Lang Son people escape poverty thanks to growing plywood chestnuts

Every year on the occasion of Independence Day (September 2), tourists from all over the world gather together in the gardens of Quang Lac, on the outskirts of the old Lang Son city, to experience picking chestnuts and enjoy this product with chestnut sticky rice and fruit juices.

Tourists from all over come to Quang Lac to experience and enjoy chestnuts.

Ms. Hoang Thi Thuy in Quang Trung 2 village, Quang Lac currently has 1,500 trees with an area of 2.5 hectares. She said: In the past, chestnut trees often grew naturally in the forest, people picked the fruit mainly for the purpose of using it as daily food. Over the years, it has gradually become a commodity on the market, helping local people increase their income and improve their lives.

In Mrs. Thuy’s garden, we saw tall, healthy plants with clusters of chestnuts competing to open their shells, showing off their small, sharp thorns. Hidden in the shells that looked like dense thorns were shiny, black or dark brown seeds. In the bright sunlight, Mrs. Thuy happily said: Recently, the price of chestnuts has been stable, with 3 different prices. Specifically, type 1 is 100,000 VND/kg; type 2 is 80,000 VND/kg and type 3 is 60,000 VND/kg…

Hand-pick, select and process chestnuts in the garden in Quang Lac.

Lang chestnuts are famous for their delicious, fragrant, and rich flavor, helping Lang people escape poverty.

“With many years of experience in growing and constantly learning, since 2013, my family has been grafting trees to grow seedlings to serve the needs of local people; currently in our family nursery there are 3,000 seedlings. After deducting expenses, we earn about 200 million VND/year. In addition, we create seasonal jobs for nearly a dozen local workers, helping each other to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty,” said Ms. Thuy.

With mountainous terrain like in Lang Son, especially in many places that have not really effectively utilized forest land for cultivation, grafted chestnuts are a quite economically effective direction. For nearly ten years now, the former Quang Lac commune, now Luong Van Tri ward, has conducted training sessions, transferred science and technology to farmers growing chestnut trees and regularly organized introductions and promotions through the program "Chestnut Season Festival".

Here, visitors can experience chestnut picking services, enjoy chestnut products such as chestnut milk, moon cakes made from chestnuts, chestnut sticky rice... Besides, they can also listen to folk songs, Then singing and Tinh lute performances imbued with national cultural identity...

Coming to Quang Lac chestnut garden on September 2, visitors can also enjoy folk songs and dances imbued with national identity.

Ms. Nguyen Le Thuy, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Luong Van Tri Ward, said: Chestnut trees are identified as one of the main crops. Up to now, the chestnut growing area in Quang Lac has reached over 120 hectares, bringing high income to growers. Not only grown by households, but chestnut plywood is also used in afforestation projects in localities inside and outside the province, with the number of trees constantly increasing.

According to statistics of Dong Bac Seed Joint Stock Company, if at first, the number of chestnut seedlings consumed was only a few thousand, then from 2012 onwards it has increased to several tens of thousands of trees/year.

Chestnut products have been registered for trademarks and labels and brought to the market, attracting many customers inside and outside the province, bringing high economic efficiency. From a poor rural area, Quang Lac has now risen up, many households have become stable and well-off.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/nguoi-dan-lang-son-thoat-ngheo-nho-trong-hat-de-van-ghep-post1773827.tpo