Poverty reduction story in the "poor core" of Lao Cai

Among the 10 poorest communes of Lao Cai province, five communes, namely La Pan Tan, Ta Thang, Ta Ngai Cho, Din Chin and Lung Khau Nhin... are located in Muong Khuong district.

Ethnic people in Ma Ngan village, Lung Khau Nhin commune, Muong Khuong district (Lao Cai) actively switched to growing tea to escape poverty.

Efforts to eliminate poverty in the core of poverty

Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Lung Khau Nhin Commune Leng Seo Cheo said that the commune has 684 households, with 3,376 people. In 2023, the commune had 387 poor households, accounting for 56.5% of the total number of households. Now the poverty rate has decreased but there are still 332 poor households, accounting for 48.53%. The way out of poverty for local people is mainly to change the structure of livestock and crops. Specifically, switching from growing corn and upland rice to growing tea and tangerine trees; switching from raising low-value buffaloes to raising horses; switching from raising poultry to raising black pigs with higher value.

Leaving Lung Khau Nhin commune, we went to another “poor core” in Muong Khuong district, La Pan Tan commune. The commune has nine villages, with 648 households and 3,515 people. In 2019, the highest poverty rate was over 69%, but now this rate has dropped to 52.25%.

According to Secretary of the La Pan Commune Party Committee Tan Hoang Van Thuy, the way to escape poverty here is to encourage people to grow tea and raise black pigs - crops and livestock that are more valuable than before. For example, raising black pigs was previously only small and fragmented, but now it has expanded in scale by building a "family farm" model with a scale of 20-30 pigs, so the herd of black pigs from 1,000 has now increased to more than 4,000 pigs.

Mr. Sung Thang in Bai Bang village, La Pan Tan commune said that his family of six members had successfully escaped poverty since the end of 2023 because they switched to raising black pigs. Each year, his family exports about one ton of black pork, earning 60-70 million VND, then converted 0.6 hectares of corn to tea cultivation, also earning approximately 20 million VND, so the family's total income each year is nearly 100 million VND, 4-5 times higher than before...

Comrade Hoang Quoc Khanh, Standing Vice Chairman of Lao Cai Provincial People's Committee, said: Lao Cai province always pays special attention to poverty reduction. In the period of 2021 - 2023, the average poverty reduction rate of the province reached more than 5%/year. In 2021, implementing the new multidimensional poverty standard, the poverty rate of the province was 25.19%, and by the end of 2023, the poverty rate was 14.94%. To achieve the above successes, Lao Cai has made breakthroughs and innovations in poverty reduction.

First of all, in the direction and management work, the province has specified many solutions and policies for implementation, notably 18 key projects of the Provincial Party Committee for the period 2020-2025, including Project No. 10 on sustainable poverty reduction for the period 2021-2025. The province focuses on directing and providing solutions for the core poor areas such as Resolution No. 20-NQ/TU of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee on sustainable poverty reduction for 37 communes with a poverty rate of 40% or more; Plan No. 239/KH-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee on socio -economic development for 10 communes with the highest poverty rate in the province.

In addition, the Provincial Party Committee also issued Decision No. 148/QD-TU assigning members of the Provincial Party Committee to monitor and grasp the situation of grassroots party organizations and help communes with high poverty rates in the province. The Provincial People's Committee issued a Decision assigning leaders of agencies and units to help communes build new rural areas and sustainably reduce poverty. This was followed by the participation of the entire political system and the consensus of the people. On the other hand, the province has issued more than 63 policies, with an average annual allocation of resources of more than 800 billion VND to implement socio-economic development, contributing to sustainable poverty reduction...

Aspiration to escape poverty

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai Anh, Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Lao Cai: All levels and sectors need to place the task of poverty reduction in the overall economic growth, with the implementation of social progress and equity, especially the development of a sustainable social security system, ensuring social welfare and basic public services; closely linked with production and business development; gradually improving the goal of multidimensional, inclusive, sustainable poverty reduction associated with the construction of new rural areas and civilized urban areas.

However, it must be recognized that there are many difficulties and challenges in poverty reduction and eradication, especially in the "core poor" areas, because Lao Cai is still a poor province compared to the general level of the whole country, with difficulties in balancing the budget, investment for basic development depends on support from the Central Government; natural disasters occur frequently, poor households are mainly concentrated in ethnic minority areas, while difficult conditions and lack of jobs are concentrated in this area, so the conditions to escape poverty are difficult and there is always a risk of falling back into poverty...

To reduce and eliminate poverty sustainably, comrade Hoang Giang, Deputy Secretary of Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee (who is the sponsor of 1/10 of the poorest communes in Lao Cai, Lung Khau Nhin commune), emphasized a number of points:

Firstly, the leadership role of the Party Committee, the Party cell secretary, the vanguard role of the cadres and Party members in the commune, village, and hamlet mobilizes the participation of the entire political system in the commune.

Second, raise awareness and responsibility of people in poverty alleviation work. Party committees and socio-political organizations propagate and mobilize through propaganda teams and propaganda committees, with the pioneering and exemplary spirit of party members in mobilizing people to be aware and see their responsibility in building villages and hamlets out of poverty, and each household out of poverty.

Third, there is new thinking and different ways of doing things in building socio-economic development models, applying science and technology to production and consumption to create a chain of links with other localities and businesses to join hands in building, consolidating and promoting cooperative groups and cooperative models in production, consumption and product promotion.

Fourth, mobilize maximum resources from organizations and individuals to develop transport infrastructure, agricultural infrastructure, etc. Use effectively and integrate capital sources into national target programs to promote areas that need capital and investment; consider state capital as seed capital, capital that leads other investment channels.

Fifth, research mechanisms and policies on capital, telecommunications, and agricultural commodity production; create motivation for people and cooperatives to have conditions to develop livestock and crop models; promote the role of linking farmers-cooperatives-enterprises to promote trade, find outlets for local products...

There are two important factors to implement poverty reduction: the State creates motivation for poverty reduction through socio-economic development policies and the people's will to overcome poverty. To do so, the issue of researching poverty reduction policies for poor localities and making people aware of their role and responsibility in implementing poverty reduction programs is very important. The motto of people knowing, people discussing, people doing, people checking must be implemented throughout local poverty reduction activities...

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/chuyen-giam-ngheo-o-loi-ngheo-lao-cai-post383788.html