The village elder is a skilled entrepreneur.

Mr. Ca Van Chuyen's integrated economic model. *Photo: Tran Nham*

For many years, Mr. Chuyen has actively promoted and encouraged people to develop their economy and alleviate poverty. He shared: "To make the most of land and water resources, I actively transformed the structure of crops and livestock. In my opinion, if I lead by example, the villagers will follow. Currently, my family has 1 hectare of coffee, 1 hectare of macadamia nuts, and an 8,000 square meter fish pond. Combined, this model provides my family with an income of over 150 million VND per year. Seeing the high economic efficiency and low labor costs of my family's combined crop and aquaculture model, many households in the village are gradually learning from and following suit."

Mr. Lo Van Tuan, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quai Nua commune, said: Due to the mountainous terrain, the livelihoods of the villagers were previously mainly low-yield slash-and-burn farming and spontaneous livestock raising, resulting in very difficult living conditions. Since 2009, when the coffee planting project began, Mr. Chuyen, the head of Bo village (before its merger into Bo Giang village), has been one of the pioneers in changing the crop structure. At the same time, as the village head and a respected figure in the community, Mr. Chuyen actively encouraged the villagers to participate.

In 2015, a macadamia nut planting project began in the district; Bo village was one of the first to switch to this model. Thanks to his position and prestige, Mr. Chuyen encouraged most of the villagers to learn from and follow suit. To maximize the local advantages, in the valleys, the village elder Chuyen encouraged people to build ponds for aquaculture and plant elephant grass as feed for fish and other livestock. Currently, Bo Giang village has 144 households with over 600 inhabitants (36 of whom are still poor). Through these integrated models, the villagers have gradually stabilized their lives, their economy has developed, and sustainable poverty reduction has been promoted.

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