The land of hardship has become less... miserable.

No longer available"look forward to, rely on"

At the end of March, the hot summer sun of Western Nghe An could not stop the enthusiasm of the residents of Group 1, Chom Muong village, Mau Duc commune, to renovate the traffic routes. The laughter and chatter filled a corner of the village.

Going down to the grassroots with us, Chairman of Mau Duc Commune People's Committee Vo Dinh Thanh stopped to chat, ask about and encourage the people. Mr. Ngan Van Tuyen, representative of residential group No. 1 happily said: "The group has 24 households, each household mobilized 1 person to work on the road, expected to be completed in 1 week. The people all determined that the road construction first serves the purpose of travel and production, then contributes to beautifying the village and hamlet".

Leaders of Mau Duc commune visited and encouraged people of Chom Muong village. Photo: KL-TN

It is known that the model of labor and production in groups and residential clusters has become a tradition in Chom Muong village. According to the village chief and Secretary of the Ngan Duc Association Party Cell: The village has 202 households and 856 people. Although life is still difficult, the people do not "wait and rely on" but voluntarily encourage and support each other to develop production and develop household economy through models of groups, associations, and fund groups.

For example, acacia and cassava growing groups (each group has about 12-15 households), in addition to contributing funds to support each other in buying seedlings, households also exchange labor to help each other plant and harvest to avoid spending money on hiring workers. Or they set up cement "wards" to help each other build essential works such as toilets, yards, gates... but the most active are the wine groups and women's savings groups.

The wine production groups bring stable income to the people of Chom Muong village. Photo: KL

While quickly checking and rearranging the wine jars, seeing a visitor, Ms. Vi Thi Dien (born in 1971) - Head of the Women's Association of Chom Muong village stopped to chat. She said: The wine making village in the village has existed for a long time, closely associated with the daily life of the Thai people, Ms. Dien herself became a new daughter-in-law and learned the craft from her mother-in-law.

At first, the wine was made by the villagers only to serve the needs of the family, to give to brothers and relatives, and gradually thanks to its special aromatic and delicious flavor.(The yeast used to brew wine is made from leaves collected by local people in the forest, creating a unique flavor that is known and sought after by more customers.

Currently, the village has 13 groups making rice wine, producing 50-60 jars of wine per day, with an average income of 16-17 million VND/person/year. In 2022, the rice wine village of Chom Muong village will be recognized as a traditional craft village by the Provincial Appraisal Council. This is also an opportunity for Chom Muong village to maintain and develop the traditional craft, create jobs, and increase income for the people.

People of Group 1, Chom Muong village build rural roads. Photo: KL

In addition to the wine group, the women of Chom Muong village also established a revolving savings association for livestock farming, with a fund of up to 40 million VND. The dynamism and creativity of the people have contributed to making Chom Muong village one of the five villages reaching the new rural finish line of Mau Duc commune, with 70% of the village roads concreted, internal traffic, and irrigation canal systems meeting the irrigation and transportation of agricultural products.

The rural electricity system ensures safety, cultural facilities, entertainment areas, physical training and sports meet all criteria, and national cultural identity is preserved and promoted. Currently, the average income per capita of the village is over 36 million/year; the poor household rate is only 11.67%.

Wine production groups in some villages and hamlets of Mau Duc commune operate continuously day and night. Photo: Hoai Thu

In Mau Duc, some villages with high poverty rates such as Ke Sung have also developed strongly in many aspects in recent years and reached the new rural destination. This result was achieved thanks to the Party Cell and the Village Management Board mobilizing people to change their thinking and working methods in production and animal husbandry, such as dividing households in the village into 11 groups to help each other in many specific ways.

Households lacking production methods are advised and guided on how to do forest gardening, animal husbandry, and are introduced to jobs. Households lacking capital are given loans for production by associations and organizations.

