The VAC (garden - pond - barn) economic model is considered a comprehensive production area that promotes the value of garden land, hilly and forest land. However, these somewhat primitive and extensive models have been "elevated" by household gardens and model gardens that the National Target Program on New Rural Development is encouraging.
Mr. Mai Van Hao's family model garden in Nga Thanh commune (Nga Son) grows medicinal herbs and develops greenhouses to produce cantaloupe.
The VAC model was launched and encouraged in the 90s of the last century, and has been maintained until recent years. In historical context, it is a step forward in garden economic production because from many previous generations, then during the difficult subsidy period, large home gardens were mostly dense and had many mixed plants. In the memories of many people, the image of kapok trees and many ancient trees in the garden is still maintained to collect leaves for compost every year. The tall fig trees and fruit trees in the garden without being pruned, shaded a large area of land. Other trees were planted in between under the shade, but did not bring significant productivity.
From there, VAC is encouraged - a step forward in renovating mixed gardens to form models of household economic development, solving hunger and income for people in rural areas. There, "V" is for crop production, "A" is for aquaculture and "C" is for developing livestock right in the home garden. This is also considered a closed, circular production system, because the manure source in livestock farming is utilized as fertilizer for crops and fish feed. Water from ponds and mud from dredging ponds are used to irrigate and fertilize crops. By-products from farming such as vegetables are used as animal feed. For a long time, this model has been effective in hunger eradication and poverty reduction, and later there were many "variations" such as: VACR (garden - pond - barn - forest), VAH (garden - pond - lake), VACB (garden - pond - barn - biogas)...
However, with the change in reality, many VAC models are no longer suitable. First, the development of livestock farming in home gardens causes pollution in the community, new life needs to change. The models are still self-sufficient, need to specialize to have output products linked to sustainable markets. The application of technical advances in production, then the construction of high-tech agricultural production net houses is becoming increasingly necessary, even in home gardens...
To overcome these shortcomings, the criteria of "Organizing production and developing rural economy" of the New Rural Development Program stipulates that communes that meet the standards of advanced New Rural Areas and model New Rural Areas must have at least 30% of home gardens built into household gardens and model gardens, of which the model gardens must have an area of 500m2 or more and mixed gardens must be renovated to form "household gardens" to promote garden land funds in economic development. Particularly, the model gardens must have scientific and technical applications, design, planning, and products that are consumed stably... During the implementation process in Thanh Hoa, many communes have exceeded the target with dozens of model gardens. Everywhere, mixed gardens are renovated into net houses for growing yellow melons, high-tech flowers, and medicinal herbs... with income sometimes reaching up to billions of VND/ha/year.
Typically, in Nga Son district, the communes of Nga Thanh, Nga Tan, Nga Phuong... have all formed from 10 to 20 model gardens, dozens of household gardens. At the age of 68, Mr. Mai Van Hao in Ho Dong village, Nga Thanh commune has accompanied the government in building the new rural areas, turning his home garden into a medicinal herb growing area, low-growing fruit trees such as custard apple, dragon fruit, grapefruit... Most notably, the 1,200m2 net house area for growing Kim Hoang Hau melon right behind his house brings in a profit of about 220 million VND per year, bringing the total income of the model garden to 550 million VND/year.
In Chinh Da village, Quang Chinh commune (Quang Xuong), with only over 1,000m2 of garden including the strip of land in front and on the side of the house, Mr. Mai Ngoc Hue has arranged it into a modern production area. The land was raised, built with an iron frame system, covered with nets to produce vegetable seeds and rotate leafy vegetables all year round. Notably, he has applied modern scientific and technical advances right in his home garden with a smart sprinkler irrigation system, using biological products and organic fertilizers for safe production. The strips of land right next to the yard and on the side of the house were also mounded by him to grow double-flowered peach trees - a local native plant variety that is being bought by many players everywhere during Tet. In the yard is a system of orchid trellis, which also contributes significantly to increasing the family's income.
Vegetables are specialized with a very high land turnover ratio, combined with the experience gained in taking care of peach trees, each year he has a total income of nearly 150 million VND from a small garden. According to him, every time near Lunar New Year, customers come to the garden to buy peach trees, many trees are sold for 8 to 10 million VND, an average of about 5 million VND per tree, so peach trees and orchids alone bring in an annual income of up to 70 million VND. Except for the years with the COVID-19 pandemic, the remaining profits from the garden have remained stable.
According to Mr. Hue, this is a model garden that was mobilized by the People's Committee of Quang Chinh commune to form in 2018 to implement the production criteria in the New Rural Development Program. At that time, the family boldly cut down all the miscellaneous trees, rebuilt the surrounding wall to make it airy so that the entire garden could have sunlight all year round. The flooding situation of the garden was also completely resolved when the family determined to invest in adding more fertile soil to raise the garden and build a scientific drainage system.
After more than half a decade of operating the model garden he built, Mr. Hue concluded that the difference from the previous garden was the production mindset. The model garden helped him change his way of thinking and doing things. Agricultural production must invest, apply science and technology and focus on specializing in a few crops to have stable output, not wanting to have every plant or animal.
The movement of building household gardens and model gardens in the province has developed strongly in recent years. The Provincial New Rural Development Coordination Office does not have an exact figure on the number, but many people estimate that there must be thousands of household-scale production gardens. Model gardens basically meet the problem of reducing environmental pollution, have sustainable product output and quite stable income.
Article and photos: Linh Truong
Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/tu-vac-den-vuon-ho-vuon-mau-223938.htm
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