YEN HOA COMMUNE (TUONG DUONG): A bright spot in hunger eradication and poverty reduction

(Baonghean) - In recent times, Yen Hoa commune (Tuong Duong) has made significant progress in poverty reduction, creating a premise for the locality to confidently strive to rise up in the following years. That is also the basis for the locality to determine higher goals and tasks in the 2015 - 2020 term...

Women of Yen Hoa commune (Tuong Duong) in the planting season.

Yen Hoa commune is located about 50 km from the district center, is home to 3 ethnic groups: Thai, Kho Mu and Kinh, of which the Thai ethnic group accounts for 84.6%. Yen Hoa is a particularly difficult commune, benefiting from Resolution 30a/CP of the Government. The lives of the people here face many difficulties and hardships, including poverty and backwardness. That situation forces Yen Hoa to solve the problem of promoting existing advantages to shift the economic structure, gradually eliminate hunger, reduce poverty and improve living standards, strengthen social security and help households with special difficulties.

We went to Dinh Yen village to learn about the lives of the villagers. From afar, the red-tiled stilt houses were faintly visible among the green hills... Happily welcoming guests, Village Chief Luong Van Thang shared: "Compared to five or seven years ago, Dinh Yen is now much different. Hunger and poverty are being pushed back, many families have purchased modern conveniences. Thanks to the attention of the Party and the State, many directions for economic development are opening up. Surely our village will soon be free from poverty...".

Pig farming model in Dinh Yen village, Yen Hoa commune (Tuong Duong).

Dinh Yen village has 128 households with nearly 400 people. Previously, the main source of income was from slash-and-burn farming, but the land is increasingly barren and infertile, the weather is complicated, so productivity is limited, output is unstable, and life is surrounded by poverty. In recent years, thanks to the application of scientific and technical advances, promoting livestock farming (buffalo, cow, pig) and afforestation, people have more income, and life is gradually improving. In particular, Dinh Yen village has planned a grazing area for buffalo and cows far from residential areas, ensuring both food sources and environmental hygiene. In addition, the village is also supported with a project to develop traditional brocade weaving and effectively use support funds, so people's income is increasingly stable. To prove it, Village Chief Thang gave convincing numbers: In 2014, the village had 64 poor households, by 2015 at this time it had decreased to 50 households....

Leaving Dinh Yen village, we passed Xop Chang village, which borders Nga My commune. Xop Chang is located next to Highway 48C, which is an important advantage to promote socio-economic development and expand exchanges. Therefore, the lives of the Thai ethnic people here have changed a lot. Starting with the conversion of crop structure and livestock development. The village has 69 households, in 2013 the village had 56 poor households, in 2014 it decreased to 46 households and in 2015 this number was 34. Village chief Luong Van Dung said: "Currently, Xop Chang people are actively developing livestock and poultry farming and promoting afforestation. Xoan and lat trees are covering the barren, discolored hills with green; under the canopy are melons and cassava planted by the people to keep the grass clean and to have more income according to the motto "take short-term to support long-term". All of this promises a big change in the lives of Xop Chang people"...

Through other villages of Yen Hoa commune such as Hao village, Ngon village, Cooc village, Canh Khin, Xieng Lip... we can witness the changes and improvements. That is the result of the efforts of the cadres and people of the whole commune along with the attention and support of the Party and the State through policies, programs and projects to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty. Yen Hoa people realize that their land and forest capital can promote the development of livestock farming and growing timber trees as well as short-term crops. The economic restructuring originates from that change in awareness. From there, typical models have appeared for the people of the whole commune to learn and apply, such as livestock farming in Ngon village, raising porcupines and black pigs in Canh Khin village, growing rattan in Vang Mon village, growing melons in Xop Chang village, growing xoan and lat in Dinh Yen village...

People have boldly changed their way of thinking, their way of doing, borrowed capital to develop production, invested money and effort to develop the household economy, and increased income from many different sources. Thanks to that, the lives of Yen Hoa people have gradually stabilized, the village has changed day by day. And most importantly, the poverty rate in Yen Hoa has decreased significantly, within 3 years (from 2013 - 2015) it has decreased by 36.9% (from 79% to 42.1%). This is truly an impressive number, demonstrating the breakthrough and rise in the economic development process of the cadres and people of Yen Hoa commune. Thanks to that, Yen Hoa has become a bright spot of Tuong Duong district in the work of hunger eradication and poverty reduction.

Discussing the results achieved by the locality in recent years, Comrade Lo Thai Sinh, Chairman of Yen Hoa Commune People's Committee, said that in the leadership, direction, management and operation of the Party Committee and the government, it is necessary to know what the people lack, the causes, in order to find appropriate ways and effective models. For State support funds, it is necessary to send cadres to the villages to inspect and supervise the implementation, ensuring the right subjects and purposes. Regarding the development orientation in the following years of the commune, the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: "Promoting livestock development and crop diversification has been proven to be a reasonable direction, so we will continue to research, learn and implement closely in each stage. In addition, it is important to expand exchanges and find markets for product consumption. With that direction, the Party Committee, government and people of Yen Hoa are confident that they will reach new changes".

KIEN - PHUONG