La Nga Commune Farmers’ Association supports its farmers to take out loans for effective production.

Raising cows helps many households escape from poverty

The commune’s total natural area is 8,654 hectares, 2,546 hectares of which is used for cultivation. Within the past years, although the Association along with the authority supported 1,200 households in lending more than VND13 billion, the greatest sum of money each household could lend, in 2003, was VND7 million used for cultivating one hectare of mangoes, which often cost between 12 to 20 million VND for cultivation. Therefore, this sum of money was not big enough to spend in a crop.

Facing this situation, the Association has acted as a guarantee for the farmers to buy machinery, fertilizers and insecticides on credit at companies and dealers. As a result, it has annually guaranteed the farmers’ loans worth more than VND10 billion and nearly VND10 billion for other communes in the district in this way.

In addition, the Association has mobilized its members to have four houses of compassion, worth VND28 million, built.

From its effective works, the Association has been assigned to manage the lending for poor households since late 2004. It has supported some households to raise cows and so far there has been 175 cows. Along with lending aid, it has also encouraged poor households to pay VND242 million back to the Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development.

With the aid of the Association, the local economy grows stronger year on year. For example, Mit Nai Branch has 77 provincial level excellent producers, many of which have an income of VND1 billion per year.

La Nga’s farmers can take out loans and pay for fertilizer in installments so they feel secure about their farming. Therefore, although La Nga is an agricultural commune, it has the fewest number of poor households (4%). As a result, La Nga Farmers’ Association lures more and more farmers year after year.

Reported by Thanh Tam, Translated by T.V