Overcoming difficulties to build new rural areas.

The National Target Program for Building New Rural Areas has transformed the face of Ham Can highland commune. However, due to its low starting point, the journey of building new rural areas in this highland commune still faces many difficulties.

Ham Can during the campaign to launch the New Rural Development movement.

Ham Can, a mountainous commune in Ham Thuan Nam district, has 1,252 households/4,523 inhabitants, mainly from the Rai ethnic minority. It has a natural land area of 12,308 hectares, of which 9,376 hectares are agricultural land. In recent years, through the New Rural Development program, the rural landscape of the commune has changed significantly. The Party committee, government, and people have made efforts to transform the economic structure to increase income. In addition to cultivating wet rice, hybrid corn, cassava, and sesame, in recent years they have focused on growing cashew nuts, mangoes, acacia trees, rubber, and especially dragon fruit (covering over 482 hectares). Livestock and poultry farming, with a total herd of over 11,000 animals, brings in considerable income.

One of the cultural and sports activities of the commune.

However, in recent years, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, unfavorable weather conditions, plant diseases, and difficulties in selling agricultural products—sometimes only enough to recoup costs—have created many challenges. Mr. Nguyen Van Sang, head of Hamlet 2, Ham Can commune, said that the biggest difficulty currently in Ham Can is persuading people to buy health insurance. Due to limited family finances, with agricultural products always facing the dilemma of good harvests leading to low prices, high prices during poor harvests, or both poor harvests and low prices—they are forced to tighten their belts. Mr. Sang cited his own example: his family grows 500 dragon fruit trees, but recently they only sold them for 500-5,000 VND/kg. Hybrid corn was bought by traders for 3,500 VND/kg of dried corn, and corn with high moisture content sold even lower.

In the context of building new rural areas, Ham Can commune has so far achieved 5 out of 19 criteria, including electricity, culture, information and communication, employment, and national defense and security. The commune is striving to achieve two more criteria this year: planning and rural commercial infrastructure.

Mr. Nguyen Van Song, Chairman of the Ham Can Commune People's Committee, said that due to a low starting point, not only Ham Can but also many highland communes in the province face many difficulties in building new rural areas. In recent years, many households in the commune have contributed labor to the construction of new rural areas. However, difficult criteria such as transportation and healthcare require support from all levels and sectors. To date, many rural roads in the commune have not yet been paved. Currently, the commune is constructing three roads: a 1,380m long, 5.5m wide inter-village road; the DT.718 road leading to the Muong Dien - Suoi Do production area, over 885m long and 5m wide; and the DT.718 road leading to the Lang Ma production area and the National Highway 1A - My Thanh road leading to the Dat 04 production area.

From now until the end of 2023, the commune strives to maintain and uphold its key tasks. These include continuing to improve and standardize rural infrastructure projects to meet production and living standards; enhancing the quality of life for rural residents; creating more production models linked to stable employment for the people; and, in particular, promoting the effective implementation of national target programs to maintain national standards for healthcare, improving the quality of primary healthcare for the people. Furthermore, it aims to educate and encourage the people to comply with the Party's guidelines and policies and the laws of the State.

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