Resettlement land: Hope for green, warm and prosperous

(Baonghean) - In the last days of May, returning to the resettlement commune of Ngoc Lam (Thanh Chuong), the joy of receiving the "red book" for residential land of many people here is still fresh. However, besides the joy, there are still many concerns and worries about the lack of determination in thinking and doing of many people after nearly 10 years of resettlement in this land.

Lack of land, still leaving land fallow

Without land for production and unfamiliar with new production practices, many resettled people in Ngoc Lam commune have left their new homes, returned to their old hometowns to earn a living by doing many jobs, and even went abroad to work illegally. For example, in Ta Xieng village, according to the reflection of Party cell secretary Luong Van Hung, there are currently dozens of people in the village working illegally abroad, many of whom have abandoned their children to their grandparents and returned to Tuong Duong to make a living. Mr. Hung is concerned that people are currently receiving rice support from the State for the last 2 months of resettlement, so what will they do to have rice to eat, while the whole village only has 8.8 hectares of rice land, of which 3.8 hectares are divided by the Management Board of Hydropower Plant 2, and the rest is reclaimed by the people themselves.

People in Ngoc Lam commune (Thanh Chuong) receive rice support from the State.

Not only those who go to work far away, many households stay in the new land, but still have the mindset of waiting for support from the State, refusing to rise up and take control of their lives. Sadly, among them, there is the couple of Village Chief Kim Hong and Quang Van Phan.

During the conversation, Mr. Phan confided: Born in 1983, the couple got married in 2006. In 2010, the family moved to a new place, with the compensation money from the State in hand, the couple bought wood and borrowed it from relatives and villagers to build a house, instead of accepting a resettlement house built by the State. It was not until 2014 that the couple received a small amount of rice fields divided by the Management Board of Hydropower Plant 2 in the Khe Mang area.

However, up to now, the couple's field is still abandoned. The reason given by Mr. Phan and his wife is that the family does not have buffalo or cows for draught, does not have means of production, and the field is far from home, so the couple does not have the conditions to work. Mr. Phan said that the field area was divided among more than 20 households, but many households still leave the land abandoned, because of the same conditions as his. Only the household of Party Secretary Luong Thi Liem and a few households can grow rice.

I asked, so what do you and your husband do every day? Mr. Phan and his wife replied, there is nothing to do. They want to raise buffalo, cows, pigs... but they don't have money to buy them, they don't dare borrow money from the bank, because they are afraid they won't have enough to pay! That means since the day they moved to their new place, Mr. Phan's family has only been able to rely on the monthly rice support from the State. Finally, Mr. Phan confided: Being a party member and a village chief, but still being a poor household, they are afraid that people will tell them. Knowing this, the couple has not thought of a way to make a living to overcome poverty.

Thus, it can be seen that while the commune's rice production land is very small, many of the cultivated areas are left fallow by the people. Mr. Lo Huy Hung, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ngoc Lam Commune, said: Up to now, Ngoc Lam only has about 100 hectares of rice production land. Of which, farmers reclaimed nearly 54 hectares, the rest was reclaimed by the Management Board of Hydropower Plant 2 and divided among the people. With such a small rice area, people cannot be self-sufficient in food, because according to regulations, each resettlement household is entitled to receive at least 2 sao of rice production land, Ngoc Lam has 1,400 households, so they must have 140 hectares. The newly reclaimed fields, the land is not fertile, difficult to work, so rice cultivation is difficult, while people are not familiar with the practice of land improvement and rice cultivation, so the yield is only 45 quintals/ha.

Rise up and master your life

However, besides households that do not know how to make a living, or still rely heavily on the State's support, there are still examples of diligence, hard work, and dynamism that have risen above poverty and taken the first steps to become independent and integrate into life in the new homeland. We met a young couple who dared to think and act, and with their own hands they created a rich green landscape. The small house with a thatched roof, next to the rice reclamation project in Lap village, implemented by the Hydropower Plant Management Board 2, is the residence of Mr. Kha Van Dung's family.

