Thanh Hoa (VNA) – The national target programme on new-style ruralarea building has given a facelift to coastal Nga Son district, the centralprovince of Thanh Hoa, helping stabilise local livelihoods and alleviatepoverty.

After years of implementing the programme, 20 out of 26 communes in thedistrict became new style rural areas, and 114 out of 163 hamlets met criteriaof the programme.

According to Mai Van Cong, deputy head of the district’s agriculture bureau,during 2015-2019, the district has mobilsed over 2.8 trillion VND (121.2million USD) to turn itself into a new style rural area, of which 193 billion VNDcame from the central and provincial budget, over 227 billion VND was sourced fromthe district budget, and the remainder was contributed by local residents andother sources.

The money was then used to develop local infrastructure, including the upgradeof 35 kilometres of inter-communal road and over 159 kilometres of inter-hamletroads, repair of 85.99 kilometres of the irrigational system, and constructionof 19 medical stations, 13 culture houses, and more than 3,400 water andlatrine facilities.

Besides, the district has 71 out of 85 schools named national standard schools,and 23 communes and towns having national-standard health facilities.

Meanwhile, during 2016-2019, the district received 2.6 billion VND from thenational target programme to help local residents branch out agricultural production.In fact, science-technology transfer and good production models have generatedbetter incomes for farmers. Potato and water melon farming is the most outstandingmodels, which earn growers 97-120 million VND and 160-180 million VND, respectively,each hectare.

Hoa Van Su, a resident in Hamlet No.5, Nga Trung commune, said that he begancultivating clean vegetables and watermelon in net houses covering 1,000 squaremetres.

“Advanced technology has been applied, making the plants grow well. My family’saverage income reaches 300 million VND each year”, Su said.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Van Hoan, residing in the same village, has been successfulwith his 900 square-metre area growing potato, water melon and vegetables. Hegains average 80 million VND a year.

To date, the district is home to 281 operating businesses and 900 farms. Thereare 1,348 poor households, and 3,789 near-poor households. Income per capita is35.1 million VND this year, nearly tripling the amount in 2011.

Nga Trung commune is an outstanding new-style rural area in the district. It wonthe status in 2016 with income per capita reaching more than 34 million VND.

Hoa Van Quan, Vice Chairman of Nga Trung commune People’s Committee, said thatthe commune has directed local people to shift to clean vegetable and watermelon growing and safe husbandry models, helping them escape from poverty.

The commune has fulfilled all 19 criteria of the new-style rural buildingprogramme, and is striving to achieve all advanced criteria in 2020, he said.

In the coming time, Nga Son district will work to satisfy all criteria of theprogramme, aiming to become a new-style rural district next year.

A total of 4,402 communes nationwide(49.38 percent of all communes in the country) met standards for new-stylerural areas as of June this year, heard a recent conference reviewing activitiesin the national target programme on building new-style rural areas in 2011-2020and the allocation of resources and budget for the programme.

Seventy six districts of 34 provinces and centrally-run cities nationwidereceived recognition for meeting all criteria of the programme.

Notably, the northern province of Nam Dinh, thesouthern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong and the central city of Da Nanghave 100 percent of their communes earn the title. 

The National Target Programme on New-style RuralArea Building, initiated by the Government in 2010, sets 19 criteria onsocio-economic development, politics, and defence, aiming to boost ruralregions of Vietnam. 

The number of criteria was increased to 20 in2015.

The list of criteria includes the development of infrastructure, theimprovement of production capacity, environmental protection, and the promotionof cultural values.-VNA