Quynh Minh: Increased productivity and value of vegetables after "converting" land

(Baonghean) - Farmers in Quynh Minh commune (Quynh Luu) have a tradition of growing vegetables. After implementing land consolidation according to Directive 08 of the Provincial Party Committee, Quynh Minh's land not only creates high productivity and output of commercial vegetables, but people have also been importing high-quality vegetable varieties from other provinces into intensive cultivation, creating a variety of products to serve market demand.

The Quynh Minh fields are green with green onions, cabbage, kohlrabi and sweet cabbage these days. During the past heavy rains, the vegetables still grow well and are not waterlogged thanks to the planned and renovated internal irrigation system, built in connection with the 4-6m wide road system, convenient for bringing machinery into production and consuming products.

Farmers in Quynh Minh commune (Quynh Luu) take care of and harvest vegetables.

Mr. Hoang Van Tuan, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: The reality in Quynh Minh proves that land consolidation and encouraging farmers to accumulate land to develop large-scale production in agriculture, implementing industrialization and modernization of rural agriculture is a correct policy that is in line with the people's wishes and the trend of multi-sector economic development. After land consolidation and plot exchange, it has created favorable conditions for specializing in the production of commodity vegetables, gradually shifting the agricultural labor structure to develop other occupations in the direction of redistributing labor "whoever is good at what job does what job". This is a commune with a small land area and a large population, the average agricultural land per capita is very low, only 330m2/person, previously each household had an average of 5.9 plots, fragmented land, ineffective production, the internal irrigation system has not been planned, the land has been abandoned for a long time and has become "dead" land.

After Directive 08 was issued, the Party Committee Standing Committee focused on directing and thoroughly disseminating the directive to each party member and to all people, thereby contributing ideas to build the commune's land consolidation and plot exchange project; considering this an important and extensive political activity for cadres and people to contribute ideas to build a project that closely linked economic interests to each household. The political system from the commune down to the hamlets really got involved, mobilizing its union members, exemplary party members and cadres to take the lead in the movement, creating high consensus among the people so that the commune could successfully organize the land consolidation and plot exchange. After the land consolidation and plot exchange, the whole commune had 3,239 plots left, a reduction of 2,436 plots (a reduction of 43.7%), the land was zoned in a convenient and convenient area for care and harvesting. The commune has structured more than 100 hectares of specialized vegetable land, with 3-4 crop rotations each year, with an average yield of 22 tons/ha/crop, and an annual output of over 10,000 tons of various vegetables, with an agricultural income value of 45.4 billion VND, accounting for 38.4% of the total income of the whole commune. People's lives have been improved, the cultivated area has been closed, and the fields have been re-planned with a system of irrigation canals. In particular, the canal system has been basically concreted, so despite the recent heavy rainfall, it has still been drained very well.

With state and local budget funds, the commune has built dozens of kilometers of concrete ditches, 3 275KVA transformer stations and unloaded dozens of kilometers of 0.2kV - 0.4kV power grid to serve production. The total investment value for the irrigation system in the whole commune is tens of billions of VND. In addition, people have invested their own capital to build nearly 2,000 wells and drilled wells to proactively source irrigation water. Many households have the initiative to invest tens of millions of VND in automatic misting irrigation systems, freeing up labor and saving production costs. In particular, after the Land Law came into effect, the land was granted by the State for an additional term, people were really confident in investing in intensive cultivation to increase crop productivity, focusing on improving the fields with thousands of working days and bringing hundreds of cubic meters of sand to improve clay fields; The previously abandoned area has now been restored and put into use, the land has become more fertile, thanks to which crop productivity has increased significantly. Previously, the average income per hectare was 100 million VND, then 150 million VND, but now many fields have reached more than 200 million VND/ha/year. Hundreds of farming households in Quynh Minh have become rich by working hard on the fields that the state has given them the right to use.

However, with the current trend of vegetable development, the commune is mobilizing people to supplement the crop structure, diversify the types of vegetables with high economic value, and make a breakthrough in intensive cultivation of beans, peas, celery, leeks... to supply the market, to continuously increase the economic value per unit area. Mr. Ho Dien Vy, Chairman of the Commune Farmers' Association, added: "Currently, the Farmers' Association is building a pilot model of growing okra on sandy soil. The advantages of this variety are short season, high yield, and the product is popular in the markets of provinces and Hanoi city. This variety was previously grown in the southern provinces, but through research on the characteristics of okra, it is similar to some beans grown in the North. The advantage is that the economic value is quite high compared to many other local varieties. If the model is successful, this will be a new direction for the local agricultural sector."

Although there are still many difficulties, with a team of experienced, sharp-minded cadres who grasp the market mechanism, combined with the diligence and creativity of farmers, it will be a lever to boost the economy of the commune and promote efficiency after land consolidation in the spirit of Directive 08 of the Provincial Party Standing Committee in the coming years.

Pham Huu Hon

(People's Committee of Quynh Minh Commune - Quynh Luu)