Son La women help each other get rich in their homeland

Son La is one of the localities with a large number of cooperatives (HTX) owned by women and developing very stably. These models are helping members increase their income, improve their lives, open up job opportunities for many women in mountainous and difficult border areas... actively contributing to the development of the local economy.

Agricultural cooperatives help improve lives

Deputy Director of the Nong Pieu Indigenous Agricultural Cooperative, Bui Phuong Thanh, is the one who contributed to the successful building of the "Ruby Phieng Khoai Plum" brand. Previously, her family had a large area of ​​​​plums and a large yield, but most of the consumption depended on traders and prices were unstable. In July 2020, she mobilized members in the village to establish a cooperative. At the same time, she brought the cooperative's plum products to participate in the 8th BSA (Business Research and Enterprise Support) Innovative Agricultural Startup Competition and won 3rd prize at the National level.

Cooperatives help many ethnic minority women escape poverty and stabilize their lives.

Through the competition, the Cooperative cooperated with BIO FARM Vietnam Joint Stock Company to experiment with growing organic plums; building brands, packaging, labels and traceability stamps. Ms. Thanh and her members self-studied, applied science and technology to research and develop large plums and successfully built the brand "Ruby Plum". Currently, the Cooperative has 50.5 hectares of plums, of which more than 36 hectares meet VietGAP standards; 30.5 hectares have growing area codes for export to the EU and supermarket chains, clean food stores, such as: AEON MALL, Homefood, domestic e-commerce platforms.

Ms. Thanh said: "The cooperative has 11 members, we assign specific tasks to each person, from production, technical development to ensure productivity and product quality to output standards such as warehousing, packaging, product packaging, business management, goods distribution system and marketing, ensuring connectivity in the sustainable development value chain."

Taking a different path, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Hao, Na Ang village, Moc Son ward, invested in renovating the house left by her parents to become a homestay to welcome tourists . After years of hard work, she has now gained prestige with the locals. In early 2024, Ms. Hao mobilized households with homestays in the residential group to establish a cooperative to join forces to improve the quality of service to tourists.

Ms. Hao said: "Currently, Noong Oi Agricultural and Tourism Service Cooperative has 4 homestays, accommodating 150 guests. Based on the accommodation needs of each group of guests, the Cooperative provides communal or private room services. The Cooperative creates regular jobs for 5 workers, in addition, creates seasonal jobs for many people."

Towards a model new rural area

A notable thing in the process of developing cooperative economy in Son La is the strong mark from the support policy of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance and the Son La Provincial Cooperative Alliance.

Recently, the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance has accompanied the Son La Cooperative Alliance to implement many support programs connecting 99 community agricultural extension groups with cooperatives, businesses and traders at home and abroad. Thereby, nearly 200 tons of pineapple, custard apple, passion fruit were consumed; loans were provided to 4 cooperatives at the rate of 1 billion VND/cooperative, for a period of 10 years; 14 study tours were organized for 430 cooperative officials and members... Among them, there are many cooperatives owned by women.

With the support of local authorities, cooperatives and cooperative groups in Son La are also very proactive in spreading their own values. Head of the Thuan Chau Commune Community Cooperative Group Lo Thanh Binh shared: “We have opened 28 training classes for more than 1,000 farmers, organized many tours, provided technical advice and connected to consume dozens of tons of agricultural products. Thanks to that, people have boldly innovated production, introduced new plant varieties into cultivation, contributing to improving income and sustainable poverty reduction”.

Thanks to the initiative and effectiveness of the cooperative economic sector, cooperatives, new rural areas... Son La province is confidently moving towards an advanced, exemplary new rural area. Typically, Chieng Hac commune is determined to reach the new rural area goal in the period 2025-2030. After the merger, the commune has a large area and limited infrastructure, but the Party Committee, government and people all identify economic development as a key task.

Recently, at the Conference summarizing the Project "Supporting Women to Start a Business in the period of 2017 - 2025", Son La is a locality mentioned with many outstanding achievements. Accordingly, the locality has supported 532 women to start a business, focusing on ethnic minority women, poor women in difficult areas; over 150,000 members have been disseminated knowledge about employment and starting a business. Support activities are carried out through technical training, consulting on establishing joint groups, connecting capital and supporting cooperatives to participate in competitions... contributing to helping women boldly develop economic models, increase income and improve their lives.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/phu-nu-son-la-giup-nhau-lam-giau-tren-que-huong-10398037.html