(HBO) – Smoother roads, busy trading activities and services, and prosperous villages with better economic conditions were our impression as we visited mountainous areas in Tan Lac in early Autumn when locals were busy preparing for the National Day festival.

In the summer-autumn crop this year, farmers in mountainous communes of Tan Lac enjoyed bumper rice, maze and chayote harvests. Their rice production was estimated at 0.56 tonne per hectare. Maze farms, mostly in Quyet Chien, Lung Van, Ngo Luong and Bac Son communes, also produced 0.55 tonne per hectares.

 Chayote hub Quyet Chien, thanks to the reform of cultivation technique and the application of VietGap standards, as well as the formation of a cooperative, has developed its trademark and created a sustainable agricultural value chain.

 Tan Lac chayote vines have been put on sale at big markets, and accessed restaurants and supermarkets in Hanoi and some other provinces and cities. Therefore, economic conditions in Tan Lac have been improved, increasing locals’ income and raising their living conditions, especially among ethnic minority groups.

 

Farmers in Bieng village of Quyet Tien commune in Tan Lac enjoy a bumper chayote crop with high prices

 

Improvement in infrastructure, health care, socio-cultural system as well as stable security and order in mountainous communes was another positive sign of the area. Statistics from the district’s Office of Ethnic Affairs show that in 2017, 35 infrastructure works and projects were built in the area at a cost of 17 billion VND, along with 19 other projects to assist the production with a total investment of nearly 3.5 billion VND.

 In 2018, the district proposed to the provincial People’s Committee 25 infrastructure projects with a total capital of nearly 20 billion VND.

 Efforts of mountainous communes in Tan Lac in maintaining political security and social safety and order have been recognised, as there were no complicated cases related to land conflicts, compensation and ground clearance. The movement of community-based national security protection has proved efficient, along with models of order-security self-management in localities.

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