Accompanying resettlement areas to develop tea plants
(Baonghean) - Nghe An Newspaper had a dialogue with comrade Nguyen Van Que - Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Chuong district on a number of issues related to the industrial tea tree project in the resettlement area.
PV:Thanh Chuong district has identified tea trees as the key crop to stabilize and improve the lives of people in the resettlement communes of Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam. So, what are the results of the implementation so far, comrade?
Comrade Nguyen Van Que:In 2006, implementing the Ban Ve Hydropower Resettlement Project, 2,123 households with 10,730 people were received by Thanh Chuong district to resettle in two new communes, including Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam. The land areas where people resettled are mainly hills and mountains. Therefore, in addition to stabilizing the immediate lives of the people, finding crops that ensure a stable source of income for the people in the long term is a concern of the district.
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| Provincial leaders visited Mr. Vi Tuyen Quynh's tea garden, Tan Lap village, Thanh Son commune (Thanh Chuong). |
Based on the analysis of soil conditions, climate and the characteristics of some crops, it is shown that tea is a plant that is suitable for the soil, easy to grow and has a stable consumption market. Therefore, in 2010, after organizing to stabilize the immediate life of the people, the district focused on directing these two communes to disseminate, propagate and mobilize people to plant tea.
The staff of the Department of Agriculture and the District Agricultural Extension Station worked very hard, directly going to each village, with the motto of holding hands to guide people from land preparation to planting; instructing care techniques at each stage of tea plant development. After nearly 4 years of persistent direction, in these 2 communes, nearly 80 hectares of tea have been planted and initially brought about results.
To continue expanding the area, the District People's Committee has submitted to the Provincial People's Committee the policy of building a tea planting project for resettled people in Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam communes and has been approved by the Provincial People's Committee through Decision No. 4021/QD-UBND dated September 11, 2013. The project's goal is to strive to plant 534 hectares in the resettlement area by 2018; of which Thanh Son commune is 320 hectares and Ngoc Lam commune is 214 hectares.
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| Watering the tea plants. |
Tea growers in Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam communes also enjoy the tea development support policy according to Decision 87/2014/QD-UBND dated November 17, 2014 applied to mountainous areas such as Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Ky Son, including land preparation support of 5 million VND/ha.
PV:Tea cultivation requires intensive techniques, while the farming practices of the resettled people are still limited. What solutions can be found to make the tea plant truly “take root” in this area?
Comrade Nguyen Van Que:After the Provincial People's Committee approved the project, Thanh Chuong District People's Committee established a Steering Committee, assigned the Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee in charge of agriculture and forestry to directly direct; assigned specific responsibilities to the Department of Agriculture; Department of Ethnic Minorities; district-level mass organizations: Farmers' Association, Women's Union, District Youth Union; Chairman of Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam Commune People's Committees to coordinate with Ngoc Lam Border Guard Station to take part in the work according to the motto "holding hands and showing work".
Thanks to the drastic direction and application of planting and care techniques, in general, tea trees in the Ban Ve hydropower resettlement area grow well, and the tea area increases year by year.
In the area of 2 communes, in 2014, 140.67 hectares were planted, of which Thanh Son was 70.4 hectares and Ngoc Lam was 70.27 hectares; in 2015, 70.8 hectares were planted, of which Thanh Son was 26 hectares and Ngoc Lam was 44.8 hectares and is continuing to be deployed in 2016. Currently, including tea planted before the province's project, in these 2 communes there are nearly 300 hectares of tea. Of which, dozens of hectares have been planted for 6-8 years, bringing stable income to many households.
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| People take care of tea plants. |
Typically, Mr. Vi Tuyen Quynh's household, Tan Lap village, Thanh Son commune, currently has a tea business area of more than 20 tons of tea buds/year; equivalent to 50 - 70 million VND/year, or like the households of Mr. Luong Van Thuong, Luong Thanh Hoai, Luong Van Thai, in Muong village, Ngoc Lam commune, each year collects about 10 - 12 tons from tea trees, equivalent to about 30 million VND or more/year...
PV:The economic efficiency that tea plants bring to the lives of people in resettlement areas has been initially proven. However, recently, some people are not interested in planting and developing tea plants. So what is the “bottleneck” here, comrade?
Comrade Nguyen Van Que:Yes, currently some households are not interested in growing tea, leading to the planned area for growing tea not yet being implemented to achieve the project's progress. There are many reasons for this problem, the main reason being that the old production methods and practices of the people have not changed in time to meet the requirements of the new production process.
Second, in recent years, the prolonged hot weather, especially the heat waves in 2014 and 2015, caused some tea areas to die, affecting people's psychology.
Third, the idea of people wanting to grow acacia trees is that they take less time, are easy to grow, require little investment, and do not require high-intensive techniques and follow the correct process like tea trees.
In the coming time, the district will continue to promote propaganda and mobilization to "breakthrough" the people's thinking. Because tea trees have been harvested for 30 years and have proven effective in reducing hunger and poverty in Thanh Chuong district for many years.
Along with that, we persistently accompany the people, comply with the approved project planning, enhance the sense of responsibility of the district-level professional departments, local leaders and agricultural officials of the two communes; organize for the people to visit some effective models, combined with the application of science and technology, selecting high-yield tea varieties, resistant to weather, ensuring the tea trees develop stably in all weather conditions.
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| Agricultural extension station guides people to weed tea plants. |
When the tea trees are harvested, the district also guides people on how to harvest, encourages households with conditions to join ventures and install processing lines, combined with calling for investors to install processing lines to link production with processing and product consumption, in order to bring in a stable source of income, increase income and improve people's lives.
PV:Thank you, comrade!
| Mr. Vi Dinh Tan -Chairman of Thanh Son Commune People's Council Because people are used to simple production practices, but now growing tea requires a higher level of process and science and technology, so they are not interested. And in terms of process, when building the project, there was no survey to find out the wishes and aspirations of the people about what kind of plants and animals they like to grow. Therefore, the district needs to get involved to thoroughly understand the current situation to have appropriate solutions, and have a mechanism to support seeds and fertilizers for people growing tea. Mr. Lo Huy Hung - Chairman of Thanh Son Commune People's Committee The consecutive heat waves in recent years have also made people unenthusiastic about the tea planting project. Earlier this year, some households were cutting down tea leaves. When the commune learned about the information, it came down with a propaganda board, urging people not to destroy them. Mr. Vi Tuyen Quynh - Tan Lap village, Thanh Son commune Compared to acacia, cassava and rice, tea is still the most effective crop. To make people feel secure in growing tea, it is necessary to promote the role of village committees so that people can harvest and sell products in a timely manner, with addresses, and on the hill. |
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