The logo of new rural area development.

LẠNG SƠN — Lạng Sơn’s Farmer Association has been working hard to encourage local farmers to participate in building new-style rural areas, following the the National Targeted Program on New Rural Development in the period 2021-25.

Hoàng Văn Ngôn, chairman of the association, said that the association had directed relevant units to diversify forms of dissemination to raise awareness of local farmers about the purpose and meaning of the programme.

The association also proactively developed plans with specific targets associated with the association's emulation movements, creating change and consensus among the farmers on implementing the programme in the province, he said.

Accordingly, the associations’ units focused on disseminating the Party and State's policies on the new-style rural area building programme as well as local plans to boost the programme’s implementation, he said.

The dissemination was deployed in many forms, including through leaflets and loudspeakers as well as broadcasting news and posts on social network pages of the association from provincial to grassroots levels, he said.

The association had organised over 15,000 disseminating campaigns for more than 600,000 officers and members of the association since 2021, he said.

Hoàng Đăng Dũng, deputy chief of Provincial Coordination Office of the National Targeted Program on New Rural Development, said the province had run many effective movements, promoting the participation of the whole political system and creating widespread social effects such as the movements “Building new-style rural areas on Saturday” and “Red Sunday to join hands to build new-style rural areas.”

Local media, provincial and district-level electronic information pages had regularly published news, articles and reports on the implementation of the programme’s shining examples and typical models to encourage the participation of more local farmers, he said.

Achievements

A local farmer harvests chillies in Chi Lăng District in the northern mountainous province of Lạng Sơn. — VNA/VNS Photo Anh Tuấn

The effective implementation of the dissemination had contributed to raising awareness of local farmers so that they proactively participated in movements to build new-style rural areas in the province, he said.

Specifically, farmers donated a total of more than 120,000sq.m of land, contributed more than VNĐ15 billion (US$615,000) and over 300,000 working days to repair over 100km of rural roads, 90km of local canals, 1,000 rural bridges and other public works since 2021, he said.

Nguyễn Kao, member of farmers' association of Cương Quyết Village, Gia Miễn Commune, Văn Lãng District of the province, said: “Previously, I do not know about the concept of building new-style rural area.”

Through disseminating activities of the association, he had grasped the purpose and meaning of the programme, he added.

My family thus donated more than 600sq.m of land to build a village cultural house in June 2022, he said.

“Seeing people participating in activities in a new, more spacious cultural house, I feel very excited and proud after contributing to the movement of building new-style rural areas in the locality,” he said.

The association said its website had posted over 200 news and articles, including many news and articles related to environmental protection, attracting over 100,000 viewers. As a result, most farmers have now raised their awareness of protecting the environment.

Currently, the province has more than 900 models of farmers protecting environment, such as green-and-clean rural roads managed by farmers, or farmers joining together to build garbage incinerators.

Other criteria in building new-style rural areas have also drawn active response from local farmers and achieved many remarkable results such as over 90 per cent of farmer households gained the title of cultural family; all farmer households that produce and trade agricultural products registered to ensure food safety and hygiene.

The province's average income per capita has reached VNĐ51.72 million ($2,119) per person each year, an increase of VNĐ16.72 million ($685) compared to 2017.

The province now has 86 out of 181 communes meeting new-style rural standards, including two model communes of Chi Lăng and Chiến Thắng.

More focused

Volunteers build a rural road as part of the the National Targeted Program on New Rural Development  in Nhân Lý Commune, Chi Lăng District in the northern mountainous province of Lạng Sơn. — VNA/VNS Photo Anh Tuấn

The provincial administration has continued identifyingthe National Targeted Program on New Rural Development in the period 2021-25 as a key programme in the province’s socio-economic development plans.

According to the local administration, the implementation of the programme would be more focused, synchronous, substantive and sustainable in the future.

Under the programme, farmers were identified as the centre, the administration said.

It is estimated that the province’s Farmer Association currently has over 108,600 farmers, accounting for 89.2 per cent of the total number of agricultural households in the province.

Besides the advantages, the province also faced difficulties and challenges in the implementation of the programme, such as the tasks and requirements of the new set of new-style rural criteria being higher than the previous period. The province needs more investment resources to invest in disadvantaged communes; the numbers of model new style-rural areas are still low and unsustainable; and the State-budget capital to implement the programme in the 2021-25 period is lower than the previous period, while the provincial budget capital is limited.

The province will continue to focus on solutions to improve the effectiveness of the programme, contributing to promoting the province's socio-economic development and improving the spiritual life of the people. — VNS