Lường Văn Mười (right) checks dried longan products. — VNA/VNS Photo

SƠN LA — Many young people in a remote mountainous district in the northern mountainous province of Sơn La have succeeded in building new economic models thanks to boldly applying advanced technology.

Since the 1970s, farmers have brought longan varieties to Sông Mã District and they have developed them into the largest plantation area in the northern region.

More than 50 years later, Lò Văn Huỳnh, a resident in Ó Village of Mường Sai Commune, from his passion and aspiration to start up a business building a sustainable farming model and bring benefits to the community, decided to continue developing the longan trees because the fruit tree was expected to completely change the economy of the poor border area.

In 2016, the first longan trees were planted by Huỳnh on the arid, infertile strip of land, replacing low-yielding crops.

With the spirit of dare to think and dare to do, Huỳnh has learned planting and caring techniques to grow healthy longan trees with large, beautiful and high yielding fruits.

He also focuses on investing in post-harvest methods to create high-quality products that are easily accessible to the market.

In particular, in 2020, he mobilised ten households in the village to establish Tân Thịnh Co-operative with a production scale of over 40 hectares of longan.

Huỳnh said that currently, the co-operative’s production activities are carried out according to VietGAP and organic standards.

Not only providing fresh longan, the co-operative also produces dried longan that is loved by domestic consumers.

“Unlike fresh longan, the process of dried longan production requires meticulous, elaborate and enthusiastic care from harvesting and selecting the most beautiful fruits to cleaning, drying and packaging products,” Huỳnh said.

“The co-operative has ensured that dried longan products have a natural, nutritious flavour and meet high quality export standards,” Huỳnh said.

Not only has he made his family rich, Huỳnh has also spread the entrepreneurial spirit and aspiration to develop the household economy in the village.

He is always willing to wholeheartedly share knowledge and techniques of planting longan trees to help villagers get out of poverty. He and Tân Thịnh Co-operative are actively contributing to the economic development of the border district of Sơn La Province.

Cò Tre Village of ethnic minorities of Chiềng Cang Commune is known as the poorest remote area of Sông Mã District.

The area used to be an infertile land with the main crops being low-yield maize and cassava.

In 2016, Cầm Văn Mười and some young people in the village established a co-operative named Diên Việt Có Tre.

He and the members pioneered bringing new fruit trees such as longan, pomelo, mango and orange to plant in the village.

Seeing the potential for development and having paved the way, some households in the village also learned and followed to plant fruits, replacing corn and cassava.

The members of the co-operative have actively learned from experience and applied science and technology to production, seeking markets for their products.

As a result, the area of ​​fruit trees is growing year by year with higher productivity, contributing to improving the lives of local people.

Currently, the co-operative has 18 members and produces 96 hectares of fruit trees of many kinds.

In 2022, output reached nearly 400 tonnes of fruit, bringing an average income of VNĐ200 million (US$8,500) per member per year.

Mười said that the co-operative has actively promoted products to consumers as well as explored the needs of potential export markets.

In particular, the members have focused on connecting with enterprises, fruit importers/exporters, co-operatives and production households in the district to create a stable consumption market, he said.

A member of Diên Việt Có Tre Co-operative taking care orange garden. — VNA/VNS Photo

Meanwhile, in Chiềng Khoong Commune, people set up and have successfully run Hoa Mười Agriculture Service Co-operative for 10 years.

At present, the co-operative has a total of 35 hectares of longan, of which 20 hectares receive the VietGap certificate.

Along with fresh longans, in recent years, realising the market potential of dried longans as well as finding a solution to reduce the pressure of consuming fresh fruit during the peak time of harvesting, the cooperative’s members have researched and learned methods to produce dried longan products.

Lường Văn Mười, director of Hoa Mười Agriculture Service Co-operative, said: “In the past, the processing of dried longan was done manually, so it was laborious and the economic efficiency was low.”

“In recent years, the co-operative has switched from using a charcoal drying method to steam ovens. As a result, dried longan products have better quality and are well received by domestic and foreign consumers,” he said.

Up to now, the co-operative has stable sales of 300 to 400 tonnes of dried longans per year, he added.

Sông Mã District currently has more than 650 economic models run by its youth union members bringing incomes of at least VNĐ100 million (US$4,300) per year.

Accompanying the young people in starting up businesses, the district youth union has organised several training sessions on science and technology transfer for more than 500 members and local people as well as established a team of young engineers to participate in supporting the transfer of science and technology in agricultural production.

In order to help the members have capital for economic development, the union arranged for nearly 3,300 members to borrow over VNĐ130 billion ($5.4 million) from the Việt Nam Bank for Social Policies.

According to the Secretary of the Sông Mã Youth Union, Quang Văn Thắng, in the coming time, the Youth Union will continue to guide and encourage young people to actively take opportunities in digital transformation to enhance production and increase income. — VNS