Largest Cham village in province changes day by day

 

The rise of the poor Cham village

About 10 years ago, the life of Cham villagers was extremely difficult, poor households accounted for nearly two third. Implementing the program of socio-economic development in ethnic minority areas associated with building new advanced rural and agricultural areas, in recent years, Xuan Loc district has promoted investment in works such as: clean water, rural roads, electricity for lighting and production in rural areas.

Along with that, the district assigned the Department of Agriculture to study and propose a plan for crop restructuring; allocation of plants, breeding animals, fertilizers, and pesticides; dispatching agricultural engineers to help ethnic minorities in general and the Cham village in particular to do business. As a result, the life of Cham village, Xuan Hung, has changed significantly.

Mrs. Tah's family in Cham village has more than 5ha of cajeput trees; however, because of poor soil, lack of capital and cultivation techniques, the economic efficiency is not high, for many years, her family is a near poor household in the commune. In 2015, with the support of the local authority, Tah participated in a training course on application of science and technology to production, and visited the dragon fruit planting model in Tien Giang province. At home, she boldly borrowed VND 100 million from Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) - Xuan Loc district branch converted rice filed (3000m²) into red flesh dragon fruit. Thanks to the enthusiastic guidance of agricultural staff and her diligence, her family's dragon fruit garden is expanding. Tah is currently the best production and business household in the Cham village with a profit of about VND 3 billion/ year.

Tah said: “At first I only planted 3000m² of dragon fruit, after that, the area increased gradually to 10 hectares which has been developed up to now, 7 hectares of which is being harvested. The whole area of my dragon fruit is grown and cared for according to the organic process guided by the staff. I am cooperating with the dragon fruit growing households of the Cham ethnic group to establish an organic dragon cooperative to facilitate our output”.

In addition to Ms. Tah's family, in the Cham village there are also about 10 households with an income of over half a billion dong/ year. The arid land of hamlet 4 has now been filled with dragon fruit, helping many families out of poverty.

Improving the quality of life

Along with investment in economic development, improving the spiritual life of ethnic minorities in the Cham village is concerned by the authority people in Xuan Hung commune, Xuan Loc district.

Mr. Abdohamit, leader of the Cham village said that thanks to the Party, State and local interest, the socio-economic life of the Cham village is now no longer deprived. The Cham village has concrete roads, electric lighting, clean water like many other countryside now. In 2018, the Cham village was invested by the State in a cultural house with a strong Cham architecture, where the villagers meet, organize traditional festivals, preserve and promote the cultural identity of Cham people.

The leader further shared that from the effective business, Cham people actively responded to the movements launched by the local authorities, especially the movement of building new rural areas, uniting to build cultural life in residential areas, and establishing a cultural family. The cultural and spiritual life of Cham people is increasingly improved. The dance and music group of the Cham village is restored and maintained in service of village and commune events; catechism, writing classes and customs of the Cham are preserved.

Also according to the leader of the Cham village, compared to 5 years ago, the current Cham village completely "changes its look". The children of the Cham village can go to school and grow up to work in factories in the vicinity. 100% of roads are concreted with electricity and lighting; 100% of households have clean and hygienic water. The average income per capita is nearly VND 50 million/ month, the number of poor households decreases to less than 20, and the number of better-off households is increasing.

Cham village has typical examples of the province and party members. They are the leaders in maintaining Cham cultural life, actively implementing the local-launched movements.

Ms. Pham Thi Mai Phuong, Vice Chairwoman of the People's Committee of Xuan Hung Commune, said that implementing the policy of changing the crop structure of the district, people have boldly converted from inefficient crops to dragon fruit, so their income on average, increases by more than VND 50 million/ person/ year. Particularly, the Cham village has developed about 130 hectares of dragon fruit. It is expected that in June, the organic dragon fruit cooperative of the Cham village will be established. This is Xuan Loc district 's first cooperative, the founders and members of which are ethnic minorities. The spiritual life of the people is increasingly concerned.

Phan Anh