Crop restructing to help improve living conditions of minority ethnic people in Ta Lai Village

In previous years, the minority ethnic people in Ta Lai village, Tan Phu district have solely depended on paddy cultivation and production was totally dependent on rainfall during before irrigation project. Therefore, they experienced losses due to drought and lack of irrigation water and they lived in extreme poverty and hunger. Since a water pump station was built in the village, it enabled the villagers to cultivate three seasons of rice in a year. But, due to their relatively backward farming technique, yields were low.

Farmer Nong Van Khiem living in hamlet 7, Ta Lai village is a typical example of this. He owns an area of nearly 2 hectares under wet rice cultivation and the yield fluctuated between 2.5 tonnes and 3 tonnes per hectare. Sometimes, he faced with a lower yield from his fields because his crops were destroyed by insects. This year, Khiem was encouraged to grow new varieties of rice known as OM3536 and OM 2395 in his fields. After three months of cultivation, seedlings are observed in terms of growth. Also, there are very little insects to worry about. He said he is expecting a bumper harvest this year.

Farmer Ly Van Ha is expecting a bumper crop this year

The Hung Loc Experimental Research Centre in coordination with the Agriculture and Rural Development Office in Tan Phu district launched a project to encourage minority ethnic people in the area to grow new rice varieties as well as grow corns and beans in their fields. Ly Van Ha living in hamlet 7 is among those who are selected to take part in this pilot project. The first time the trial project was carried out in Hamlet 7, Ta Lai village and it helped minority ethnic people in the area achieve results beyond their expectation.

Many villagers found very difficult to irrigate their fields in high areas which has resulted in tens of thousand of hectares of land left fallow. When the project is carried out for the entire village area after the winter-spring crop, fallow land will be cultivated with corns and beans. Crop restructing will help to improve living conditions of the minority ethnic people in Ta Lai village, contributing to hunger and poverty reduction.

Reported by Minh Long