Half a century of rising with the country - Part 2: "Historical" decision

In practice, after the liberation of the South and the reunification of the country, Tien Giang province required new policies and decisions to stabilize and improve people's lives after long years of war devastation.

After field surveys, on the economic front, "historic" decisions were also made, marking the beginning of Tien Giang's 50-year rise.

SOLVING AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS

The work of overcoming the consequences of war and restoring the economy of Tien Giang began right from the “hot spots”. Because right after the survey trips of the provincial leaders after the liberation of the South, the provincial leaders unanimously made important decisions.

Tien Giang people reclaim and restore Dong Thap Muoi. Photo: TL

That is the assignment of the Irrigation and Agriculture sector to mobilize the Ministry of Irrigation and the Ministry of Agriculture to invest in equipment, install irrigation sluices in Binh Phan (Cho Gao district), and mobilize local people to dig and dredge the canal along Highway 24 from Binh Phan to Go Cong Town (now Go Cong City) to serve the people in producing 2 crops, gradually sweetening Go Cong.

At the same time, the province prepared to build a culvert, Binh Phan irrigation dam and calculated the plan to dig a 5m canal, 500m from the bank of Nguyen Van Tiep canal from canal 12 in Cai Lay district to Phu My commune, Chau Thanh district (now Tan Phuoc district), with nearly 20km of land division to mobilize people to return to reclaim land, settle down and make a living with the spirit of encouraging people to work for themselves, the government took care of logistics of rice, salt, fish sauce... sold to people to work together to rebuild their homeland.

At the same time with the above 2 hot spots, Tien Giang Provincial Party Committee directed investment in materials to expand the 2-crop rice production area on both sides of South - North Highway 4 in Cai Lay district, Cai Be district and part of Chau Thanh district, considering this as a decisive step, promoting all aspects of war consequence overcoming work. In addition, it is necessary to focus on serving the people in the communes of the revolutionary base areas, the government must support the restoration of bridges, roads, schools, stations, creating favorable conditions for people to travel and do business, children to study and the sick to be temporarily cared for by the commune health station, to show gratitude to the people in the communes of the base areas...

Practice has proven that through three Congresses (the first in 1976, the second in 1980, the third in 1982), Tien Giang Party Committee has matured in all aspects.

Overcoming difficulties and challenges, Tien Giang has achieved important achievements in economic recovery and development, reforming production relations, and developing culture, health care, and education.

The severe consequences caused by war and natural disasters have been overcome. Especially for agriculture, thanks to the right policies and the application of advanced technical measures, production and agriculture have begun to develop comprehensively in terms of area, productivity and output; through many measures of land reclamation, intensive farming, and crop multiplication, the annual cultivated area has increased.

Accordingly, if in 1975 there were 90,000 hectares of rice production, productivity of 26.04 quintals/ha, rice output reached 447,910 tons, then by 1985, the area increased to 201,347 hectares, productivity reached 40.4 quintals/ha, rice output reached 813,570 tons.

Looking at it more comprehensively, after the liberation and reunification of the country, economic recovery and development were put in an “extremely difficult” situation. In addition to the difficult situation after a long period of war devastation, in 1978, Tien Giang province was continuously hit by natural disasters and enemy attacks. That was the brown planthopper epidemic that devastated crops; the flood completely submerged the western districts, causing thousands of people to go hungry, many families had to leave their hometowns to go to Ca Mau to make a living.

Not to mention, the war on the Southwest border and many other political factors. At this stage, the whole country was in a period of "both peace and war". At this time, the army and people of Tien Giang continued to heal the wounds of war, while contributing human and material resources to the fight to protect the Fatherland and helping Cambodia escape genocide. Despite the extremely difficult situation, the Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee of Tien Giang province demonstrated steadfastness and effectively directed the implementation of political tasks in the new situation.

