According to statistics in 2020, Ha Giang province is home to more than 186,000 households in rural areas, including more than 41,400 poor families, accounting for more than 22%, and more than 28,500 near-poor ones, accounting for more than 15%.
However, household garden economy in mountainous regions of Ha Giang has not been developed yet. Many localities still own mixed gardens, while the arrangement of plants and animals is not reasonable, so the economic value of household gardens is very low and has not brought sustainable income for local people.
    |
 |
|
Nguyen Xuan Hanh’s family grows pear and plum trees. |
Therefore, the Ha Giang provincial Party Committee issued Resolution No.05/NQ-TU, issued on December 1, 2020, on renovating mixed gardens to develop household garden economy and reduce sustainable poverty in the 2021-2025 period, aiming to change mindset and methods of growing livestock and crops, thereby creating livelihoods, increasing income, and reducing poverty sustainably.
Nguyen Xuan Hanh, a Tay ethnic minority man from Ban Thang hamlet, Tung Vai commune, Quan Ba district, shared about his journey to escape poverty. Annually, local households grow one rice and corn crop. Hanh’s family used to harvest about three tons of rice and three tons of corn after two crops, bringing only a few tens of millions of dong. He has quite a lot of available land, but it is abandoned or planted with many different types of crops, with low value. After the Ha Giang provincial Party Committee issued Resolution No.05/NQ-TU, and with the instruction of officers of the Tung Vai Border Post, Ha Giang provincial Border Guard Command, Hanh renovated the garden to grow perennial crops.
He said, “With the encouragement and help of the soldiers, in 2020, I decided to invest in growing pears, plums, persimmons, lemons, vegetables, cucumbers, and tomatoes. These are short-term plants and have good prices. Sometimes, when the when the price of tomatoes reached more than VND 20,000 per kg, people came to the garden, but there was not enough to sell. Thanks to proper techniques, Hanh’s family’s garden grows well. In 2023, persimmons and pears had begun to be harvested. “Last year, pears were priced at VND 15,000-20,000/kg, and persimmons were VND 30,000-40,000/kg. This year, if the selling price remains stable, it will bring in much higher income than growing corn and rice,” added Hanh.
Like Hanh’s family, Then Thi Lan, a Nung ethnic minority woman in Tung Vai commune, has renovated her mixed gardens to grow lemons and pears. Earlier, Lan grew corn and other kinds of plants with low value. As instructed by border troops from Tung Vai Border Post, Lan’s family decided to restructure the crop structure. In addition to digging a fish pond, since 2022, Lan has renovated abandoned land to grow trees with high value such as lemons and pears. She was also supported with a loan of VND 30 million without interest for 2.5 years from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to grow pig. In addition, Lan also grows vegetables, cucumbers, and tomatoes. “These are all plants with high demand and stable prices. The income from selling vegetables and raising livestock has helped us have a stable economy,” said Lan.
Lan and Hanh’s families are two of hundreds of ethnic minority families in Quan Ba district benefiting from the implementation of Resolution No.05/NQ-TU of the Ha Giang provincial Party Committee. In fact, the resolution’s implementation has brought practical results to local people. After more than three years, so far, more than 6,400 households have renovated their mixed gardens, bringing an average income of about VND 19 million per household per year, 2 to 3 times higher than before. Notably, the model also changed local people’s mindset, brought high income, and contributed to building the new-style rural area in Quan Ba district in particular, and in Ha Giang province in general.
Translated by Minh Anh