The groups and teams that help each other also meet regularly to evaluate the models, creating competition between households and groups. With this approach, the disadvantaged households that are helped have a strong motivation to rise up, mainly focusing on planting acacia and raising livestock. Thanks to that, from 50% of poor households, Ke Sung village now has only 12% of poor households (31% according to the new standard), with an average income per capita of over 36 million VND/year. The mobilization of people to build traffic works or cultural houses is also done very "skillfully" by Ke Sung village.

People of Ke Sung village contributed their efforts to build the village cultural house. Photo: CSCC

Contributions are divided into several installments to “spread out the people’s strength”. Families with money pay money, families without money are supported with working days. Since then, people have actively participated in contributing manpower, money, donating land, building roads, and building the village to reach the new rural finish line. Currently, Ke Sung village has over 73% of the village roads concreted, 67% of irrigation canals meeting irrigation needs for over 82% of the inner field area.

The Party cell committee and the Front Working Committee of Ke Sung village listen to and grasp the thoughts and aspirations of the people. Photo: Thanh Chung

Local leaders said that the more encouraging thing is that the consciousness of self-improvement, not waiting for or relying on the State's support policies of the ethnic people in Mau Duc commune has changed dramatically. The mindset of commodity production has replaced the old way (self-production, self-consumption), people in villages and hamlets have made efforts to develop household economy. Typically, the family of Mr. Nguyen Van Manh in Na Duoi village has transformed the hill garden into a green - clean - beautiful living space, both developing the economy and creating a highlight as a miniature tourist area, with a fish pond, a green orchard of all kinds.

Sharing with us, Mr. Nguyen Van Manh said, "On the forest garden area of ​​more than 2 hectares, in addition to growing acacia, my family also raises goats and pigs, an average of 50 pigs/batch and 1,500m²The fish pond area provides stable income. Na Duoi village has 202 households and 903 people. Currently, there are 36 households doing forest garden economy in the production area, such as Nguyen Van Manh's family.

Mr. Nguyen Van Manh (in black shirt) shares about the process of establishing a farm in the production area of ​​Na Duoi village. Photo: TN

According to the local leaders, from a low starting point, the poverty rate is high, so implementing the poverty reduction target is always the top priority task. With a total natural land area of ​​7028.74 hectares, of which agricultural land accounts for 96.54%, bringing in crop varieties suitable for soil conditions and mountainous terrain is always an issue of concern and focus for the Party Committee and the communal government. And in fact, bringing acacia trees to Mau Duc land in recent years has affirmed its economic value, contributing to changing the lives of farmers here.

Mr. Vo Dinh Thanh - Chairman of Mau Duc Commune People's Committee said: The Commune People's Committee has issued a project to develop forests, both protecting and conserving. Currently, the whole commune has 6,800 hectares of forest, of which 2,800 hectares are planted forests. In the spring crop of 2023, 250 hectares of acacia will be newly planted. In addition to afforestation, Mau Duc commune also propagates and mobilizes people to develop livestock farming with a herd of nearly 2,000 animals. At the same time, promote the role of the Fatherland Front and mass organizations to actively propagate and mobilize economic and labor restructuring, develop reasonable forms of production organization and promote production, business and services, and preserve national cultural identity.

People of Mau Duc commune welcome leaders at all levels to join in the Great Unity Festival. Photo: CSCC

Through that, some professions have gradually developed, bringing income to the people such as civil carpentry, construction, weaving, brocade weaving, making rice wine, cutting traditional medicine... From the initiative, efforts to overcome difficulties, sticking to the land and forests to develop the economy has brought changes to the people of Mau Duc commune. Currently, the average income per capita of the commune reaches 24 million VND/year, the poverty rate has decreased to 23.69%, the commune has achieved 13/19 criteria for building new rural areas, with 5/8 villages and hamlets meeting new rural standards.

