Giving 'fishing rods' to help ethnic minorities escape poverty

Ethnic minority areas in Thai Nguyen province are changing positively from practical livelihood models. Not only are they “fish” to help overcome temporary difficulties, support policies have been giving people “fishing rods” to help them confidently rise up.

Mr. Ly Van Son (Dong Tam hamlet, Dong Dat commune, Phu Luong) raised goats for breeding with initial results.

Implementing the National Target Program on Socio -Economic Development for Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the 2021-2030 Period (Program 1719), Thai Nguyen province has built many models to support production, vocational training, and create sustainable livelihoods for ethnic minorities.

From the funding of Program 1719, 4 Mong ethnic households belonging to the goat breeding community group in Dong Tam hamlet, Dong Dat commune, Phu Luong, were provided with 94 breeding goats from November 2024. After more than 5 months of implementation, the model has initially shown positive results when the households' goats gave birth to their first litter.

The family of Mr. Ly Van Son, Dong Tam hamlet, Dong Dat commune, is one of the households supported to raise goats for breeding. He attended a training course on disease prevention and treatment techniques for goats and applied it effectively in practice. After nearly 1 year, his herd of goats has grown to 10, bringing high economic efficiency.

Mr. Son shared: Now I know about goat breeding techniques. The most feared thing in raising livestock is disease, which will cause capital loss. Now I am confident because I know more skills to prevent and treat diseases in goats, and with the experience I have, raising livestock is becoming more and more effective.

Not only in the livestock sector, the story of starting a business from vocational training also brings positive results. For example, the story of starting a business after vocational training of Mr. Trieu Van Lieu, Khe Cai hamlet, Vu Chan commune (Vo Nhai). After completing a short-term mechanical training course organized by the district with funding from the 1719 Program, he was determined to open a facility for welding and assembling iron and zinc frames.

His facility not only helps his family become financially independent but also creates stable jobs for 3 workers in the neighborhood with an average income of 3-5 million VND/person/month, helping his family escape poverty.

Implementing Program 1719, Thai Nguyen province pays special attention to Project 3 - a key component project focusing on developing sustainable agricultural and forestry production, promoting the potential and strengths of each region to produce goods according to the value chain.

Farmers in Dong Tam hamlet (Dong Dat commune, Phu Luong) take care of acacia trees.

From 2021 to now, the total disbursed capital for Project 3 has reached 22.2 billion VND. Since then, the whole province has had nearly 100 models to support production development, diversify livelihoods, projects and models of livestock and crop farming for ethnic minority people.

In particular, the province focuses on supporting the development of production according to value chains, precious medicinal herb growing areas, promoting business startups and attracting investment.

The province has implemented 41 livelihood diversification projects and 42 projects to support crop and livestock farming, providing many new production options suitable to the conditions and farming practices of the people.

At the same time, the province focuses on promoting sustainable agricultural and forestry economic development associated with forest protection and increasing people's income.

The province has supported the forest protection contract with an area of ​​436 hectares in Dong Hy district and strengthened forest protection work on a total area of ​​2,134.6 hectares, including 1,734.6 hectares in Dinh Hoa and 400 hectares in Dong Hy. This not only contributes to maintaining the "green lung" of the province but also creates jobs and increases income for hundreds of households.

From 2021 to now, the province has also invested nearly 156 billion VND to develop education and training, improve the quality of human resources. Thereby, over 6,000 ethnic minorities have been supported in vocational training, found jobs or started successful businesses.

With these efforts, the poverty rate in 110 communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas has decreased sharply to 3.16%, an average annual decrease of 2.18%, exceeding the assigned target. The number of extremely disadvantaged communes has decreased from 15 to 6, reaching 60%, exceeding the target assigned by the Central Government by 10%.

The average income of ethnic minority households in the whole province in 2024 reached 51.07 million VND/year, 1.8 times higher than in 2020. With this growth rate, it is expected that by the end of 2025, the income will reach 57.6 million VND, double that of 2020 and complete the set target.

The above results not only reflect the government’s decisive participation but also demonstrate the proactive and positive spirit of the people in accessing and effectively promoting support policies. The appearance of the mountainous countryside of Thai Nguyen is changing every day - from the “fishing rods” that are given at the right time and place.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/xa-hoi/202506/trao-can-caugiup-dong-bao-dan-toc-thieu-sothoat-ngheo-dfb03a5/