"Spearhead" of forest economy in Quy Chau

(Baonghean) - With the advantage of a large forestry area, soil and climate suitable for planting raw material forests and protecting forests. Thanks to that, the forest economy combined with the development of large-scale livestock farming in Quy Chau has achieved high efficiency, actively contributing to accelerating the poverty reduction progress in the area.

Returning to Chau Binh, the land that was previously plowed by red stone mining leading to severe deforestation, is now covered with green. Visiting the farm of Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Binh 2 village, on an area of ​​5 hectares in the Trieu hill stream, the third crop of acacia he planted on 3.5 hectares now has a canopy taller than a person's head. Farm owner Nguyen Van Phuc gave a calculation: Hybrid acacia has truly become a poverty reduction tree for his family when recently the family earned more than 200 million VND after 2 harvests. To test some other crops on the land assigned for management, Mr. Phuc invested in planting 1 hectare of red banana combined with raising 35 pigs on a local pig farm, creating a closed model of forestry combined with livestock, affirming the appropriate direction for quite high efficiency.

Inspecting forest protection work in Chau Thang commune.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc's farm is one of many effective forestry and livestock farms in Chau Binh commune. As a commune with many advantages for developing forestry economy, Chau Binh focuses on directing the implementation of forest care, protection and planting. The movement of planting raw material forests has become strong and widespread among the people, with an average of 600 hectares planted each year, exceeding the target of the Congress Resolution (the Resolution assigned 200 hectares). Currently, Chau Binh has planted 3,500 hectares of concentrated forests and income from forestry has accounted for a large proportion in the structure of agriculture - forestry - fishery (accounting for 21% / 44% of the structure). In order for forestry to continue to play an important role in the commune's economy, the Resolution of the Commune Party Congress for the 2015-2020 term continues to orientate the stabilization of the existing forest area, focusing on intensive investment, applying new varieties and scientific and technological solutions to increase the current average productivity from 120 tons - 150 tons/ha to 150 tons - 180 tons/ha. Comrade Le Van Toan, Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: The commune encourages the development of household economy and farm economy in the form of combined agriculture - forestry - livestock farming. Based on effective models, Chau Binh will replicate them for people in the commune to learn and follow.

Overcoming the winding mountain slopes in the hot sun, we reached the protected forest of Mr. Luong Van Nam's family, Ban village, Chau Thang commune. It was impressive that the 4.7 ha area of ​​Khe Xan that his family received to protect the forest was covered in a lush green color, full of vitality. The tall trees were interspersed with bushes of bamboo with straight trunks. Mr. Nam said: The income from bamboo is about 400,000 VND per day. In addition, taking advantage of the forest land area, Mr. Nam developed livestock farming combined with wet rice farming: making 6 sao of rice fields, digging ponds to raise fish, raising 5 buffaloes and raising a flock of ducks...

The combined income from various sources has stabilized his family's life and created conditions to better focus on forest protection. In Ban village, there are 15 households that have received forest protection like Nam, so far, all have stable income. With the advantage of having a concentrated raw material hunting area, Chau Thang commune has continuously promoted forest protection and land allocation to households. In Xet and Ban villages, which have large hunting areas, the commune has coordinated with Duc Phong Company Limited to train people on how to both protect and exploit the natural hunting area. Comrade Sam Van Hung, Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: Regarding the forest, Chau Thang has a concentrated distribution area, especially the type of tree that is only suitable for protection and forest protection, so the commune has directed households with forests to apply this method. Not only forestry economy for cypress trees, Chau Thang has up to 3,000 hectares of forest/nearly 4,000 hectares of natural land, so the commune's policy of forest economy is still the main focus, in which the number 1 priority is still the work of zoning and protection.

Quy Chau currently has nearly 77,000 hectares of forestry land, accounting for 72% of the natural land area. It is worth remembering that there was a time when Quy Chau forests were devastated by deforestation for slash-and-burn farming and rampant mineral exploitation before. However, thanks to the implementation of the policy of promoting forest protection and conservation, in recent years, forests have regenerated quickly and their coverage has increased. In particular, implementing the "Project to improve forest management and development in the period 2013 - 2015", Quy Chau district has reviewed and converted over 5,000 hectares of protective forests into production forests; speeding up the progress of forest land allocation to households. Regarding forest protection and conservation, directing forest owners to protect and preserve the existing natural forest area; integrating programs and projects such as Project 147, OXFAM Project on zoning and protecting bamboo, propagating bamboo by root separation method on 15 hectares in Chau Hanh and Chau Thang communes; at the same time, synchronously implementing forest planting solutions according to Program 661, thanks to which, the area of ​​planted forests increases every year, on average each year, the district plants nearly 1,000 hectares of concentrated forests, 60,000 - 85,000 scattered trees, zoning and protecting 20,000 - 25,000 hectares of forests.

It can be said that up to now, the planting of raw material forests has developed everywhere in Quy Chau district. In 2010, the area of ​​newly planted forests and post-harvest planting was more than 5,325 hectares, in the period of 2011-2015 it reached 6,725 hectares, including key trees such as hybrid acacia, bamboo, meters and indigenous trees with high economic value, most concentrated in the communes of Chau Binh, Chau Hoi, Chau Hanh and Chau Binh. In addition to planting forests, the protection and conservation work has been focused on promoting, thereby increasing the current forest cover to 78%, achieving the Congress's target. According to the calculations of forest planting households, with the current price of raw materials, each hectare of raw material forest at harvest time will earn an average of about 60 million VND/ha. Excluding the cost of seeds, fertilizers, labor and bank loan interest of about 20 million VND, the profit is 40 million VND. Not to mention the income from intercropping plants when the forest canopy has not closed yet such as aromatic roots, cassava, pineapple... Thus, on average, each year the profit is more than five million VND/ha, only having to plant and care for the first 3 years, the remaining years only having to protect, it can be said that this is a not small income for households with forest land and affirms the effectiveness of forest planting.

In order to effectively plant forests, especially raw material forests, Quy Chau has directed forestry units such as the Forest Protection Department and the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board to coordinate with forestry companies in the area to regularly provide technical guidance, mobilize farmers to plant forests and protect forests; propagate and orient farmers, especially ethnic minorities, to actively apply technical advances in intensive forest planting, shifting from simple forest planting to economic forest planting... Comrade Le Thanh Ha, Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee, said: The district's orientation in the coming time, in addition to stabilizing the existing forest area, needs to focus on investing in intensive technical solutions, increasing productivity and efficiency, thereby creating raw material areas for the MDF processing industry. In low-lying areas with low slopes and suitable soil, plants with high economic value such as: aromatic roots, medicinal plants, fruit trees, etc. are planted. At the same time, doing a good job of protecting and preventing forest fires, restoring and developing more than 10,000 hectares of forest, not only increasing the coverage but also continuing to affirm that the forestry economy is very important to Quy Chau.

Article and photos:Hong Son