Difficulties and concerns

The movement is like that, but for a commune in a difficult area like Mau Duc, there are still many concerns and worries. First of all, land management, outstanding issues, some violations have not been completely resolved, the encroachment of public land, although it has been handled, the efficiency is not high; there is still a situation where people illegally clear forests.

Faced with this reality, in addition to promoting and coordinating with functional agencies to resolve outstanding issues, we also need to propagate and mobilize people to do a good job of protecting forests, preventing forest fires, and reforesting bare hills.

The local government has actively coordinated with the Forest Protection Department to organize patrols and timely prevent some households from illegally clearing forests. In 2022 alone, Mau Duc commune coordinated with Con Cuong Forest Protection Department to handle 29 cases of illegal deforestation, transferring 179 million VND to the district for administrative violations.

An area of ​​acacia plantation for timber in Mau Duc commune (Con Cuong). Photo: Ba Hau

Another concern of the Party Committee, the government and the people is the lack of water for production and daily life in some villages, especially in the hot season. Due to the steep terrain, the water source from small streams and creeks is not enough to supply during the dry season, especially in villages such as Ke Noc, Ke Sung and Ke Trang. This problem has existed for many years. To partially resolve the difficulty, the commune is currently implementing the construction of water pipelines to supply 2 schools and 3 villages (part of Na Duoi village, part of Chom Boi village and the entire Thong Nhat village) worth 1 billion VND under the National Target Program invested by the commune.

In addition, to complete the goal of achieving new rural standards by 2025, in addition to mobilizing resources to attract investment from superiors, the Party Committee and government of Mau Duc commune have directed the application of good and creative practices and the exemplary role of cadres and party members to promote the strength of great national unity and join hands in building new rural areas.

Outdoor activities of students in Mau Duc commune. Photo: CSCC

For example, in implementing the criteria for expanding the campus of Mau Duc Secondary School to build a national standard school, the commune called on people to donate 1,500m²land, of which the family that donated the most was Mr. Ngo Ba Huyen's family, which donated 1,400m²Acacia land is 1.5 years old.

That is the heart of the people for the education of their children, the commune only supports 300m²land elsewhere and a small amount of funds directly mobilized from the commune,” said Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thanh - Chairman of Mau Duc Commune People's Committee. It is known that previously, in 2017-2018, when implementing the construction of Mau Duc - Thach Ngan road, more than 240 households in Mau Duc commune donated 23,265m²; 1,368 trees of all kinds, more than 1,361m² Fences of all kinds... with a total value of more than 1 billion VND to hand over the site to the investor.

The Fatherland Front Committee of Mau Duc commune organized cultural and artistic activities imbued with national identity on the occasion of the National Great Unity Day. Photo: CSCC

According to Ms. Ha Thi Linh - Chairwoman of the Fatherland Front Committee of Mau Duc Commune: "Whatever is beneficial to the people must be done" is the key to creating consensus in the locality. For example, to support villages to reach the new rural finish line, the Fatherland Front Committee of the commune calls for support to build works such as football fields or cultural house grounds. In 2022, the Fatherland Front Committee of the commune, together with the Party Committee of the Party Cell and the Management Board of Ke Trang Village, mobilized people to contribute working days to build a volleyball court in this village with a value of more than 40 million VND.

Along with that, through the "For the Poor" Fund campaign to support people to repair 5 "Great Solidarity" houses, build 4 livelihood models for 4 poor and near-poor households in 3 villages of Chom Muong, Chom Boi, Na Duoi, worth 20 million VND. That companionship and mutual support, though small, is the motivation for the people of Mau Duc commune to be proactive and strive to overcome difficulties step by step.

"The difficult land has become less miserable", Mrs. Ngan Thi Oanh - Chom Nuoc village happily shared with local officials. Photo: KL

Late afternoon, saying goodbye to the Mau Duc people, we will always remember the tight handshake and words of Mrs. Ngan Thi Oanh, 77 years old, in Chom Muong village: Thanks to the hard work, construction, and solidarity of the people, this difficult land is now less miserable!