Dramatic change in Xop Kha

Out of poverty

Xop Kha village is quite far from the center of Yen Hoa commune, the road winds halfway between the mountains. Leading us to Xop Kha village, Village Chief Lu Van Quang drove his motorbike smoothly because he was very familiar with this road.

Mr. Lu Van Quang is both the village chief and the commune's land official, so every day he travels at least 15 km from his home to the commune People's Committee. When asked about the livelihood of the people in Xop Kha village, Mr. Lu Van Quang said that the small village has 85 households, all of whom are Khmu people. About 3 years ago, nearly 80% of the households in the village were poor, but now the number of poor households has decreased by nearly half.

Surprised by the remarkable change in the poverty rate of the village, and wondering how the villagers escaped poverty so quickly, Mr. Lu Van Quang personally took us to visit Mr. Kham Van Xai's family. Mr. Xai is a long-time party member of the Xop Kha village Party Cell, and also a member of the village's elderly association. He is also a prestigious person, because he is always an example of diligence, hard work, and enthusiastic contribution to building movements and activities in the village.

As soon as I stepped into the alley, I saw Mr. Kham Van Xai busy hoeing the land and planting vegetables. Although the area of ​​vegetable garden around Mr. Xai's stilt house is not large, everywhere is clean, tidy and full of green fruits and trees...

Expressing his joy at the village's prosperity, Mr. Kham Van Xai confided that not only his family, but many other households in the village, although their children have grown up and there are only two elderly couples in the house, still maintain the habit of working. He emphasized that only by working hard can one quickly escape poverty. Moreover, diligent parents set an example for their children to follow, knowing how to take care of their families to escape poverty and become rich.

Village chief Lu Van Quang is also an example of diligence and creativity in calling on villagers to do business and build public works when for the first time Xop Kha village had a lush Thai jackfruit garden and was able to build two internal bridges.

Mr. Quang said: The garden was formed on community-protected land with 450 jackfruit trees of 53 households. This is a completely new variety of tree, planted for the first time in Xop Kha village. The jackfruit garden has been planted for more than 2 years, and now has fruit. The work of caring for, fertilizing, protecting the trees, and selling the fruit is all done by the community. It is expected that this jackfruit season, in addition to enjoying the sweet fruit grown by their own hands, each household will have a surplus to sell at 30,000 VND/kg.

In addition to the communal land area near the village cultural house that is rented to villagers to grow jackfruit, other communal land areas are also lent to villagers to grow cassava and rice. This not only increases the income of the villagers but also increases the village's operating fund. The whole village has more than 10 hectares of rice, 12 hectares of cassava, about 160 buffaloes and cows, and more than 100 pigs. Now, by planting Thai jackfruit and regularly going into the forest to collect secondary forest products such as bamboo shoots, mac khen, and growing upland melons with upland rice, many poor households have become well-off, with food and savings.

Thanks to that, in 2020, Xop Kha village had 60/85 poor households, by 2023 it had reduced to only 49 poor households, and by the end of 2024 there were only 39 poor households.

Leaving the jackfruit garden, we met Mr. Tham Van Son carrying rice from the fields. When asked, Mr. Son said that this year the rice and cassava harvest was good, so his family had more income to celebrate Tet more happily.

“More than half a hectare of rice provides enough food for the whole year. The cassava field is also growing well this year, with good prices. After harvesting the rice, my husband and I go harvest cassava. This season, we got about 500 kg of rice, and a few tons of cassava, which we can sell for about ten million VND. We are very happy,” said Mr. Tham Van Son.

Leveraging resources

Mr. Lo Van Thanh - Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tuong Duong district said that Xop Kha village has had a dramatic change in both economic life and infrastructure, largely thanks to the spirit of self-awareness, change in thinking and diligence of the cadres and villagers, and the attention of Yen Hoa commune cadres.

Mr. Thanh cited a typical example: in Xop Kha, there are two locations that are separated by the Khe Lip River flowing through. For many years, due to the lack of a bridge, they were often isolated during the rainy and stormy season. For the past two years, that situation has been gone, as 85 households have contributed money and labor to build two iron bridges across the stream, helping people travel conveniently. Going to the fields, to the commune and district centers is no longer worrying about rising water.

Mr. Lo Van Thanh was the Chairman of Yen Hoa Commune People's Committee, a party member assigned to be in charge of a cluster of villages, including Xop Kha village. During his more than 3 years of working in Yen Hoa commune, he and grassroots cadres connected and called on donors to sponsor Xop Kha village to build public works and civil works such as: repairing and upgrading the village's cultural house, building a lighting line, a solid bridge across Khe Lip stream worth 1.2 billion VND... Thanks to that, people have a place to meet, participate in cultural and artistic activities on holidays and Tet.

Along with the connection of commune officials, the State's investment support sources also contributed greatly to helping the people of Xop Kha village improve their lives and make work and production more convenient. Mr. Mong Van Vien - Vice Chairman of Yen Hoa Commune People's Committee said that in 2024, the commune will deploy public investment sources of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction.

Specifically, Project 1 supports investment in developing socio-economic infrastructure in poor communes to implement 2 projects: Xieng Lip - Xop Kha and Yen Tan - Yen Huong traffic roads. These two projects are invested by the District People's Committee with a budget of 6.8 billion VND. Currently, the project is under construction and is about to be completed and put into use. The spacious road will help people in Xop Kha village to conveniently travel, transport raw materials, trade, exchange agricultural products, and develop the economy.

In 2024, Xop Kha village is one of the villages with remarkable changes in poverty reduction rate and effective agricultural economic development, in which, most of it comes from the self-awareness and diligence of the people and the participation of officials at all levels.