BTO - Coming to the three coastal communes of Tan Thanh, Tan Thuan and Thuan Quy in the last days of the year, people here seem more excited than in previous years. Although it is a coastal commune, people mainly live by coastal exploitation, but thanks to the locality diversifying people's livelihoods with many suitable occupations, people here have gradually risen out of poverty.
From the poor commune of the district
The Tan Thuan Commune Fishermen's Community Association has just held a conference to summarize 5 years of operation. Attending the conference that day were nearly 180 members, who are fishermen in the area who voluntarily joined this community association. Mr. Dau Trong Trung - Chairman of the Tan Thuan Commune Fishermen's Community Association excitedly shared: "This is a coastal commune, so the whole commune is mainly small fishing boats. Around 2018, this commune was considered a poor commune of the district, the people's lives were very difficult, the reason was due to depleted aquatic resources and people fishing indiscriminately. At that time, most fishermen left the sea to go ashore. In 2018, with the attention of the Department of Fisheries, the Provincial Fisheries Association, and local authorities at all levels, and after 12 meetings to collect opinions, the Tan Thuan Commune Fishermen's Community Association was officially launched. From the initial 40 members, up to now, 178 households have applied to join the Fishermen's Community Association. That result is enough to prove that the association operates effectively, the aquatic resources here have revived surprisingly. People who previously left the sea have all returned to do well in business." Mr. Trung also proved this when he showed me the spacious Thai-roofed houses in the village that are springing up more and more, cars in the area are no longer a distant thing. In particular, many families have the conditions to send their children to a proper education, improving the people's knowledge.
As the former Chairman of the Commune Farmers' Association, he knows that, in addition to fishing, the lives of the people of Tan Thuan commune mainly depend on agricultural production, in which the main crop is dragon fruit with an area of over 1,700 hectares. Although in 2022, the price of dragon fruit made the people here miserable, it cannot be denied that the "green dragon" was once a "rich tree" that helped many farmers in Tan Thuan change their lives. In the last days of the year, information about the price of dragon fruit being high made households that persisted with this crop feel more excited.
For example, Ms. Kieu Thi Thuan (Hiep Nhon village) has been growing dragon fruit for 20 years. Thanks to dragon fruit, her family's economy has improved, allowing her children to go to school. Although prices have been unstable for the past 2 years, the more they invest, the more they lose, but her family still decided to keep 500 dragon fruit pillars by reducing fertilizer and only taking care of the garden, weeding, and watering. "I just removed some of the old pillars and switched to growing herbs such as onions, coriander, basil, and cinnamon for restaurants. The vegetables sell very well, and are sold to small traders in the commune and neighboring communes and La Gi market, helping the family have a stable income to ensure their lives," Ms. Thuan said.
According to the People's Committee of Tan Thuan commune, the average income per capita in 2023 has increased compared to 2022, proving that the economic life of the people has improved somewhat. Although the whole commune still has 54 poor households/3,990 households/16,117 people according to the multidimensional poverty rate, but with the positive income situation like this year, when dragon fruit prices are high, the coastal area is strongly revived, which also means that services are developing, creating jobs and the poor people's lives are improving, then in the following years, the number of poor households here will certainly decrease sharply.
Livelihood diversification
Along with Tan Thuan, the two communes of Thuan Quy and Tan Thanh are also diversifying people's livelihoods. Along with promoting the development of dragon fruit according to safety standards, many farmers in this area have changed some economic practices to make short-term profits. Thanks to the support of local authorities and suitable loan sources, many households have changed to more suitable models such as growing black termite mushrooms, growing clean vegetables, raising free-range chickens, growing melons combined with raising hybrid wild boars, and coastal tourism, which have brought high economic efficiency.
In particular, it can be seen that coastal tourism in the Thuan Quy - Ke Ga area has improved. Some coastal resorts and homestays have come into operation along with high-tech agricultural farms welcoming guests in the area, creating a bustling and bustling atmosphere and solving a large amount of local labor in rural areas. Thanks to the diversification of livelihoods in these communes that both farm and work at sea, in the season when the sea is hungry, fishermen switch to dragon fruit and tourism, and in the season when dragon fruit loses its value, they drag their baskets to the sea. Thanks to that, the whole Thuan Quy commune has only 9 poor households out of a total of 953 households/3,849 people.
According to the People's Committee of Ham Thuan Nam district, the locality is currently shifting its economic structure towards agriculture, forestry, fishery - industry, construction - services. In addition to the agricultural land area of 45,911 hectares, mainly focusing on the production and export of dragon fruit, the forestry land area is 52,453 hectares. In the field of fisheries alone, the local government has developed a coordination regulation between relevant parties to assist the project in managing and protecting aquatic resources. Thanks to the enthusiastic response of the fishing community in the 3 communes, it has contributed to the restoration of the clam resources in Thuan Quy commune, the reefs and coral reefs are protected, thereby helping aquatic resources to grow and develop. Aquatic resources from the sea have brought income and created livelihoods for thousands of local households. With the right shift in the structure of the aquatic economy, the lives and incomes of people in the 3 coastal communes of Ham Thuan Nam district are increasingly improving.
The focus of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2021-2025 period is to create livelihoods for people by supporting production models that are suitable to the needs, farming level and strengths of the locality. This capital source will create leverage to help people escape poverty.
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