Dai Son rises above adversity.

BAC NINH - A few years ago, transportation to Dai Son was rough and difficult. Water for irrigation and daily life was scarce, making life difficult for the local people in every way. From within these hardships, the Party Committee, government, and people of Dai Son commune have been determined to rise above their difficulties, so that Dai Son's appearance is becoming increasingly prosperous and the lives of the people are more comfortable.

Rising to become wealthy

While the morning mist still lingered on the mountainside, Mr. Ha Van Van, a Nung ethnic minority from Dong Cay village, carried his machete, sickle, and carrying pole to the field to cut royal grass to feed his herd of white horses. Mr. Van's face clearly showed joy as he passed his hybrid apple orchard, which was about to yield its first harvest, as this year foreshadowed a bountiful crop. Learning from previous years' experiences, this season his family, like many households in the village, had collected water from the nearby Khuon Tham lake to irrigate their more than two acres of apple trees. Thanks to sufficient water and fertilizer, his apple orchard had lush green leaves, thick foliage, large flowers, and plump fruit.

Mr. Ha Van Van takes care of the horses.

According to Mr. Van, last year's apple crop failed, so his family only harvested over 6 tons of fruit. However, the high selling price compensated for this, so he still earned over 170 million VND. After many years of growing apples, from a poor household that had to borrow 5 million VND from the Social Policy Bank (in 2011) to replace their temporary house, his family has now escaped poverty and realized their dream of becoming wealthy. In 2024, his family borrowed 100 million VND in preferential loans from the Son Dong branch of the Social Policy Bank to buy three breeding white mares. With good care, the herd has now given birth to one foal. "Although it's only the initial success, the addition of another foal is a great motivation for my dream of becoming wealthy to come true," Mr. Van confided.

Not only Mr. Van's family, but also Mrs. Lang Thi The, a Nung ethnic minority woman (Dong Tranh village), is one of many households that have accessed policy-based capital.

Ms. The said that at the end of September, her family borrowed 150 million VND (including 100 million VND from the Production Development Loan Program and 50 million VND from the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Loan Program). With this capital, her family plans to expand their grocery store, buy saplings to replant 3 hectares of acacia trees damaged by the August flood, and build a clean water storage tank for daily life and production, thereby improving their living standards.

According to a representative from the Son Dong branch of the Social Policy Bank, Dai Son commune currently has over 1,400 households borrowing preferential loans from the branch, with a total outstanding debt of over 120.7 billion VND. From the beginning of the year to the end of October 2025 alone, Dai Son added 336 new borrowers, with a loan volume exceeding 28.9 billion VND. This capital was primarily invested by households in purchasing seedlings (apple, lychee, and forestry trees) to develop hill and forest economies and livestock farming. All households used the capital for its intended purpose and effectively, resulting in an overdue loan rate of only 0.06% this year (lower than the provincial average).

Comrade Hoang Van Phuong, Chairman of the People's Committee of Dai Son commune (far left), along with officials from the Son Dong branch of the Social Policy Bank, at the disbursement of funds to people in the commune, at the Khuan Cau village cultural house.

The new Dai Son commune was established by merging three communes: the old Dai Son, Giao Liem, and Phuc Son. The commune has a natural area of ​​over 76.3 km2 with 19 villages, more than 2,770 households, and a total population of over 12,000 people (of which ethnic minorities account for 73.3%). Besides the old Dai Son commune, which completed the new rural development program (in 2024), Giao Liem and Phuc Son were previously poor communes. According to the People's Committee of Dai Son commune, Mr. Van and Mrs. The's households are two of thousands of poor, near-poor, and newly-escaped-poverty households in the commune that have received preferential loans for production development. Although the amount of capital is not large, the low interest rate remains a "support" for the people to rise up and strive for wealth right on their homeland.

Ensuring social security

Dai Son commune was recently established by merging three communes: Dai Son, Giao Liem, and Phuc Son, with a natural area of ​​over 76.3 km2, comprising 19 villages, more than 2,770 households, and a total population of over 12,000 people (of which ethnic minorities account for 73.3%). The Dai Son commune Party Committee has 34 subordinate branches with 589 Party members. By 2025, the average per capita income is expected to reach 40 million VND/year (an increase of 1.6 times compared to 2020). The commune strives to increase the average per capita income by 180% by 2030 compared to 2025.

In economic development, Dai Son commune has also promoted vocational training and job placement for workers. It has successfully established large-scale concentrated apple and lychee production areas under VietGAP standards. Dai Son apples, in particular, have received OCOP 3-star certification. The locality currently has 5 effectively operating cooperatives. Among them, the Dai Son Clean Agricultural Products Production Cooperative consumes thousands of tons of agricultural products annually for local farmers, helping to increase the average per capita income in the commune to 40 million VND/year (a 1.6-fold increase compared to 2020). This contributes to Dai Son achieving its economic development goals for the 2020-2025 period.

However, Dai Son commune still has 312 poor households (accounting for 11.24%) and 260 near-poor households (accounting for 9.37%). In the next five years, the Dai Son commune Party Committee has identified economic development as the central focus, while also prioritizing social security for the local population. The commune has set the following goals: Average per capita income to increase by 180% in 2030 compared to 2025; no more poor households according to the multidimensional poverty standard by 2030; creating jobs for an average of over 250 people per year; achieving a trained workforce rate of 53%; 25% of the working-age labor force participating in social insurance, with farmers and the informal sector participating in voluntary social insurance accounting for approximately 35% of the working-age population; and 18.5% of the working-age labor force participating in unemployment insurance.

To realize the above goal, Comrade Hoang Van Phuong, Chairman of the People's Committee of Dai Son commune, said that in conjunction with focusing on building a 5-year socio-economic development plan and assigning specific targets to each sector and village; promoting the application of science and technology, developing agricultural production along the value chain, Dai Son will implement comprehensively and effectively poverty reduction programs, policies, and projects.

The way to school.

Ensure that poor households and individuals have access to and effectively utilize basic social services, primarily healthcare, education , clean water, and sanitation. Create opportunities for the poor to access policies on production infrastructure, land, vocational training, job creation, agricultural and forestry extension, and credit support policies for poor households. Strongly develop the forest economy to ensure sustainable poverty reduction.

The commune promotes the movement of showing gratitude and repaying kindness; fully and promptly implements policies for people with meritorious services, social welfare beneficiaries, the poor, and ethnic minorities. It effectively implements ethnic policies and investment programs and projects for mountainous areas and ethnic minority regions. Attention is paid to policies caring for the elderly, women, and children.

This includes focusing on lonely elderly people, children from poor families, disabled children, orphans, etc. Emphasis is placed on vocational training, improving the effectiveness of state management in the fields of labor, occupational safety and health, and social insurance for businesses, ensuring the legitimate rights of workers. This will create momentum among the people to build new rural areas.

Despite the many challenges ahead, with concrete and correct policies, the people's efforts to escape poverty and their dreams of becoming wealthy, it won't be long before Dai Son becomes a developed locality, and the lives of its people will become increasingly prosperous and happy.

Text and photos: The Dai

Source: https://baobacninhtv.vn/dai-son-vuon-len-trong-gian-kho-postid431111.bbg