Follow the footsteps of the "white gold" collector
“Hello!... Please don't come today. It's raining heavily up here, so we won't be able to shave today. Tomorrow the weather will be clear so you can come...”.
That was a short conversation between Kham and me because we had previously made an appointment to go on a field trip to see the K'Ho people tapping latex. I was in Phan Thiet ward, and Bo Dam Kham worked for the La Da Village 1 Front. It took more than 70 km to get from Phan Thiet to the highlands of La Da, so we had to make an appointment to meet. Kham was born and raised in La Da, and had experienced poverty during the sowing season. Therefore, the dream of escaping poverty was always burning in his heart...
Back to the story of Kham taking us to see the K'Ho people tapping latex, after a quick dinner, at nearly 9pm, Kham said: "Let me go now to see, because most households with rubber trees in this area tap latex in the morning to avoid the rain. They go from 5 to 8am to tap latex, only a few families have something to do tomorrow so they will go tap at 9pm, 5 to 6am the next morning to tap latex and then sell it to the purchasing place to have time to do other work".
Before 2am, Kham's voice urged: "Wake up, brother, it's time to go to the fields... Different from the quiet scene in the village, the road was bustling, hundreds of people were "carrying" tools for tapping and storing latex, riding motorbikes one after another to the fields in the freezing cold weather. The hurried greetings and inquiries in the native language of the K'Ho people rang out in the night sky...
After about 1 km, we came to a rubber plantation, the flashlights of the rubber tappers illuminated a corner of the rubber forest. In the forest, I thought I was in a tourist town somewhere. At 2-3 am, the workers here were in a hurry with many hands quickly tapping the rubber professionally. After a stroke of the knife, each stream of white latex flowed out in an arc shape on the rubber tree trunk, created by the workers, and then collected in a bowl. That is the "white gold" that is bringing high income to the K'Ho people in La Da...
Change life from rubber tree
It was only 5am but the roads of La Da village were bustling. Hundreds of people from the rubber plantations were carrying "white gold" to sell to traders. The bustling buying and selling scene with cheerful laughter made the village bustling like a festival. Mr. Xim Mien - former Chairman of the People's Committee of La Da commune, currently Deputy Head of the Department of Culture and Society of La Da commune (recently merged with Da Mi commune, named La Da commune) had just gone to collect latex to sell, stopped by to drink coffee with us. He said: This year, latex has a good price (40 - 41 million VND/ton, PV) so people have a good income. According to Mr. Mien, the whole La Da commune currently has 814 hectares of rubber, of which 540 hectares are rubber grown under Project 327 (Project 327 is part of the implementation program according to Resolution 04 of the former Binh Thuan Provincial Party Committee "on developing the economic livelihood of ethnic minorities"). People implementing Project 327 will receive 50% support for seeds, training support, and transfer of techniques for caring for and tapping rubber trees...
Talking about the situation in the commune of rubber plantation, Mr. Mien "changed the subject": "It is not easy for rubber trees to survive in this area until now. For example, Kham had to "suffer" with perseverance and "loyalty" to rubber trees to maintain and increase the area because there was a time when rubber prices dropped miserably, scraping a hectare was not equal to the salary of a construction worker, so many other places had to cut them down, sell the wood, and replant other trees." In La Da, not only Kham but also many other households when rubber latex was priced at only 22 - 23 million VND/ton, the choice to keep rubber trees was a process of "struggle" between abandoning rubber to plant other trees or keeping them.
Kham sipped his coffee and continued: “In 2000, I planted 1 hectare, in 2007 I started harvesting, around this time the latex price was high, sometimes up to 120 million VND/ton, I had a source of income, I saved up to buy more land and plant more, currently the annual revenue from 2 hectares of rubber is more than 400 million VND... From 2011 to 2014, the rubber price dropped sharply but I was not discouraged, the people in the area were very “shaken” at that time but I encouraged them, then seeing me plant 1 more hectare, many people were more confident to keep their rubber acreage...”. Thanks to the income from rubber and other sources from construction work, Kham sent his children to school and bought a car to serve his family. “My family’s income is nothing, in the commune there are people who earn much more than me. Like Xim Hoang Men, every year he collects billions of VND from rubber and other sources”. As he spoke, Kham pointed to Mr. Men who was sitting next to our coffee table. Hearing his name mentioned, Mr. Men smiled and said: “It looks like a billion, but the investment in tractors, combine harvesters, tillers, and diggers is more than a billion. And to be honest, thanks to rubber trees, our K'Ho people are really getting better.” Kham interjected: “In Hamlet 1 (where the most rubber trees are grown in the commune), there are 331 households, of which 120 are well-off thanks to growing rubber trees, typically Xim Hoang Dep has 3 hectares of rubber, Bo Rong Thanh has 3 hectares of rubber, Bo Dam Ron has 2 hectares of rubber... Every year, these households earn from 400 to 600 million VND from rubber…”.
Sitting and listening to the list of households that have become rich from rubber trees, I was "shocked" because I did not expect that behind the houses in this highland area there are so many well-off K'Ho people. Mr. Tran Trung Hai - Chairman of the People's Committee of La Da commune said: "In the commune, ethnic minorities have sources of income from forest protection, from growing rice, cashew trees... but the highest source of income is rubber. For example, currently, each day a household with 3 hectares of rubber will earn over 3 million VND. Over time, it has greatly contributed to helping people change their lives. Many families with thatched houses and mud walls can now build more solid houses, buy essential items and invest in their children's education."
Leaving La Da, I had a feeling of elation in my heart that was hard to describe. It was a feeling of joy because the ethnic minorities had diversified their income sources, helping many households escape poverty and become rich, with the decisive support coming from rubber trees.
Source: https://baolamdong.vn/dem-sang-o-vung-cao-la-da-381769.html
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