to take over the plantations of the fleeing French to establish Phu Quy National Farm, the predecessor of dozens of state-owned farms later. The mission of the farm at that time was to organize, manage, restore and exploit abandoned coffee gardens.
Here, for a time he participated in teaching at the Inter-Zone 4 Agricultural College (formerly) evacuated from Hue, at Yen Tam Hill, Dong Hieu Farm. He worked for 4 years on the left bank of the Ngan Truoi River, Ha Tinh as Director of the Ngan Truoi National Plantation, which was an old plantation established by the French in 1910.
In response to the development requirements of the coffee industry, he returned to Phu Quy to work as Deputy Director of Tay Hieu Farm in the early years of construction. The North entered a period of recovery and development, he realized that Phu Quy needed an agency to research and apply science and technology to serve economic development. On the occasion of the delegation of experts from the former German Democratic Republic coming to work, he expressed the idea of establishing a Tropical Plant Institute and was supported by the experts. However, under the conditions of that time, the State only allowed the establishment of the Tay Hieu Tropical Plant Experiment Station, and he was assigned as the first director. Here, with his knowledge and foresight, he proposed many research projects on perennial plants, not only coffee and rubber, but also many other tropical plants such as oil palm, fruit trees, pepper, bananas, etc.
Regarding coffee trees, according to Yves Henry, author of “Agricultural Economics of Indochina”, coffee trees were first introduced to our country in Quang Binh and Quang Tri. From that base, right after establishing the station, Professor Ngo Van Hoang directly searched for abandoned and wild Arabica coffee trees at Sen Bang Church, Bo Trach, Quang Binh, collecting them as material for the research topic on improving Arabica coffee varieties that he led. In that way, in 1960-1961, he led the technical staff of Tay Hieu Station to roll around to old coffee plantations from Tien Sinh, Nai Sinh (Phu Quy), Vuc Rong, Ha Suu (Tan Ky), Phuc Do (Thanh Hoa), Ghenh, Huu Vien (Ninh Binh), Chi Ne (Ha Nam) and then up to Tuyen Quang, Phu Tho..., the Arabica coffee gene source in the North also started from there.
Next is the survey to find the rubber trees that the French introduced for trial planting in 1911 in Dong Cu, Ben Hoi in present-day Tan Ky, until 1961 there were about ten trees left. Regarding rubber trees, Professor Ngo Van Hoang said that although Nghe An's ecological conditions are not equal to those of the Southeast region, the potential for rubber development is huge, not only in Nghe An but also in the North Central region. He once said, "In addition to the districts in the Northwest region of the province, from the Southwest of Thanh Chuong through the Ngan Pho and Ngan Truoi rivers of Ha Tinh, connecting with the Chu Le and Dong Le regions of Quang Binh, bordering the semi-mountainous regions of Quang Tri and Thua Thien, it can be said that there is no crop more valuable and sustainable than rubber trees."
From the information about the remaining trees in Phu Quy, with the ancient So trees planted on the mountains along the coast from Quynh Lap to Hai Thanh, Thanh Hoa province, Professor Ngo Van Hoang organized a delegation to conduct a survey. As a result, many So trees were discovered in Phu Quy and the remaining ancient So trees on the sandstone mountains of the Ru Xuoc range. From here, an idea about the So tree development project in Nghe An was formed, and was sent to Deputy Prime Minister Tran Huu Duc. After that, he proposed to the province to build the Quynh Chau and Quynh Luu Specialty Tree Station, also starting from So trees.
According to his explanation, from the poor land formed on sandstone parent rock, the So tree will occupy the barren lands along the Thanh Nghe Tinh midlands. According to him, Nghe An people have the conditions to be self-sufficient in cooking oil from So tree, a type of tree that is very easy to grow. Having a passion for So tree, when he returned to work at the Rubber Institute, he still hoped that this tree species would be developed, especially after a survey of the original So tree area in Cam Lo, Quang Tri with Minister Nguyen Cong Tan and the Department of Agricultural Extension. He began drafting a program on developing So tree in Vietnam by collecting domestic genetic resources and imported varieties from China. At the same time, he was very happy to see VTV3 report that Nghe An had begun a plan to plant 15,000 hectares of So tree.
During the years of fierce bombs and bullets in Zone 4, hardships were like that, but whether at the evacuation site of Tay Hieu Experimental Station, or under a bamboo hut by a dry stream in Quynh Chau, every night Professor Ngo Van Hoang was still diligently working at his desk, under an oil lamp, on scientific topics, on plans for when the country was unified. Many cadres who grew up to become professors, doctors of science, managers from general directors, department directors, institute directors... all remembered the guidance of their teacher, Professor Ngo Van Hoang. He also had a term as a delegate to the People's Council of Nghe An province.
In his last years, he lived with his family in Suoi Tre commune, Long Khanh, Dong Nai, but still hoped to have the opportunity to return to the North, to visit the red basalt land of Phu Quy, to the new rubber areas of Nghe An, to witness the changes of his second homeland, where he left many deep impressions.
Le Dinh Dinh