By Tố Như

ĐỒNG THÁP – The southern province of Đồng Tháp now has 109 communes recognised by the provincial People's Committee as meeting new rural standards, reaching 94.78 per cent of the target.

Eighteen communes are recognised as meeting advanced rural standards, reaching 52.94 per cent, and five units completed the new rural task including Sa Đéc, Cao Lãnh and Hồng Ngự cities, and Tháp Mười and Cao Lãnh districts.

It is expected that by the end of this year, three more districts will meet new rural standards, reaching 60 per cent of the target.

After more than 10 years of implementing the National Targeted Program on New Rural Development, rural areas in Đồng Tháp Province have seen comprehensive changes in all fields.

The material and spiritual lives of the people are increasingly improved, contributing to sustainable socio-economic development.

Lotus seed, a special product of Đồng Tháp Province. VNS Photo

This result is thanks to the firm leadership and direction of the provincial leaders, the consensus and creativity of people actively participating in many effective economic development models.

A number of outstanding and effective agricultural models in the process of implementing new rural development associated with agricultural restructuring have been replicated in many localities in the province.

A typical example is the "My Mango Trees" model of Mỹ Xương Mango Co-operative with the form of organising sales on the website, contributing to spreading the "Cao Lãnh Mango" brand far.

The "Smart Rice Farming" model of Mỹ Đông Co-operative 2 piloted on an area of ​​7.6ha of five households has cut costs by 50 per cent and increased productivity by more than 10 per cent.

Up to now, this model has been replicated to 60ha and products were committed to market by trading businesses from the beginning of the season.

In addition, the "Community Tourism" model at Tư Cá Linh Homestay in Tam Nông District, Flower-Fog House, Bamboo House and Rose House in Sa Đéc city have offered tourists back-to-nature services and family activities such as growing flowers, raising frogs, catching fish and experiencing rural life, so visitors can have real experiences about the lives of Đồng Tháp people.

In particular, many "clubhouses" have been established and developed from the implementation of the National Targeted Program on New Rural Development.

To date, the entire province has 92 "clubhouses" with nearly 5,000 members, and has deployed 110 operating models associated with each typical local industry and profession, creating new trends in production co-operation. Accordingly, the associations have proactively innovated their thinking and approached new science, engineering and technology in production which help improve the quality of the collective economy and bring practical benefits to farmers.

Up to now, the whole province has 357 One Commune One Product (OCOP) certified products reaching from three to four stars that are sold in shops in tourism areas.

Notably, in the process of building new rural areas in Đồng Tháp Province, many good models and creative ways of doing things have been replicated and developed, bringing practical benefits to farmers.

In order to create conditions for clubhouses to operate effectively, the provincial Party Committee and governments have directed functional branches to increase training in information technology and application of scientific advances, provide market information and computers, and install fibre optic transmission lines to quickly implement digital transformation process in agricultural production, consumption and linking production along the value chain.

Currently, the clubs have signed with businesses to consume products. The signing has helped raise awareness for farmers in production to ensure requirements and standards of food quality and safety.

Therefore, many members who participate in the production model at the request of consuming partners become the foundation for the formation and development of new co-operatives.

Up to now, there have been six safe agricultural produce co-operatives established on the basis of farmers' clubs, thereby opening up a new direction, consistent with the orientation of agricultural restructuring associated with new rural construction of the province.

Ngô Trường Sơn, Chief of the Staff of the National Coordination Office of the National Targeted Program on New Rural Development, said the appearance and vitality of the countryside must serve the people and be created by the people, that is the sustainable development direction of Vietnamese rural areas and is the target of the new rural construction process.

To do that, building new rural areas requires the initiative and creativity of people and communities to build a unique rural space for each locality, Sơn said

That is also a way to build "liveable countryside", contributing to improving people's quality of life, preserving and promoting the landscape and traditional cultural values ​​of each Vietnamese countryside, he said.

That is also the mission and role of the clubhouses in the coming time. The clubhouse model will hopefully spread more strongly to other provinces.

“Up to now, it can be affirmed that the clubhouse is a suitable model. Practice shows that the clubhouse model has promoted positive effects in implementing the new rural construction programme associated with restructuring the agricultural sector of Đồng Tháp Province," Sơn said.

Đồng Tháp strives that by 2025, rural people's income will increase 1.6 times compared to 2020 (equivalent to VNĐ75.2 million (US$3,100) per year year).

The poverty rate will decrease by an average of 0.4% per year, and by 2025 the poverty rate will decrease to less than 3 per cent, the rate of people participating in health insurance will reach 95 per cent, the rate of households using clean water will reach 98 per cent, and the rate of trained workers will reach 79 per cent.

To achieve the goals set out in Plan 102/KH-UBND, the province leaders have directed localities to build a roadmap with better focus to accelerate the National Targeted Program on New Rural Development.

At the same time, the local departments and branches were asked to regularly co-ordinate to remove difficulties in implementing projects on schedule related to infrastructure, transport and environment, as well as promote new models and practices in building cultural institutions and community learning centres, and proactively forecast the market for key commodity industries to proactively regulate and create stable output for agricultural products, well exploit the potential of each key product industry and enhance processing industry of agricultural products.

Regarding sustainable poverty reduction, the province required departments and relevant offices to promote good state management in supporting people to create livelihoods, stable jobs and incomes, and continue to introduce good production models and effective methods in implementing poverty reduction.

The provincial Party Secretary Lê Quốc Phong said that although the new rural district criteria have changed in a more difficult and demanding direction, localities have made strong efforts to achieve the encouraging results.

Phong asked local governments to set up more concrete roadmaps to soon reach the new rural development targets.

“The province's viewpoint is to always share, care and create conditions for localities in the process of building new rural areas,” Phong said.

“For any locality to be recognised as a new rural area, the material and spiritual living conditions of the people must be improved," he said. VNS