Yen Trach escapes poverty with sustainable livelihoods

From raising buffaloes, cows, and goats to beekeeping and afforestation, livelihood models have become the fishing rods that help the people of Yen Trach (Thai Nguyen) rise up. These models have brought about practical results, helping many households escape poverty and stabilize their lives in the long term.

Promoting internal resources, creating sustainable livelihoods for people

As a mountainous commune with many difficulties in Thai Nguyen province, Yen Trach has faced many barriers in its development journey. However, thanks to the right approach, promoting the role of the people as the main subject and synchronously implementing the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction, the locality has had a clear change. From a commune with a high poverty rate, Yen Trach is gradually rising steadily, creating a foundation to improve the quality of people's lives and promote socio-economic development.

Yen Trach commune takes advantage of natural advantages to develop breeding models for buffalo, cows and goats.

According to the results of the general review of poor and near-poor households according to the multidimensional poverty standard for the period 2022 - 2025, at the beginning of 2022, the whole commune had 1,107 poor and near-poor households (accounting for 20% of the population), of which 599 were poor households (10.8%) and 508 were near-poor households (9.2%). People's lives depended heavily on fragmented agricultural production, low productivity, and limited access to science, technology and information.

However, after only 3 years of effective implementation of the National Target Program (NTPP) for sustainable poverty reduction, many production and livestock models to create livelihoods have helped people in Yen Trach commune stabilize their lives and escape poverty. By the end of 2024, the multidimensional poverty rate of the commune will be only 6.76%, of which poor households will be 2.98% and near-poor households will be 3.78%.

Over the years, Yen Trach commune has implemented many effective livestock and production models, contributing to helping hundreds of households have jobs, increase income and escape poverty. Typical models are breeding Sind crossbred cows, breeding buffaloes and breeding crossbred goats that have been maintained and replicated in many hamlets. These are models suitable for the terrain, soil conditions and production practices of local people.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoang's family (Trao hamlet, Yen Trach commune) shared: Previously, his family farmed, raised cows, pigs... but due to lack of experience, the economic efficiency was not high. After many times of changing the business model but not effectively, thanks to the support of the local government in terms of breeds, capital and techniques, his family decided to change the farming model and chose goats as the new livestock. According to Mr. Hoang, raising goats requires little investment capital, quick turnover, and can take advantage of idle agricultural labor time to do other work. Moreover, the hamlet has a mountainous terrain, a lot of natural grass and is a source of green, clean food, ensuring the needs of goats. Along with that, the climate here is very suitable, so the goats are healthy and grow well. Since developing the economy from the goat farming model, his family's life has become more prosperous.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoang's family gradually overcame difficulties by raising goats.

In addition, the commune encourages households to join production in groups and cooperatives, moving towards forming large-scale livestock and commodity production cooperatives, creating favorable conditions for product consumption and reducing output risks. In particular, connecting product consumption through businesses, traders and cooperatives is promoted, helping people's agricultural products gain a more stable position in the market.

Along with livestock development, Yen Trach focuses on developing key crops such as tea, timber, fruit trees, and medicinal plants. Currently, the whole commune has 6 products that have achieved provincial OCOP certification, more than 4,160 hectares of forest have been granted FSC certification, contributing to creating jobs and stable income for thousands of rural workers. Many households have proactively reinvested, expanded production scale, and boldly applied science and technology to improve productivity and product quality.

Improving access to information for sustainable poverty reduction

Not only supporting livelihoods, Yen Trach also focuses on poverty reduction in terms of information, considering this a prerequisite for people to access knowledge for development. 100% of the village cultural houses are covered by Internet/4G; promoting propaganda through loudspeaker systems, community bulletin boards and social networks; coordinating training, consulting on poverty reduction policies, guiding loan procedures and production techniques; expanding Internet coverage, equipping computers and transmission lines at cultural houses, schools, and commune People's Committees. Instructing people to use smartphones, e-commerce platforms, and social networks to promote and sell products.

Many agricultural products such as honey, delicious sticky rice, and local medicinal herbs are put on the province's e-commerce platform, expanding market access. Thanks to the application of technology, many households can sell agricultural products directly to businesses instead of selling through traders, increasing value by 10-20%.

Thanks to that, people's awareness has gradually changed from the mindset of self-sufficient production to targeted, connected and quality-controlled production. Propaganda plays a central role in raising the self-improvement awareness of ethnic minorities. The commune has implemented many effective methods, promoting the role of prestigious people in the community to mobilize, guide and inspire economic development.

The new house of Mrs. Hoang Thi Thi's family.

With concerted efforts, the rate of poor and near-poor households in the commune is 4.9% (October 2025), exceeding 150% of the target assigned by the province. Average income per capita reaches more than 54 million VND/year, traffic infrastructure, schools, medical stations, and cultural houses are invested synchronously. More importantly, there is a change in people's awareness of proactively learning a trade, borrowing capital, applying new techniques, and spreading the spirit of mutual assistance through the model of each hamlet helping a poor household.

Yen Trach aims to become an advanced new rural commune by 2030, building a sustainable agricultural and forestry value chain with tea, wood and OCOP products as pillars. The commune focuses on vocational training, supporting young people to start businesses, and developing eco-tourism associated with local cultural identity.

Chairman of the Commune People's Committee Nguyen Thu Huong shared: "The results of poverty reduction in Yen Trach come from the synchronous participation of the entire political system, the spirit of solidarity of the people and creative ways of doing things suitable to local conditions. We not only support poor households with capital and livestock, but more importantly, we give them business methods and production skills to help them rise up on their own."

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/yen-trach-thoat-ngheo-bang-sinh-ke-ben-vung-10397086.html