Minh Tan: Taking agriculture as a "pillar" to increase people's income

Ms. Hoang Thi Tam, Hoang Duc village, Minh Tan commune takes care of her family's wild peach garden.

Minh Tan's ornamental peach trees have long been famous everywhere, so many households in the villages, especially Hoang Duc village, have boldly converted ineffective rice growing areas to growing ornamental peach trees. Although only harvesting one crop a year, the economic value is 10-15 times higher than rice growing, and has long become a source of wealth for many households here, including the family of Ms. Hoang Thi Tam, Hoang Duc village. Ms. Tam said: 15 years ago, the family converted 100% of the rice growing area and renovated the family's mixed garden to grow ornamental peach trees. Currently, the family is growing 7,600 bonsai peach trees, including 600 wild peach trees, bonsai peach trees to sell for Tet. The most important thing in growing peach trees is shaping and watching the weather to strip the leaves so that the trees bloom in time for Tet. Each sao of peach trees can earn 20-30 million VND, while a good rice crop can only earn 1.5-2 million VND. To earn more income, from 2023, Mrs. Tam and her husband also dug a pond to raise over 100 soft-shell turtles. Every day, she catches golden apple snails, sets up rafts to collect shrimp and fish for the soft-shell turtles to eat to reduce food costs. After 2 years, the soft-shell turtles are harvested, about 4 - 6 kg/snail, after deducting expenses, the profit is 100 million VND. The peach tree and soft-shell turtles bring Mrs. Tam's family an income of about 300 million VND/year.

Growing and making lucky bamboo towers has also become a "money-making" profession for the people here, contributing to turning Minh Tan from a poor commune into a developed commune of Dong Hung district. Up to now, the whole commune has over 300 households participating in developing the profession of growing and "transforming" lucky bamboo trees. Especially since the lucky bamboo towers achieved 4-star OCOP products, the income of families doing this job is very high, families have built spacious houses, some households have even bought trucks to transport trees to places of consumption. Ms. Pham Thanh Thao, Dinh Phung village said: We make lucky bamboo towers all year round, but the busiest months before Tet are when the family has to hire 7-8 more workers. Since the lucky bamboo product was recognized as 4-star OCOP, the consumption has increased much more than before, my family has to order from many other households in the commune to have enough goods to pay for customers. Every year, the family makes about 4,000 products to serve the Tet market, and also sells thousands of products to other households, earning 300 - 400 million VND/year.

Minh Tan commune does not have industrial clusters or large enterprises, so in order to develop the economy and increase people's income, the commune government has determined that agriculture is still the "pillar" of the economy. The commune has planned concentrated agricultural production areas, encouraged farmers to accumulate fields, convert ineffective rice growing areas, convert mixed gardens to grow local strengths, and form specific production areas to increase economic value per unit of cultivated area, such as: ornamental peach trees in Dinh Phung village; planting and making lucky towers in Duy Tan and Lien Minh villages; Growing seedlings, construction trees, vegetable growing areas (Duy Tan village, Hoang Duc, Hung Son), VAC model development conversion areas, mainly raising specialty animals such as soft-shell turtles, catfish, snakehead fish, frogs, snails... (Duy Tan village, Hung Son)... Forming a 7-hectare commercial rice production area with guaranteed product consumption, encouraging people to accumulate fields for growing high-quality rice, applying mechanization to production to reduce labor, reduce costs, increase productivity and quality of rice. In order to increase competitiveness and expand the consumption market for local agricultural products, in addition to building OCOP products, the commune also focuses on developing trade and services along National Highway 39 and inter-commune roads, with many households displaying and selling ornamental peach trees and lucky bamboo towers. Mr. Nguyen Huu Hau, Chairman of Minh Tan Commune People's Committee, said: In the commune's 274 hectares of cultivated land, the area for growing vegetables, peach trees, and lucky bamboo is nearly 118 hectares, the rest is rice growing area. In 2024, the total production value of the commune will reach 325 billion VND, of which agriculture will reach over 130 billion VND, and the total production value of the crop production sector will reach over 90 billion VND. The average production value of the commune will reach 170 million VND/ha of cultivated land. The agricultural sector still accounts for a high proportion of 42.5% in the economic structure of the commune.

Thanks to focusing on exploiting the potential and strengths of the locality, while implementing economic development solutions, Minh Tan has become a bright spot in the economic development of Dong Hung district. The rural appearance and the material and spiritual life of the people have been increasingly improved. Currently, the average income per capita of the commune has reached 60 million VND/person/year; the poverty rate has decreased from 2.43% (in 2023) to 1.98% (in 2024). With a prosperous life, the people have also actively joined hands with the Party Committee and the government to build an advanced new countryside.