After 20 years of growing trees all over Cai Vang mountain, Mr. Tuan in Bac Giang regularly earns 10 billion/year.

Born to be associated with forestry

Few people expected that in a remote place in the middle of the mountains and forests of Cai Vang village, Dong Hung (Luc Nam - Bac Giang ), a large-scale farm with many fruit trees and forestry trees would emerge. Everything was neatly planned, with a fairly complete electricity, road and irrigation system. The deeper I went into the valley, the more I saw the vast space of flowers, oranges, grapefruits, and on the other side of the forest, the wind blew rustlingly over the eucalyptus plots that were about to be harvested.

Taking me on a tour of the farm, Mr. Le Minh Tuan, Director of Le Gia Forestry Company, said: “In the past, this place was very deserted, at night you could hear the sound of the stream, during the day you could hear the sound of birds, wild trees, and tangled vines. To be where we are today, my family had to invest a lot of effort and money to open roads, pull electricity, and clear land. Currently, the farm regularly has about 50 workers taking care of and managing fruit trees and hundreds of hectares of planted forests.”

Mr. Le Minh Tuan is proud of his achievements.

Mr. Tuan was born in Thanh Oai district, Hanoi , and grew up in Huu Lung district, Lang Son province - where a part of the mountain top is adjacent to Cai Vang village. In 1988, after leaving the army, he went to work at Huu Lung 2 Forestry Enterprise (Vietnam Forestry Corporation). He used to be an officer in purchasing and consuming wood and later opened a wood processing factory for export, so he has a solid grasp of specialized knowledge and techniques in forestry.

More than 20 years ago, realizing that the source of planted forest wood was increasingly scarce due to high market demand, while the forest land among the people was still vast, and people did not know how to exploit that advantage to develop the economy , he came up with a new idea. With the perception that farming and forestry did not make you rich quickly but were sustainable, he received transfers from the people to have a large land fund to plant eucalyptus. The forests that were once barren were soon covered with vibrant green.

“When I first invested here, people said that doing so was like “chasing chickens in the forest”. Many households at that time had forest land but were quite indifferent and left it fallow. Some people planted cassava, corn or eucalyptus but it was not very effective,” Mr. Tuan shared.

Thanks to afforestation, the family's economy is increasingly improving. Due to the application of scientific and technical measures and the introduction of new varieties into production, the productivity of planted forests is always high, with an average income of 200 to 250 million VND/ha/cycle in recent years. According to him, one of the important factors to increase the yield and value of planted forests is to choose good tree varieties. In addition, fertilization is also very important.

Witnessing his effective model, many households in Dong Hung commune have followed it and achieved high efficiency. With his knowledge, experience and personal success, Mr. Tuan has supported the people of Cai Vang village with seedlings as well as techniques for planting and caring for forests. From planting forests, his family earns more than 10 billion VND each year. Since 2016, he has also converted part of the eucalyptus area to grow oranges and grapefruits in low-lying areas, thereby bringing in great profits.

It seems that Mr. Tuan was born to be attached to the forest planting profession. From his youth until now, he still has a deep love for the mountains and forests as he continues to passionately learn and explore new economic models. "I hope that when the macadamia planting model is successful, people will convert part of the eucalyptus forest to this crop for higher profits," Mr. Tuan excitedly said.

Fruit tree and forestry farm of Mr. Le Minh Tuan's family.

Pioneering in paving the way, building a second homeland

Being an open and sincere person, Mr. Tuan is loved by the people and recognized by the authorities in the places where he lived and worked. In his house, he still keeps many Certificates of Merit, Certificates of Merit, and Golden Heart Boards awarded by various levels and sectors.

Talking about Mr. Tuan's contributions, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngan, Head of Cai Vang Village, said: "Mr. Tuan is a generous, enthusiastic, dynamic and responsible person for the locality. Over the past 20 years, the people of Cai Vang Village in particular and Dong Hung Commune in general have highly appreciated the contributions and support of his family. The roads he directly built and supported with funding for construction have created favorable conditions for people to travel and develop the economy."

According to Ms. Ngan, in the 2000s, when people's lives were still difficult, Mr. Tuan returned to Cai Vang village to open a forest planting company, creating jobs for many workers there. At the same time, he also lent people land to grow corn under the forest canopy to earn more income. More importantly, he enthusiastically supported households with techniques for planting and caring for forestry trees.

According to rough estimates, from 2002 to now, he has spent more than 10 billion VND on building, repairing and upgrading traffic routes in Dong Hung. In the period of 2017 - 2019 alone, when Bac Giang province had a policy of supporting cement, he contributed nearly 7 billion VND to build 16 km of road, even paying for compensation for site clearance himself. In addition, he also donated more than 10,000m2 of forestry land to build these routes.

Not only contributing to the construction of roads, Party member Le Minh Tuan also took the lead in other local movements. In 2017, when he saw that the cultural house (NC) of Cai Vang village was small and dilapidated, he proactively proposed to the village leadership to build a new NC with a budget of nearly 1 billion VND, of which his family supported more than 400 million VND.

“At that time, the village was struggling to arrange compensation funds to have a place to build a cultural house. By chance, Mr. Tuan passed by and saw the difficulties and used his own money to compensate so that the village could have a place to build a spacious and spacious cultural house like today,” Ms. Ngan shared. In 2023, Mr. Tuan sponsored nearly 600 million VND for Dong Hung commune to build a sports hall.

Sharing about this, Mr. Tuan said: “That is my personality, wherever I live, I contribute there. In the past, when I was in Lang Son, I also often supported movements there such as building charity houses, roads, schools... Now I consider Dong Hung as my second hometown, so I have the responsibility to contribute to building so that everyone, every family can have a better life.”

According to comrade Ta Quang Mai, Secretary of the Party Committee of Dong Hung commune, one of the advantages for the locality to soon reach the NTM target, and then the advanced NTM target, is to promote the role of the people as the main subject. Among them, Mr. Le Minh Tuan is one of the typical citizens.

In recognition of Mr. Le Minh Tuan's dedication and contributions, Luc Nam district and Dong Hung commune have repeatedly commended and rewarded him. In 2019, he was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee. He is also one of the typical examples in studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style, commended at the Achievement Reporting Ceremony at ATK Dinh Hoa (Thai Nguyen) organized by Luc Nam District Party Committee in May 2023. In addition, he has been commended many times by all levels and sectors in Huu Lung district (Lang Son) and Luc Nam in patriotic emulation movements.

As the afternoon gradually fell, we said goodbye to Mr. Tuan at the edge of the forest. Hopefully, his plans for the future will come true. With the spirit of daring to think, daring to do, and an open heart for the community, he has contributed to bringing green to the mountains and forests, beautifying the villages in Dong Hung.

Source: https://danviet.vn/20-nam-mang-cay-phu-khap-nui-cai-vang-ong-tuan-o-bac-giang-deu-dan-thu-10-ty-nam-20240324104810705.htm