"Farmer Director" builds 7 OCOP products in Uncle Ho's hometown
The familiar image of Director of Dai Hue Green Agricultural Cooperative Tran Dinh Son is not a suit and tie, but a quick-witted and hard-working man in simple work clothes. People of Nam Anh commune (old), now Dai Hue commune, expressed that thanks to "farmer directors" like Mr. Son, people are more confident in producing and promoting local specialty crops.
Aspiration to increase the value of hometown agricultural products
Every October, the people of Dai Hue commune enter the cassava harvest season. This is a traditional local plant located at the foot of Dai Hue mountain, not only because the tree has been planted for many generations, but also because of the superior quality of the cassava when rooted on this land.
Born and raised on the land of his homeland, Mr. Tran Dinh Son - Director of Dai Hue Green Agriculture Cooperative (NNX) understands the value of kudzu for the economic development and livelihood of the people here. Not wanting to waste the potential of his homeland, he soon cherished the idea of developing the economy from kudzu with the people.
Mr. Tran Dinh Son confided: “This plant is very suitable for sandy loam soil, has high yield and for a long time has been a hunger-fighting plant for people in our countryside. Later, when I was determined to start developing and upgrading this special plant, I completed the procedure to send samples to the authorities for testing and quality assessment. According to the test results at that time (2019) of the Department of Science and Technology, cassava tubers grown in Nam Anh have many outstanding characteristics compared to those grown in other localities, especially in starch content, minerals, and flavor. This is also one of the motivations for me to pursue the determination to build cassava starch into an OCOP product of the province”.
In the early days of starting their business, Tran Dinh Son and his wife went directly to the fields to plant and take care of the plants, and also connected with people to buy cassava. When it was time to harvest, the couple worked from morning to night. During the day, they were farmers in the fields, and at night, they were workers processing cassava at the factory located right in their yard.
“The early days were extremely difficult, due to the lack of capital and labor, as there was not much money to hire workers. Moreover, at that time, people did not have much confidence in the consumption ability of a new establishment like us. In fact, for a long time, households that produced tapioca starch by hand mainly sold locally, and the sales volume was not much,” said Mr. Son.
Then the opportunity came to Mr. Tran Dinh Son when in 2019, the state implemented a policy to encourage the development of household economy, Mr. Son was guided and supported by the local government to establish cooperatives, attract capital and labor. Along with that, local agricultural products, including cassava starch, were also actively supported by Nam Dan district at that time for consumption, oriented to develop into OCOP products.
From that opportunity, cassava plants on the lands participating in joint ventures and cooperation with Dai Hue Agricultural Cooperative are grown according to VietGAP process to ensure the output quality of OCOP cassava starch products. In addition, cassava starch processing facilities are also tested for food hygiene and safety and are regularly monitored and inspected by competent authorities to ensure that the products are of consistent quality.
Create jobs, increase consumption of local agricultural products
In this Dai Hue land, almost every household has a plot of land to grow cassava. Previously, households planted small, not contiguous areas or plots. Since the locality started to develop OCOP products, Mr. Tran Dinh Son also started to open a factory and sign contracts to grow and consume cassava for the people. In addition to more than 3 hectares of cassava fields of his family, Dai Hue Agricultural Cooperative also signed contracts with dozens of households.
“The cooperative will support money for seeds, fertilizers and instructions on how to care for the plants. During the harvest season, it will also support harvesting and transportation machinery, and households will pay by products. The average yield of cassava in the locality is about 20 tons/ha. With a purchase price of about 10,000 VND/kg, it also brings people a good income each year,” said Mr. Tran Dinh Son. Each cassava harvest season, Dai Hue Agricultural Cooperative consumes about 200 tons of fresh cassava from farmers, mainly in Dai Hue commune.
Not only effectively maintaining the cassava growing areas, when Dai Hue Agricultural Cooperative comes into operation, it also creates regular jobs for 3-5 workers and dozens of others during the harvest and processing of cassava starch. The way Dai Hue Agricultural Cooperative does not stop at promoting agricultural products and selling cassava starch products to the market, but also supports people in producing the highest quality raw materials.
Mr. Nguyen Thuc Quang - Vice Chairman of Dai Hue Commune People's Committee said that currently Dai Hue Agricultural Cooperative has 7 products recognized as 3-star OCOP standard. Of which, 3 products from cassava starch have met the standard for many years and the facility is upgrading to propose 4-star OCOP recognition.
In addition to consuming agricultural products for Dai Hue people, Mr. Tran Dinh Son's production facility also signed contracts to consume agricultural products for other localities in the province. That is, purchasing fresh turmeric from Tam Thai commune people through the Youth Volunteer Team 9; purchasing ginger and some medicinal herbs such as Polygonum multiflorum from other communes and through local cooperatives.
Over the period of operation, Dai Hue Agricultural Cooperative has not only contributed to the locality in developing OCOP products, but also created jobs and income for many households, contributing to enriching Dai Hue's OCOP products, promoting the local economy to flourish day by day.
In September 2025, Mr. Tran Dinh Son was one of the typical advanced examples in production and was honored to attend the 2025 Nghe An Province Patriotic Emulation Congress.