Quynh Luong: The effectiveness of emulation movements

(Baonghean)Thanks to the promotion of crop restructuring and the building of reputable and high-quality clean vegetable brands, the people of Quynh Luong (Quynh Luu) have confidently prospered in their homeland, the rural landscape has undergone positive changes, and the material and spiritual lives of the people have improved day by day…

Mr. Bui Van Giap, Secretary of the Party Branch of Hamlet 3, Quynh Luong Commune, told us the story of escaping poverty thanks to vegetables. According to Mr. Giap, his hamlet used to be very poor, with income depending solely on rice cultivation, making life extremely difficult for the people. Since 1998, when they switched to growing vegetables, the people's lives have changed for the better. Many families have become prosperous and even millionaires thanks to vegetables, like the family of Mr. Ho Trong Hai. Currently, Hamlet 3 has the largest area of ​​vegetable cultivation in the commune, with about 40 hectares. Everywhere you go, you hear people talking about vegetables; in hamlet meetings, group meetings, and Party branch meetings, the topic of changing the crop structure to increase income per unit area and strengthening training in science and technology for farmers is always discussed.

In particular, the veterans' association and the farmers' association have established a successful business club with nearly 30 members, meeting every three months to exchange and share experiences in production and techniques for caring for vegetables to ensure safety and high yields. Besides growing vegetables, the entire hamlet also has 45 households specializing in vegetable trading. Thanks to this, currently 75 out of 220 households are wealthy, and the number of poor households has decreased to only 7, mainly consisting of elderly and sick people.

Not content with just restructuring crop patterns, the leaders and people of Quynh Luong have also cleverly utilized information technology and the Internet to promote their brand, bringing their clean vegetable products to a wider market and enriching their homeland. To date, out of a total of 248 hectares of agricultural land in Quynh Luong, 245 hectares have been converted to growing clean vegetables such as spring onions, shallots, garlic, tomatoes, cauliflower, etc. These crops have high economic value, especially during off-season, averaging 250 million VND/hectare, sometimes reaching 600-700 million VND/hectare, with a production of 18,000 tons/year.

Thanks to online marketing, Quynh Luong vegetables are now available nationwide, even in large supermarkets like Metro, and have gained consumer trust. A key factor in the Quynh Luong clean vegetable brand is the establishment of Phu Luong Cooperative – the first cooperative in Quynh Luong to grow safe vegetables and also the first in the province to produce safe vegetables according to VietGAP standards in 2010. Farmers are guided and encouraged to produce clean products, ensuring stable productivity, quality, food safety, and market access, thus securing a strong position in the market.

That achievement was not accidental; it was the result of a concerted effort and a competitive labor and production process by the Party Committee, the government, and the people of this area. Mr. Ho Chi Tung, Secretary of the Party Committee of Quynh Luong commune, shared: “With the spirit of competition to ‘work quickly/work well/work abundantly’ and the approach of ‘relying on the strength and spirit of the people to create happiness for the people,’ in which cadres and Party members are exemplary leaders, in 1998, based on the commune’s thematic resolutions on restructuring and developing the economy to increase income, a real ‘revolution’ took place on the agricultural land of Quynh Luong. People brought electricity to the fields, proactively dug wells, equipped themselves with pumps, and actively consolidated and exchanged land plots to grow vegetables.”

To date, the electricity system has been largely completed across the vast vegetable fields, with approximately 4,000 wells, several thousand pumps, and about 700 generators owned by the people to provide backup power during power outages. Thanks to this, even during the hot, dry summer months, the vegetable fields of Quynh Luong remain lush and green. The irrigation and spraying system for off-season vegetables in Quynh Luong consistently yields high productivity and economic value compared to other vegetable-growing regions. To encourage people to diversify their crops and increase productivity per unit area, the commune government has invested in developing production models, improving farmland, and especially upgrading the internal drainage and irrigation systems. To date, the commune has completed 800 meters of drainage canals and 1.4 kilometers of drainage canals under the project.

Thanks to the intensified movement to enrich the land under the land allocation program, Quynh Luong commune has been motivated to focus its resources on building a new rural area, achieving 15 out of 19 criteria. The rural economic landscape has undergone significant changes, the material and spiritual lives of the people have continuously improved, the average per capita income in the first six months of 2013 reached 23 million VND/person, the poverty rate decreased to 4%, the percentage of wealthy households is 30%, and the percentage of well-off households is 50%. Schools and health stations have all met national standards, and the commune is being recommended by competent authorities to the Government for a commendation flag…

Khanh Ly