The livestock support project, part of the National Target Program for socio -economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, has been implemented by Unit 338 since 2022 in 11 communes within the Mau Son Economic and Defense Zone. After four years of implementation, the project has yielded positive results.
Providing sustainable livelihoods
Leading us along the winding concrete road into Ban Phuc village, Kien Moc commune, Lieutenant Colonel Ngo Van Huan, Team Leader of Team 2, Forestry Farm 461 (stationed in Kien Moc commune), kept stopping the car to greet the villagers in their ethnic language. He knew every slope and every face of the people here by heart. For him, this is not just an area under his management, but each house, each person is like his own home, like a family member. Lieutenant Colonel Huan shared: "Previously, Kien Moc commune (formed by merging Bac Xa, Kien Moc, and Binh Xa communes in the old Dinh Lap district) was a 'core' of poverty because of its sparse population, vast land but lack of capital and manpower. To help people escape poverty sustainably and contribute to building a new rural area, we cannot just provide rice and food for temporary relief; we must give them a 'fishing rod' and, more importantly, show them how to 'fish' effectively."
Upon arriving in Bản Phục, we stopped at the home of Mrs. Hoàng Thị Chức, a woman nearing 60 with a sun-tanned, weathered face, but eyes shining with joy. Mrs. Chức's family primarily relies on agriculture for their livelihood, resulting in an unstable income. In 2022, her family received two female cows from Unit 338. Mrs. Chức recalled: "On the day I received the cows, I worried I wouldn't be able to raise them. Thanks to the soldiers from Unit 338 who came to the barn to show me how to feed, keep them warm, and vaccinate them, the cows grew day by day. Now, the two cows have given birth to one male and two females. Roughly speaking, the herd is worth about 60 million dong." Holding the officer's hand, Mrs. Chức smiled brightly, "My family is no longer poor!"
The Mau Son Economic-Defense Zone comprises 12 communes: Kien Moc, Dinh Lap, Na Duong, Khuat Xa, Mau Son, Ba Son, Cong Son, Cao Loc, Thuy Hung, Quoc Viet, Khang Chien, and Quoc Khanh in Lang Son province; with a natural area of over 124,054 hectares; and a border length of 200.451 km, bordering China. It is home to 11,904 households with 54,925 inhabitants, including four ethnic groups (Tay, Nung, Dao, and Kinh). |
Standing on a high hilltop in Ban Phuc, Lieutenant Colonel Ngo Van Huan pointed to the recently harvested fields where herds of livestock grazed. He explained that Team 2 is responsible for the vast Kien Moc commune, home to 1,761 households and over 8,000 ethnic minority residents. To ensure the right people are supported, the team members have to "stay close to the villages and the people," working with the commune authorities to conduct thorough and impartial reviews of each household. From 2022 to the present, the team has advised the unit to distribute over 500 breeding buffaloes and cows, along with goats and pigs, to 249 households in Kien Moc commune.
Not only in Kien Moc, but also in Po Rieng village, Ba Son commune, the family of Mr. Hoang Van Suong is one of many households that received livestock support from Unit 338. As a near-poor household, his family owns no forest and relies solely on a few acres of terraced rice fields. He and his wife frequently work as laborers elsewhere to make ends meet, resulting in unstable income. When Unit 338 provided them with a pair of breeding buffaloes in October 2025 and trained them in cattle farming by officers from Forestry and Agriculture Unit 196 (stationed in Ba Son commune), Mr. Suong was deeply moved: “Having buffaloes helps my family earn a living, a ‘foundation for our livelihood.’ From now on, I will work and raise buffaloes at the same time. I think soon the buffalo herd will increase, my family will have an income, and we will soon have a stable life.”
The stories of Ms. Chuc and Mr. Suong are just two of thousands of households that have received livestock support from the more than 50.3 billion VND fund of the "Socio-economic Development Project for Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas, 2021-2025". According to a summary from Unit 338, from 2022 to the present, the project has supported 1,120 breeding cows, 1,058 breeding buffaloes, 500 breeding goats, and 1,000 commercial pigs for a total of 1,389 policy beneficiary families, poor households, near-poor households, and newly escaped-from-poverty households in 11 out of 12 communes in the Mau Son Economic and Defense Zone. The project has contributed to creating livelihoods, increasing income, solving the problem of poverty alleviation, and promoting the process of building new rural areas in the border communes of Lang Son. For example, from a once impoverished area, Kien Moc commune now has only 18 poor households, and an additional 134 households are expected to escape poverty by 2025.
The blue uniform symbolizes "staying close to the village and the people."
To achieve these results, over the years, Unit 338 has built a rigorous and consistent implementation process with the motto "hands-on guidance". The unit's officers and soldiers have always "eaten, lived, and worked together" with the people to review and select beneficiaries in a transparent manner, ensuring that livestock reaches the households that truly need it and have the will to escape poverty.
Not stopping at just distributing livestock, the team proactively coordinated with specialized agencies to organize dozens of training sessions on livestock farming techniques for the local people. Knowledge about disease prevention, keeping livestock warm during the cold winter months, and methods of preparing and storing feed were conveyed by the soldiers in the local language, making it easy for the people to understand and implement.
At Forestry Farm 196, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Lam, the unit's director, shared the unique difficulties in implementing the project in an area consisting entirely of high mountains, steep slopes, and difficult transportation routes. Some remote communes, such as Quoc Khanh and Khang Chien, are located more than 100 km from the unit's center. Lieutenant Colonel Lam affirmed that despite the fragmented terrain, the unit still strives to "go door to door," surveying each household to ensure that livestock reaches those in need. The officers and soldiers, undeterred by sun or rain, regularly go down to the villages to provide technical training and guide the people on how to care for livestock using modern methods. On nights with drizzling rain and biting winds, when the villagers' buffaloes and cows fall ill, the soldiers become impromptu "veterinarians," trekking through the forest to treat them. "It's hard work, but seeing the people well-fed and prosperous makes the soldiers very happy," the director of Forestry Farm 196 added.
Evaluating the 4-year (2022-2025) implementation of the project in the Mau Son Economic-Defense Zone, Colonel Nguyen Van Gia, Commander of Regiment 338, shared: "The Mau Son Economic-Defense Zone has a particularly important location, with over 231 km of border. If the people's lives are not stable, it is very difficult to maintain security. Our goal is to create a new look in the rural border areas of Lang Son, especially to create sustainable livelihoods through production development models, including livestock farming. After 4 years of implementation, the livestock farming models have brought double benefits. In terms of socio-economic aspects, the project has contributed to eliminating outdated farming practices, helping people find jobs and increase their income through garden and forest farming combined with livestock raising. In terms of national defense and security, when lives are stable, people feel secure staying in their villages and along the border. The greatest result is the trust of ethnic minority people in the Party." The state and the army. They are the strongest bulwark protecting the homeland.
During the period 2026-2030, Regiment 338 plans to allocate 15 billion VND per year to expand the model of breeding buffalo and cattle. The soldiers of Regiment 338 will continue to trek through forests and streams to reach individual households, helping people develop their economy. This is a journey of overcoming hardships to ensure that no village remains impoverished, and together build a new, prosperous, and stable rural landscape in the border region.
Source: https://baolangson.vn/can-cau-cho-ban-lang-vung-cao-xu-lang-5075141.html
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