Ms. Luong Thi Giang (Mr. Dung's wife) happily said: After moving to the new place, like many other families, the life of 8 people in her family was unemployed and had many difficulties. With the thought that we can't just sit and wait for the State, we can make a living anywhere, as long as we are diligent and hard-working, in 2012, leaving the house for our grandparents to look after, the couple brought all 4 children to this area to set up a farm for raising and producing animals. Here, they built a small house, built a barn to raise buffalo, pigs, chickens and fenced off a piece of land to grow vegetables. Taking advantage of the large hilly land, they bought buffaloes to graze. At first, there were only 2 buffaloes, but now the herd has reproduced to 5. He and his wife also actively reclaimed 2 sao of land to grow wet rice, each year planting 2 crops, harvesting 300 kg of rice. Although it was not enough rice to eat all year round for the whole family, thanks to that, he and his wife knew how to hold a plow, sow rice seedlings, fertilize, and take care of wet rice, unlike before in Tuong Duong when they were only used to growing rice on the fields.

The land area of ​​about 200 m2 around the house, the couple cast concrete pillars, buried them as fence posts, used barbed wire to tie around, used as a place to grow vegetables, bananas, and create green vegetables on the spot for daily meals. In 1013, the family was allocated 8,000 m2 of land by the State to grow annual crops on the hillside. The couple should have dug holes to grow cassava for 2 crops, but in the end, the couple decided to use it as a place to graze buffalo, because raising buffaloes brings more money and is less difficult. Thanks to knowing how to utilize the land for livestock and production, the family's life has been much less difficult. In addition to Mr. Dung and his wife, in Ngoc Lam commune, there are many other families who know how to utilize the actual potential to develop production, gradually stabilizing their lives.

For example, in Ta Xieng village, the State has allocated tea land, forest land and nearly 4 hectares of rice fields. Now, many families have planted tea for harvest, many green acacia hills have appeared, and people know how to take care of buffaloes and rice fields. Or in Xieng Lam village, Mr. Vi Van Hung knows how to take advantage of the stream water to install a water pipe to bring water to his house to serve production and livestock farming. He built a hut on the hill to plant and take care of the forest, raise buffaloes and chickens, dig a pond to raise fish, etc. Mr. Hung is a typical example of Ngoc Lam commune in developing the family economy, thanks to his perseverance, diligence and hard work.

The project to reclaim rice fields is being carried out by the Hydropower Management Board 2 in Lap village.

After leaving their hometowns, life in the resettlement area was still very difficult. Therefore, many people “gave up”, returning to the old mountains and forests to earn a living without fully understanding its consequences. To overcome these difficulties and shortcomings, in addition to the attention and support of local authorities and sectors, each person needs to know how to exploit their potential, actively raise livestock, produce, and strive to take control of their lives.

Mr. Lo Huy Hung, Vice Chairman of Ngoc Lam Commune People's Committee added: Currently, Hydropower Plant 2 Management Board is implementing 2 projects to reclaim rice fields of about 10 hectares, expected to be completed and divided for people to produce by the end of 2015. This area will be divided among the villages: Kim Lien, Kim Hong, Ma village and Lap village. However, to avoid the situation of fields being divided and then abandoned like before, the commune will consider dividing them among households with production conditions, not dividing them equally as before.

At this time, the commune is dividing annual crop land for 38 households in Kim Hong village, with an area of ​​30 hectares. Previously, people from other villages and communes came to plant forestry trees on this land. Now, they will wait for the people to finish harvesting before handing it over. Most of the households receiving land this time used to work far away, but now the locality is encouraging them to return to live in their new hometown. After dividing the land, the locality will propagate and instruct people to plant cassava according to the plan, gradually stabilizing their lives. Hopefully, from now on, the joy in this resettlement land will appear more and more with the green color of prosperity...

Xuan Hoang