Female engineer passionate about clean vegetable production

In 2007, after graduating with a degree in plant protection engineering, Kieu Thi Hue, from An Tuong commune (now An Nhan commune - Vinh Tuong) worked as a technician at the Provincial Plant Protection Department (now the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development).

Here, with the role of guiding farmers to produce safe vegetables and fruits (organic and organic vegetable production), with the passion and determination to create a clean vegetable production area that always motivates her, especially creating a stable output to help farmers feel secure in production.

In 2014, Ms. Hue borrowed capital to establish the Vinh Phuc Safe Vegetable Cooperative - headquartered in Kim Long Commune (Tam Duong) with her as Director. In the early days of its establishment, the Cooperative had only 7 members, its main activity was to purchase clean vegetables from farmers.

Engineer Kieu Thi Hue on the safe vegetable field.

By 2017, the cooperative had 40 members with a total clean vegetable production area of ​​nearly 20 hectares, planned into 3 concentrated production areas in Kim Long and Van Hoi communes (Tam Duong) and Ho Son commune (Tam Dao).

To ensure food safety and hygiene for the products reaching consumers, Ms. Hue has linked and managed the chain from production to consumption, controlling the quality of technical standards, helping farmers feel secure in production and consumers feel secure in using safe vegetable products.

To produce clean vegetables sustainably in the long term, she actively applies the technique of covering with plastic film to produce vegetables and fruits, bringing high efficiency because it retains moisture well, limits weeds, loosens the soil, thereby helping farmers change the habit of indiscriminately using pesticides for crops, especially banned pesticides for crops.

At the same time, effectively deploy many production models such as: "Supporting the production chain - Consumption of safe luffa products according to VietGAP"; "Application of microbiological technology in the production of highly active Trichoderma sp preparations to prevent diseases on crops and rice"; "Testing biological fertilizers on luffa"...

The Cooperative has designed logos, labels, packaging, registered barcodes and codes for products before supplying them to the market. With a serious approach and following the correct technical process, the Cooperative has been granted VietGAP Certificate for vegetables and fruits such as chayote, luffa, and gourd; and has been granted a Certificate of facility meeting food safety conditions in the production and processing of vegetables and fruits. Each year, the Cooperative supplies the market with 400 - 500 tons of safe dried fruits with a revenue of 2 - 2.5 billion VND.

From 2020 to present, Vinh Phuc Safe Vegetable Cooperative has linked up and become a trusted partner of many businesses inside and outside the province distributing food to school kitchens and industrial kitchens.

All products of households participating in production for the cooperative are purchased at a price 1,000 - 2,000 VND/kg higher than the market price. The income of members is on average 5 - 6 million VND/person/month. Thereby, helping farmers to be confident and excited about production.

In recent years, the cooperative has introduced a number of new varieties such as lemon squash, purple cabbage, and water spinach, and has also developed pre-processed chayote shoots and young chayote shoots to meet the increasingly high and diverse needs of consumers.

In recent years, Ms. Hue and her family have expanded the type of tourism combined with the Homestay experience in Trung My commune (Binh Xuyen), attracting a large number of tourists, especially students, to experience planting, harvesting vegetables and fruits, fishing, and preparing food on the spot, etc.

With its achievements in the production and consumption of clean vegetables, Vinh Phuc Clean Vegetable Cooperative was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as "Unit with outstanding achievements in implementing the Resolution of the National Assembly and the Decision of the Prime Minister on developing 15,000 cooperatives and the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives operating effectively, 2018-2019".

In 2020, Director of Kieu Thi Hue Cooperative received a Certificate of Merit from the Provincial People's Committee for "Outstanding achievements in the emulation movement to innovate and develop agricultural cooperatives according to the 2012 Law on Cooperatives".

Article and photos: Xuan Hung

Source: http://baovinhphuc.com.vn/Multimedia/Images/Id/126866/Nu-ky-su-dam-me-san-xuat-rau-sach