(HBO) –Those who had a chance to taste Muong Chieng rice in Da Bac district, Hoa Binh province, are sure to remember its good taste. If cooked with a right water ratio, the rice is fragrant and soft, which tastes good even with only fish sauce. It is the reason why anyone who goes on working trips to Muong Chieng looks to buy this kind of rice to bring home.
Xa Van Lam, head of Ban Ha hamlet,
said the rice is good for both home use and selling. People from other localities
buy this rice for use at home or as gift. Local farmers now want to cultivate
only this rice variety – called the J02, which is planted in almost all areas
of farming land in the commune. Rice fields in the locality are green with nice
fragrance coming into hamlets.
"My family has 3,000 sq.m of rice
fields. We harvested 40 bags of rice, each weighing
45 kg, which translated into
a productivity of more than 8 tonnes of rice per ha during the past
winter-spring crop,” he said, adding that J02 has become a special rice variety
of Muong Chieng. The commune now has
14.5 ha of land cultivated with this rice
variety.
Xa Van Hung, Chairman of the Muong Chieng People’s Committee, said water
rice is the main plant of Muong Chieng commune where weather and soil
conditions are suitable for rice cultivation. Agriculture is the traditional
means of living, and local farmers are hard-working. In the past, locals used
to cultivate hybrid rice varieties such as Nhi uu 838, which had stable
productivity but rice seeds and cultivation materials cost a lot. Over the past
several years, the commune piloted J02, a purebred rice variety provided by the
Agricultural Genetics Institute. With the support of the district, in the 2017
spring crop, Muong Chieng continued to cultivate the rice variety in
8 ha of land with the
participation of 50 households in Na Muoi, Ban Ha, Na Phang and Na Nguom
hamlets.
Once a mountainous province facing many challenges, Hoa Binh has, after more than a decade of implementing the national target programme on new-style rural area development, emerged as a bright spot in Vietnam’s northern midland and mountainous region. In the first quarter of 2025, the province recorded positive results, paving the way for Hoa Binh to enter a phase of accelerated growth with a proactive and confident mindset.
Hoa Binh province is steadily advancing its agricultural sector through the adoption of high-tech solutions, seen as a sustainable path for long-term development.
The steering committee for key projects of Hoa Binh province convened on May 14 to assess the progress of major ongoing developments
A delegation of Hoa Binh province has attended the "Meet Korea 2025" event, recently held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea (RoK) in Vietnam, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, and the People's Committee of Hung Yen province.
Hoa Binh province joined Vietnam’s national "One Commune, One Product” (OCOP) programme in 2019, not simply as a mountainous region following central policy, but with a clear vision to revive the cultural and agricultural values in its villages and crops.
From just 16 certified products in its inaugural year to 158 by early 2025, the One Commune One Product (OCOP) programme in Hoa Binh province has followed a steady and strategic path. But beyond the numbers, it has reawakened local heritage, turning oranges, bamboo shoots, brocade, and herbal remedies into branded, market-ready goods - and, more profoundly, transformed how local communities value and present their own cultural identity.
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