The feelings of a village elder...

QTO - Nearly 40 years ago, in the border commune of Truong Son, the two-crop/year wet rice model was established by the Bru-Van Kieu people in Sat village. At that time, most of the Bru-Van Kieu villages in Truong Son did not have wet rice models, people almost only cultivated upland rice one crop/year using the traditional method of "poking holes and sowing seeds". The person who had great merit in establishing the above wet rice model was village elder Nguyen Linh (born in 1944), currently residing in Sat village.

Building a model

Taking us around the Sat village for a tour, village elder Nguyen Linh said that after many years of nomadic life, cultivating the "slash-and-burn" style to make a living, around 1975, he realized the fertility of the Sat village area through many reclamation seasons. Realizing that this basin area had all the favorable factors to grow upland rice, corn, cassava, especially the possibility of developing a wet rice production model, enough to feed dozens of households, in 1986, he decided to be the pioneer in settling in this land. Sat village began to take shape from that time until now.

Gia Linh recalls: In the past, to get to the center of Truong Son commune to trade, people in Sat village also spent nearly a day walking through the forest. If they wanted to continue trading with the center of Quang Ninh district, Quang Binh province (old), the only way was to walk through the forest and take a boat down the Long Dai river, at the fastest it would take 3-4 days to return to the village. The roads were so difficult, but fortunately, in the past I had worked for a few years in Hien Ninh commune, Quang Ninh district, Quang Binh province (now Truong Ninh commune, Quang Tri province), thanks to which I learned how to grow wet rice from the people in the lowlands...

Village elder Nguyen Linh wishes to have a solid irrigation project to restore the two-crop/year rice production model in Sat village - Photo: VM

In early 1986, he boldly reclaimed a piece of land in the middle of the Sat village basin to experiment with growing wet rice according to the motto "First water, second fertilizer, third diligence, fourth seeds". Surprisingly, in the first crop, the wet rice yield here, although only 65%-75% compared to the lowlands, was still 2-3 times higher than that of upland rice. Excited, right after the first harvest, old Linh hired more people to reclaim more than 1 hectare to continue growing wet rice in the next crop. Success after success, many Bru-Van Kieu households in Truong Son commune followed old Linh to settle here, reclaim land and grow wet rice. In order to encourage other households to live here, old Linh himself gave them part of the wet rice area. For many consecutive years, the whole Sat village has maintained the production of nearly 8 hectares of wet rice, 2 crops/year, very effectively. That is not counting about 4 hectares of hilly land that can grow corn, beans, and peanuts once a year. When having abundant food sources, the people of Sat village can also raise many buffaloes, cows, pigs, chickens, geese, and swans to proactively source food locally.

It is known that, besides making great contributions to bringing the wet rice model to the great forest, village elder Nguyen Linh is also a very dedicated party member, with many positive contributions to Sat village. This is most clearly demonstrated by the fact that he was elected by the people as the Chief of Sat village for 20 consecutive years. After that, Linh's son, Nguyen Van Muon, was also trusted by the people and elected to hold the position of Chief of Sat village until now.

Wish to "revive" rice

Secretary of the Sat village Party cell, Ho Van Tuan, confided: "Sat village currently has 36 households and 160 people, most of whom are Bru-Van Kieu people. This is a village with a basin terrain, located deep in the middle of the great forest of the Truong Son border commune. Although settled deep in the forest, thanks to proactively taking control of food sources for many years, the residents of Sat village have never suffered from hunger. Sat village has also been recognized as a "model" cultural village in the West of Quang Tri province for many years...".

After the flood and landslide in 2020, the entire rice area in Sat village was almost abandoned or left to regenerate, very precarious due to lack of irrigation water - Photo: VM

Continuing the story with us, old Linh expressed: "Since settling in this area, the people of Sat village have never witnessed a big flood, deep and prolonged flooding like at the end of 2020. The big and long-lasting flood caused the highest mountain in this area to crack open, causing landslides in many sections. The risk of further landslides and burials threatening people's lives and property can happen at any time. Thanks to the timely support of the Party, the State and charitable organizations, Sat village today has a new, spacious resettlement area (about 500m from the old location). But sadly, since that flood and landslide, people in Sat village have only been able to produce one rice crop per year (winter-spring crop). As for the summer-autumn crop, people are forced to abandon or let the rice regenerate due to lack of irrigation water. I myself and the people of Sat village are currently hoping that the superiors will pay attention to supporting a solid irrigation project to restore the previous model of two rice crops per year...".

"Due to changes in geology and the flow of streams and creeks around the Sat village area after the flood and landslide in 2020, finding enough water for summer-autumn crop production in this area is facing many difficulties and has not achieved results. In the near future, the People's Committee of Truong Son commune will coordinate with relevant agencies to conduct a survey of water sources for irrigation, from which a plan can be developed to submit to superiors for investment policy to build the project," said Mr. Hoang Manh Ha, Chairman of the People's Committee of Truong Son commune.

Civilized

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/xa-hoi/202511/noi-niem-cua-mot-gia-lang-aeb4f47/