WITH HIGH DETERMINATION

Looking back at the history, we can see the strong determination of Tien Giang province to overcome the consequences of war and develop the economy through major policies and decisions. The 2nd Congress of Tien Giang Provincial Party Committee (January 3, 1980) and the 3rd Congress (January 7, 1982) both affirmed that it was necessary to comprehensively develop the province's agriculture, focusing on the production of food crops, promoting the reclamation of Dong Thap Muoi; at the same time, developing commerce, small-scale industry and distribution and circulation to gradually improve the people's lives, especially those in the resistance base areas...

Go Cong area is now becoming a key rice production area.

Thus, from the determination of the provincial leaders, the policy of sweetening Go Cong and reclaiming Dong Thap Muoi was gradually shaped and implemented synchronously. These "historic" decisions have contributed to shifting the agricultural sector to a new page, bringing Tien Giang forward.

Going straight to the agricultural front, especially for potential areas such as Dong Thap Muoi or the eastern part of the province, to contribute to improving people's lives is considered a fundamental decision, creating a foundation for Tien Giang to develop in the future. But this is also an extremely difficult task.

Because, if we look at the length of history, before 1975, Dong Thap Muoi was still wild and sparsely populated. Every year, there were 6 months of flood season, the whole area was submerged in water and 6 months of extremely harsh dry season; this place was also a fiercely contested area between us and the enemy; the enemy bombed day and night, countless bullets, bombs, and destructive chemicals were dropped, Dong Thap Muoi became a dead land. After 1975, people's lives were very difficult, with food shortages and poverty.

Tien Giang has implemented a program of land reclamation and construction of new economic zones. Since 1976, the State has had a program of basic investigation of the Mekong Delta region, evaluating the Dong Thap Muoi region to exploit the land potential for developing agriculture, forestry, fishery and industrial crops for processing with about 700,000 hectares of fallow land in the three provinces of Dong Thap, Long An, and Tien Giang.

Reasonable exploitation associated with comprehensive business is an important condition to implement the strategy of redistributing production, solving jobs for tens of thousands of workers (in which Tien Giang has more than 21,000 hectares of unexploited wasteland). From that reality, in 1976, the Provincial People's Committee signed and issued the Directive on digging the Truong Van Sanh canal, opening the campaign to reclaim Dong Thap Muoi, starting to bring about the "miracles" for today.

Meanwhile, the Go Cong sweetening policy is a major policy, which has so far brought about remarkable results. Referring to this policy, comrade Huynh Van Niem, former member of the Party Central Committee, former Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, once emphasized that the Go Cong sweetening issue is not limited to the plan of the Go Cong Sweetening Project in the future.

Because the Go Cong sweetening project was the intention of the Provincial Party Committee after the complete liberation of the South, it was carried out step by step, and the Go Cong Sweetening Project was carried out in a concentrated and decisive manner. The final plan to implement the Go Cong Sweetening Project was considered as the strategic "decisive battle" to end the sweetening problem in the Go Cong area.

This is a very focused project, to end the problem of sweetening Go Cong. Because, after the liberation day, the province realized that, between the two regions of the East and the West of the province, the production situation in the East was more stable than the West, because through the enemy's "pacification", the production problem was maintained, and the people's lives were not as difficult as in the West.

But when we dig deeper, we see that the development of Go Cong is extremely difficult. In the future, if we want to develop Go Cong, we must have big plans, otherwise we will encounter difficulties. Because this area only cultivates rice, only one crop, the people's lives are "confined" in a very heavy state of self-sufficiency.

In general, Go Cong sweetening is a comprehensive plan, not just sweetening to bring fresh water, but also to improve the fields, change the production method, improve the planning to make agriculture more comprehensive and solve the people's lives. Up to now, this policy has been very effective.

When the country entered the period of comprehensive renovation, starting from 1986, Tien Giang also began to rise. Key economic programs and policies to change the industry structure were gradually shaped to enter a new cycle.

MR. PHUONG

(to be continued)

 

Source: https://baoapbac.vn/kinh-te/202504/chao-mung-ky-niem-50-nam-giai-phong-mien-nam-thong-nhat-dat-nuoc-30-4-1975-30-4-2025-nua-the-ky-vuon-len-cung-dat-nuoc-bai-2-quyet-dinh-lich-su-1039875/