Caring for the lives of ethnic minorities

Ham Thuan Nam is a mountainous district with two highland communes of purely ethnic minorities, namely Ham Can and My Thanh, and a number of mixed villages in Tan Thuan and Tan Lap communes. The economic life of ethnic minorities mainly depends on agriculture and forestry.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Vice Chairman of Ham Thuan Nam District People's Committee, said: In recent years, the economic and social situation of ethnic minority areas in the district has developed significantly, and people's lives have been increasingly improved. The State has invested in building synchronous infrastructure for highland communes, such as: traffic systems, lighting, schools, medical stations, domestic water, land allocation for households to produce and support production and livestock development. Highland communes have asphalt roads to the center of the commune cluster, creating favorable conditions for households to travel, produce, and transport goods, and all households have used the national grid. Provincial functional branches have invested in constructing a road to Lo To Residential Area, Ham Can Commune; Constructing N8, N6, N4 canals, Lang Ma canal, Ham Can commune, Mac Co rice field canal, My Thanh commune, Muong Ngua canal, Tan Thuan commune, to provide irrigation water for agricultural production in ethnic minority communes. Households in My Thanh and Ham Can communes have used hygienic water at a rate of 90-95%. From the natural disaster prevention program fund, the District People's Committee has allocated and supported 80 water tanks (1,500 liters) for Ham Can and My Thanh communes to overcome the shortage of domestic water in the dry season. Commune and village cultural houses and sports areas have been invested in and built with the fund of the new rural construction program, creating conditions for ethnic minority people to live, play and entertain. In addition, the District People's Committee has allocated 714.5 hectares of land to 640 production households, of which Ham Can commune has 538 hectares/447 households, My Thanh commune has 127.5 hectares/144 households, Tan Lap has 48 hectares/24 households. Forest owners have allocated 7,922.9 hectares of natural forest to 205 ethnic minority households to manage and protect the forest, create jobs and improve family life. Specifically, 2,259 hectares of forest have been allocated/59 households in Ham Can commune, 3,745.99 hectares of forest have been allocated/96 households in My Thanh commune, and 1,917.5 hectares of forest have been allocated/50 households in Tan Thuan commune. In My Thanh commune alone, 27 ethnic minority households are assigned to protect 2,000 hectares of forest from forest environmental services and 21 ethnic minority households in Ham Can commune are assigned to protect 904 hectares of forest under the natural forest regeneration program.

The total agricultural land area of ethnic minorities in the district is 3,726 hectares, of which 456 hectares are for wet rice cultivation, the rest is for growing crops and dragon fruit. The district's functional branches together with the local government have focused on propagating and mobilizing people to change the structure of crops and livestock, associated with the application of scientific and technical advances in production, in order to gradually create agricultural products with high economic value. The highland communes have identified the main crops as rice and hybrid corn, and the Cham people in Tan Thuan commune have identified the main crop as dragon fruit. At the same time, the district People's Committee has mobilized organizations and individuals inside and outside the district to contribute to support the casting of 5,600 pillars for growing dragon fruit for 56 poor and near-poor households in Ham Can and My Thanh communes. Every year, the district's Agricultural Technical - Service Center has opened training courses, seminars, and demonstrations of models of growing wet rice, green beans, and hybrid corn; techniques for raising cows, goats, chickens and methods of using pesticides. Investing in supporting breeds, livestock, fertilizers, and agricultural materials for poor and near-poor households in the highlands of Ham Can and My Thanh according to the Government's Program 135. The Provincial Mountain Service Center has invested in advance, subsidized freight, and transported breeds and materials to support production development for ethnic minorities in highland communes.

Thanks to that, the lives of ethnic minorities in Ham Thuan Nam district have been increasingly improved, the social face of the highland communes has improved a lot. Temporary and dilapidated houses for poor and near-poor households have been gradually eliminated, and political security and social order and safety have been ensured.

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