Cassava - a tree to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty in the resettlement area of ​​Ban Ve Hydropower Plant

(Baonghean)With an area of ​​nearly 1,000 hectares of cassava raw materials in Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam communes, cassava has become the main crop, the main source of income helping more than 2,000 households resettled at Ban Ve Hydropower Plant to stabilize their lives on the new land...

Now, going to the resettlement area of ​​​​Ve village in Ngoc Lam and Thanh Son communes (Thanh Chuong), we can see the rapid changes of this land. The bare hills that were eroded a few years ago due to improper land reclamation techniques have now "changed their appearance" with vast, green hills of cassava and timber trees. Visiting Cha Coong 2 village in Thanh Son commune, it was at the time when the villagers were very busy harvesting cassava.

Met Mr. Vi Van May carrying cassava from the stream. He said: His family planted 2 hectares of cassava, for a month now, every day he and his family go into the stream to pull cassava. Every day, about 500 kg of cassava is imported to the factory. Thanks to cassava, his family has income and a stable life here. Cha Coong 2 has 63 households, all of whom reclaim land to grow cassava for raw materials. As the village was the last to move in, the land allocated according to the quota has been encroached upon by the previous households to grow hybrid acacia and cassava, so until now they have not received any land for production.

In order for people to have a source of income and stabilize their lives, the Party Committee and the village executive committee have encouraged households to go further, deeper into difficult and remote areas to reclaim land and grow cassava. Party members and exemplary households reclaimed land and planted cassava first. Seeing that the plants were good and had many tubers, the people all followed suit. Cha Coong 2 village, although it was a later village and had no land for production, was the village with the largest area of ​​reclaimed cassava, with each household having on average more than 1 hectare of cassava, and many households having 2-4 hectares. Secretary of the Cha Coong Party Committee, Luong Van Hoan, said: “People have stabilized their lives thanks to cassava. The money from selling cassava has been the main source of income for people since they arrived in the new land. Pulling up the cassava, gathering it, and then having someone come by car to buy it, paying immediately, is also convenient. Therefore, the Party Committee determined that the task in the coming time is still to focus on leading people to grow cassava to increase income and stabilize their lives.”

We visited the new high-yield cassava model TC1 (Thanh Chuong 1) with a scale of 2.5 hectares in Nhan Nhinh village (Ngoc Lam commune) right at the time when the model was preparing the process to conduct a field workshop, evaluate productivity and output to recognize the new variety for mass production. Nhan Nhinh village has 25 households, all of whom participate in growing cassava according to the model. With the investment of Intimex Thanh Chuong cassava factory to provide seeds and fertilizers, and people planted and cared for it according to the technical instructions, the cassava model developed evenly with outstanding productivity, according to preliminary assessment, the productivity could reach 70 tons/ha. Seeing me wondering about the productivity of TC1 cassava, village chief Kha Van Phuc and commune agricultural officer Luong Thanh Hai turned around for a long time before pulling the cassava bush out of the ground. It was a surprise, the cassava bush had many tubers, large and long tubers interwoven in a circle under the root neck of the tree. The cassava bush has more than 10 tubers, if calculated the weight is more than 10 kg. With an average yield of 60 tons/ha as estimated by Mr. Hung, Head of the Factory's Agricultural Affairs Department, each hectare of the new high-yield cassava variety TC1 can generate an income of over 70 million VND (the factory buys at the field price from 1,200-1,400 VND/kg), minus the investment cost, cassava growers "pocket" 50 million VND/ha. Nhan Nhinh village chief Kha Van Phuc excitedly said: "With the yield of the new cassava variety like this, the whole village will focus on growing cassava. People will focus on doing business in the new place, without any other thoughts...".



Nhan Nhinh village chief Kha Van Phuc talked with Nghe An Newspaper reporter about cassava growing techniques for high productivity.

It can be affirmed that, since the more than 2 thousand households resettled in Ban Ve to Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam communes, cassava has become a lifeline to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, and is the main source of income for the people. Arriving in the resettlement area of ​​Ban Ve at the peak of the cassava harvest season, the households all focused on digging and carrying cassava from all the hills and valleys inside to the outside road to sell to the factory.

According to the report of Intimex Thanh Chuong Cassava Factory, the cassava area of ​​the two communes is about 1,000 hectares (all of which are KM94 variety) with an output of about 25-30 thousand tons of cassava tubers per crop. With the current purchase price, each crop, people in the two communes earn nearly 30 billion VND from growing and selling raw cassava.

Although the cassava area of ​​Thanh Son and Ngoc Lam communes accounts for about 30% of the planned cassava growing area of ​​Thanh Chuong district (planned to be 3,000 hectares according to the project), the quality and economic efficiency of cassava per unit area in the resettlement area is still very low, only about 20% (about 200 hectares) apply the correct technical care process, are supported by the factory with seeds, and are lent fertilizer without interest, the remaining area is still spontaneously planted by the old production method. People do not have the technique to invest in intensive land improvement to grow many crops, but mostly do it naturally, exploiting the land, so the land quickly becomes infertile, and cassava yield gradually decreases in the following crops.

Meanwhile, available manures and green manures, factory policies and mechanisms can be applied to people, but because there is no specific development priority plan and no dedicated guidance, people have not benefited much. Mr. Tran Quoc Hoan, Deputy General Director of Intimex Vietnam Joint Stock Company, Director of Intimex Cassava Factory, affirmed: "The factory will purchase all raw materials for people, and at the same time apply the mechanism of seed support and interest-free fertilizer loans for the entire cassava area that people can grow. However, it is necessary to review and plan specifically, and at the same time focus on promoting model building, agricultural and forestry extension work, then cassava will be a strategic and effective crop for people in resettlement areas."

Obviously, the fact that the resettled people in the two communes of Ngoc Lam and Thanh Son have strongly developed cassava cultivation is inevitable and objective because cassava is no longer strange to the people, does not require high technology, and is suitable for the people's farming level. Confused about what to plant and what to raise to exploit the allocated land fund, to ensure their livelihood while the consumption of cassava products is easy, so all households grow cassava. One concern is that most of the people are only familiar with natural production, and do not have intensive solutions to increase productivity and economic efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to re-evaluate the position and role of cassava in the actual context of the resettlement area to have reasonable planning and investment, only then will the people in the resettlement communes have more basis to stabilize their lives.

Hong Son