Building production models in mountainous areas and ethnic minority areas - Lack of sustainability

(Baonghean) -For a long time, the Party and the State have invested a lot of money to build production and livestock models in mountainous areas and ethnic minority areas. All the models have been successful, but when the cadres leave, those models cannot be maintained, causing waste of State money.

For example, in the mountainous district of Con Cuong, thanks to bringing new varieties into livestock production and actively reclaiming and restoring the land, the area of ​​wet rice cultivation was previously only 800 - 900 hectares, but in 2012 the whole district had over 1,900 hectares of wet rice fields with 2 crops; The area of ​​corn, peanuts and beans was over 2,000 hectares, producing 3 crops a year. The rice yield previously only reached 15-18 quintals/ha/year, but now, thanks to the introduction of new varieties, it has reached 55-60 quintals/ha/crop. Many villages, thanks to knowing how to invest in good fertilization such as Pha village, To village, Nua village (Yen Khe); Xieng village, Thai Son village, Nam Son village (Mon Son); Thanh Binh village, Tong Xan village (Thach Ngan)... the wet rice yield reached 80-90 quintals/ha/crop. The total food output of the district in 2012 reached a record of over 29,317 tons, bringing the average food output to over 450 kg/person/year.



Clean vegetable model in Quyet Tien village (Chi Khe - Con Cuong).

In addition to rice, Con Cuong has also built over 3,000 models of combined agricultural, forestry, garden, pond, barn, and forest farms (VACR). Up to now, there are over 300 production, livestock, and crop models that have brought high efficiency, generating an income of 100 - 150 million VND/year/household. Promoting the strengths of mountainous grasslands, many households have developed cattle and buffalo raising from dozens to hundreds of heads, such as Mr. Le Viet Dinh (Dinh village), Le Van Hien (Met village, Binh Chuan commune); Mr. Duong Van Phu (Pha village, Yen Khe commune) and many other households in Luc Da, Mau Duc, Thach Ngan, Don Phuc communes... In the past two years, Con Cuong district has focused on building production and livestock models in the direction of commodity production such as: Model of growing green squash and watermelon in Met village, Luc Da commune; model of growing shallots for export in Yen Khe commune, growing hot peppers in Bong Khe commune; raising local black pigs in Chi Khe commune; Growing cucumbers, growing squash in Lang Khe... All of the above models were carried out in ethnic minority areas, with technical guidance on capital investment, seeds, and product consumption. The implemented models were all successful beyond expectations. Localities that applied the models greatly improved the people's income and living standards. The above fields brought in an income of about 100 million VND/ha.

The point to discuss here is that all the above models, when there are cadres, capital support, seeds, fertilizers, etc., people produce and raise livestock successfully. On the contrary, when the cadres withdraw, the funding is no longer supported, people do not continue to implement, the model is not effective. Specifically, Con Cuong district introduced winter corn to grow on two-rice crop land in the communes of Mon Son, Luc Da, Yen Khe, Thach Ngan... When there are cadres focusing on directing, eating, living, working together, the winter corn fields on two-rice crop land in Mon Son, Luc Da, Thach Ngan... are green and lush. After nearly 100 days of implementation, the winter corn crop on the rice fields has a high yield of 60-70 quintals/ha. The following year the district continued to implement, but when the cadres withdrew, the corn was flooded, people did not drain, did not invest in fertilization and inevitably failed, the next year the people did not do it again, the winter corn model on two-rice crop land failed. The vegetable production models in Luc Da, Yen Khe, and the pig farming model in Chi Khe... can only be carried out when there are staff and investment funds. When the above factors are no longer present, the models fail.

Not only that, in Tuong Duong district, a decade ago, the State invested tens of billions of VND to reclaim rice fields on both sides of Huoi Nguyen and Khe Yen streams in Yen Hoa, Yen Na and Yen Thang communes. Thanks to the investment in land reclamation, the terraced rice fields on both sides of the streams above have produced two good rice crops every year, with productivity no less than that of the plains. When there was a policy to collect all the gold in the Ban Ve and Khe Bo hydroelectric reservoirs, instead of the rice fields of the past, there are now piles of pebbles left over from gold mining. Dozens of hectares of rice fields, costing tens of billions of VND, are no longer there and cannot be there because of gold mining. Did the people sell their fields to gold miners?!

Then there are dozens of tree planting and forest planting projects... not yet fully listed, but certainly no longer exist, ineffective. State budget money is lost and forests are still severely destroyed.

Thus, it is difficult to deploy models and projects to ethnic minorities, and it is even more difficult to build successful production models. However, when building and deploying successful models, effective production and livestock farming, we do not organize handovers, do not assign responsibility to local Party committees and authorities that benefit from the project to continue to maintain and replicate the models, but instead contract them out to the people, so the models cannot continue.

Article and photos: Phung Van Mui (Con Cuong District Party Committee)