Trần Quang Tuấn (second, left), head of Bình Man Village in Sơn Nam Commune, visits a tea field in Tuyên Quang Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Vũ Quang

HÀ NỘI — Some of the youngest village leaders in Tuyên Quang Province are proving to be the most successful at pulling their villages out of poverty and ushering in a new age of prosperity, thanks to the innovative new styles of business that they have promoted. 

Trần Quang Tuấn, 39, a Sán Dìu ethnic-minority man and head of Bình Man Village in Sơn Nam Commune, said his village has 85 households. Most of them are Sán Dìu ethnic minority people.

Tuấn said he was elected to be the head of the village five years ago. At that time, many households in the village were poor. He was determined to find a way to help the residents escape from poverty.

First, Tuấn examined suitable livelihood models, including raising chickens and pigs or growing tea and lemon, from both inside and outside the province, to learn from the experiences of others.

Then, Tuấn piloted the model in his village. He planted half of a hectare of lemon trees and raised 50 pigs.

Thanks to the knowledge he gained from his research, the pilot was successful and he earned about VNĐ150 million (US$6,500) per year.

He then persuaded local residents to employ the model and passed on his own experiences. 

After five years, many local households grew out of poverty. The average monthly income of the residents reached VNĐ3.6 million (US$158). Now, there are only two poor households in the village.

Trần Minh Quang, a resident in the village, said he decided to build a farm to raise chickens in 2018, thanks to the encouragement of Tuấn.

Tuấn invited Quang to participate in many training courses in the village, to learn about how to successfully raise chickens.

At first, Quang raised 1,000 chickens, before gradually expanding the scale of the farm.

Quang said, “Tuấn helped me a lot, I am so thankful.” 

Thanks to Tuấn's help, Quang earned a profit of VNĐ300 million ($13,100) last year from raising chicken.

Hoàng Ngọc Ân, 37, of the district’s Cầu Trâm Village, was selected to be the head of the village in 2019.

Ân became a good example for local residents after he participated in training courses on how to raise pigs. He then raised 100 pigs for meat and earned a profit of VNĐ150 million ($6,500) each year.

In the three years since Ân was elected as the village head, 40 per cent of the households have raised 3,000 pigs to improve their income.

Phạm Văn Hà, a resident in the village, said his family was one of the poor households in the village in 2019.

Thanks to Ân, Hà decided to raise ten pigs and grow half a hectare of macadamia trees to escape from poverty.

Hà said he earned dozens of million of đồng each year from these activities.

“It is thanks to Ân’s support,” Hà said.

It is estimated that 54 per cent of the total households in the village have escaped from poverty so far.

Hứa Văn Lập, 39, head of Ao Xanh village, has encouraged nine households in the village to donate over 1,000s.q m of land to build a concrete road, with a length of 500m in the village.

Lập said when he took his position as the head of the village three years ago he wanted to improve the road system in the village.

At the time, the road connecting Ao Xanh Village to the nearby village of Ngòi Lèo was a narrow earthen road.

“It has been inconvenient for people travelling between the villages for many years,” he said.

Lập wanted to turn the earthen road into a concrete road that better serves residents. He persuaded locals to donate their land to help build the road.

Đỗ Văn Nghình, a resident of the village, said he donated 360sq.m of his land to build the road.

Nghình said he saw many students fall when going along the road on rainy days because it was so slippery and sodden.

The earth road was also narrow, which made it difficult to travel along, he added.

“When Lập told me about the donation, I agreed,” he said.

Nghình said he is happy that his land was used for the project.

Lập said that to successfully mobilise people to donate their land, he first had to gain their trust. 

To do that, he always took the lead in obeying the policies of the village, listened to the people’s thoughts and sought ways to help them to overcome difficulties.

Dương Chí Thành, the Party Committee Secretary of Sơn Nam Commune said, Tuấn and Lập were among the youngest heads of village in the commune so far.

Both of them were creative and enthusiastic people at work, he said. — VNS