From arid places to the province's key rice growing areas

Agricultural products of Tanh Linh. Photo: N.Lan

Memory

In the festive atmosphere of the historic April, memories suddenly flooded back from the Tanh Linh mountain area. Fragmented memories, patchwork of a time when it was difficult to eat rice mixed with potatoes and instant noodles. After the liberation day, Tanh Linh - separated from Duc Linh district in 1983, had many new economic zones stretching from Suoi Kiet to Duc Phu. The mountains were so dense, wild animals lurked that a person was weeding in his garden near the road but was still gored by a wild boar, injuring his thigh. In 1994, my sister's house on the front of DT. 717 road was attacked by a tiger, capturing a sow that was nursing her piglets. In the middle of the night, when she heard the pig squealing unusually, she and her husband opened the back door to check and saw the tiger biting the pig's neck and taking it away... Not only wild boars and tigers, but also elephants came to destroy the fields in Gia Huynh commune, after that the Ministry of Agriculture had to organize a professional team to round up and capture the herd of elephants and take them to another place, causing a shock to the whole country...

Tanh Linh district administrative center. Photo: N.Lan

As time passed, more households migrated, Tanh Linh became more and more crowded, on both sides of DT 717 and Highway 55, new houses were built, children from the new economic zone also competed to go to school to study higher education... My family had many people, and we were all of working age, only I was the youngest and still in school. So the land was available, we just needed to reclaim the fields to grow cassava, potatoes, corn or bo bo. The same with the fields, at that time there was no irrigation, so wherever there was a river or stream, we reclaimed it, the land was wide and the population was sparse, if we had the strength, we could work "carefreely" and be self-sufficient. I still remember the 1986-1987 school year, some of the people in the neighborhood who went to high school in Duc Linh district (at that time Tanh Linh did not have a high school) had to stay in a rented house, but only brought enough rice to eat for the week, brought a little more to give to the landlord to stay (going to school far away had to stay in a rented house and only came home once a week), but when passing the market management checkpoint - barrier in Duc Phu commune bordering Duc Linh district, it would be confiscated, the reason was to prevent smuggling.

In 1988, Tanh Linh had a high school in Lac Tanh town, needless to say, the people in the area were very happy, including me, although at that time, anyone from the area from Nghi Duc to Bac Ruong who wanted to go to high school had to cycle 20-30 km. Every week, we had to pack our own food, carry our own rice, and the once miserable road DT. 717 was knee-deep in mud, many sections had no dry land to push the bike, we had to carry our bikes with rice and salt to eat for a week on our shoulders, wading through the mud to get to school. Sometimes, when we took the bus, the kind that ran on coal, it flipped over, but because the mud was more than half the wheel, the bus was carrying dozens of people and no one was even scratched...

I don’t know if it was thanks to the encouragement of the older uncles and aunts or not, but many of the high school students in that difficult period later became admirable successes. Many are famous doctors working at leading hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, some are professors and doctors who are among the top famous scientists. Some are successful entrepreneurs who have donated money to their hometown Tanh Linh to build rural roads, build houses for poor households, policy households, and install electricity lines to create models of rural security lighting, and build new rural areas...

Key rice growing areas of the province

Returning to Tanh Linh today, having a delicious meal with my friends, I remembered the years 1995 - 1996 and before, agricultural production in Tanh Linh mainly used rainwater, so most of the production was only one crop per year. In the dry season, people had to abandon their fields due to lack of irrigation water, and could only produce in places with self-flowing irrigation dams, but the area was not large due to the small scale. The district's food output at that time was only 60,000-70,000 tons per year, the average food per capita was about 900 kg/person/year, the standard of living was low. At that time, water for agricultural production was an extremely urgent issue and the top concern of Tanh Linh district and its people. When the Ham Thuan - Da Mi Hydropower Plant officially started construction in 1997. Seizing the above opportunity, Tanh Linh district asked for permission from superiors to invest in the La Nga river irrigation system. Through the terms, up to now Tanh Linh has basically completed the irrigation system with 2 main canals, South and North, and "connected" the system of centipedes to bring water to irrigate thousands of hectares of rice in the district.

Mr. Giap Ha Bac - Chairman of Tanh Linh District People's Committee, said: In 2024, the total annual crop planting area of ​​the district will reach 33,650 hectares, with an estimated food output of 196,267 tons. In particular, rice stands out. Thanks to proactive planting seasons, the planting area will reach 27,480 hectares, with an output of 137,226 tons. High-quality rice varieties such as ST25, OM5451, OM4900, OM18, ML202... will be used in model fields following VietGAP standards to create high-quality rice in the "Tanh Linh Rice" brand chain to supply the market...

From a poor mountainous area, Tanh Linh has now transformed itself, becoming a key rice area of ​​the province. Not stopping there, in addition to rice, Tanh Linh has diversified agricultural products and prioritized the production of high-quality agricultural goods. Up to now, Tanh Linh has nearly 30 OCOP agricultural products reaching 3-4 stars. From a land with many difficulties, up to now, Tanh Linh has many well-off and rich households. Statistics in 2024 show that the average income per capita in Tanh Linh is 53.6 million VND/person/year, an increase of more than 20.5 million VND compared to 2020... to see that Tanh Linh is not only a hero in the resistance war against foreign invaders but also resilient and creative in economic development to make that mountainous area increasingly richer...

“I returned to Tanh Linh in the historic days of April, sat down to eat rice produced from high-quality rice in the “Tanh Linh Rice” brand chain, and dipped a piece of wild bitter melon soup cooked with snakehead fish caught from Bien Lac, which was surprisingly delicious. I don’t know if it was because the snakehead fish had a strange taste that I found it delicious, or if it was because of the taste of my hometown?!”

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/tu-noi-kho-han-den-vung-lua-trong-diem-cua-tinh-129882.html