A Luoi is a border district located in the West of Thua Thien Hue province. With a population of 14,133 households/53,828 people, of which ethnic minorities account for 77.5%. The whole district has 12 border communes; 16 communes are in ethnic minority areas.
Due to natural conditions, limited land for production... before July 2024, A Luoi was still a poor district in the country. With the attention of the higher authorities, especially the timely investment from the National Target Program 1719, A Luoi has made great strides in socio-economic development and poverty reduction. From the achieved results, in July 2024, A Luoi district was officially recognized by the Prime Minister as having escaped poverty in Decision No. 702/QD-TTG.
The good news is that in the ethnic minority community in A Luoi, there are many typical individuals who have developed the economy and become rich right in their hometown and village. Among them, Mr. Nguyen Van Manh (Pa Co) in Hong Thai commune is a typical example.
Like many young families in Hong Thai commune (A Luoi), Pa Co man Nguyen Van Manh suffered from poverty after moving out. Although his parents gave him 1 hectare of land as a dowry, acacia trees must be planted for 5 years before they can be harvested. Even if a field has a good harvest, it is not enough rice for the whole year. When they first moved out, Manh and his wife needed many things such as a house, a well, etc. to stabilize their lives. Not to mention that when they have children, food and clothing will become even more difficult.
With his industrious and hard-working nature, Mr. Manh works as a hired acacia peeler, so his family has enough food and clothing. “I thought that if I only peeled acacia and worked in the garden, it would be difficult to raise my children properly. So I decided to boldly borrow money from the Social Policy Bank to buy 3 breeding cows,” Mr. Manh shared.
Thanks to diligently planting grass and taking good care of the cows, Mr. Manh's family's cows have grown and reproduced well. From 3 starting cows, Mr. Manh now has a herd of more than a dozen cows. Mr. Manh always maintains 4 mother cows to reproduce for breeding calves. Each year, Mr. Manh's family's 4 mother cows give birth to 4 calves. In addition to selling breeding calves, Mr. Manh also has beef calves to supply to the A Luoi beef project.
With the income from selling calves every year, Mr. Manh saved up to invest in building barns to develop his pig herd. At first, he and his wife only raised pigs for meat, then raised 4 more sows to be proactive and reduce the cost of buying piglets. Each litter of sows gives birth to about 12-15 piglets, 4 mother pigs give birth in rotation, so Mr. Manh's family has enough piglets to raise without having to buy. At its peak, the number of pigs in Mr. Manh's family's herd reached 20 pigs for meat.
The stable income of Mr. Nguyen Van Manh's family from selling calves and pigs has helped the couple build a spacious house. At the same time, they also have the conditions to raise their children to study properly. Living on their own in poverty, with their diligent and hardworking nature, Mr. Manh's family has become a well-off household in the Pa Co community in Hong Thai commune.
Not stopping there, Mr. Manh and his wife also invested in building 2 cages to raise grass carp on the Ta Renh River right next to their house. Grass carp are harvested once a year, sometimes harvested alternately by selling large fish, keeping small fish to continue raising. The two cages yield nearly 30 million VND each year. When the harvest season comes, the couple is busy with rice again, because now in addition to 1 sao of family land, he also rents 5 more sao of land to sow and grow. Not only is there enough to eat all year round, the rice from those 5 sao of rice fields is also enough to raise chickens and ducks...
To ensure sustainable livestock farming, Mr. Manh attended a veterinary course. After completing the course, Mr. Manh was equipped with knowledge on disease prevention, control, and treatment for livestock and poultry; veterinary hygiene; and how to use veterinary drugs in livestock farming. Thanks to that, economic efficiency in livestock farming has been raised to a new level, and risks have been minimized.
From a poor household, Mr. Manh's family has now built a spacious house. In particular, Mr. Manh's economic model of combining livestock and crop farming has become a typical model in developing household economy in Hong Thai commune.
Another thing to note is that Mr. Nguyen Van Manh is very trusted by the local people. In particular, he is always willing to help families and people. Any family with sick pigs or chickens would ask Mr. Manh to come and inject them and give them medicine. On such occasions, Mr. Manh enthusiastically shares his experience in raising pigs and cows to develop the family economy. Mr. Manh also encourages and "spreads" the spirit of enthusiasm for work to have an increasingly prosperous life. The model of raising grass carp in cages on the Ta Renh River has now spread to many households. This model is also being planned to be replicated by the Hong Thai locality.
It can be said that not only knowing how to enrich himself, Pa Co young man Nguyen Van Manh is also contributing to strongly spreading the spirit of escaping poverty of the people in Hong Thai. Accordingly, Pa Co young man Nguyen Van Manh was honored to receive a Certificate of Merit from the Chairman of the People's Committee of Thua Thien Hue province for being a typical example in the ethnic minority and mountainous areas of Thua Thien Hue province, period 2021 - 2023.
Implementing National Target Programs in Thua Thien Hue: Handing over livelihood models to create opportunities to escape poverty
Comment (0)