The semi-mountainous area Hoa Ninh Commune, Hoa Vang District houses a large number of local people being aware of this place's limitations and difficulties. Thereby, they have always wondered what to do to contribute to changing their homeland’s appearance in tandem with enhancing residents’ life quality.

Mr Bui Quang Tien has pursued his dream of Hoa Ninh pomelo production models according to VietGap standards. Photo: N.H

Energetic people are on the path to fulfilling their dreams

Despite just being in his mid-thirties, Mr Nguyen Kong Kinh has owned a 20ha acacia forest nearly ten kilometres from the centre of Hoa Ninh Commune, in tandem with 30 standing labourers, and several bulldozers, trucks, and a house for temporary workers. That's when we realized one of the facts that the will, the reach of young people is not small at all.

Mr Kinh may not be the one possessing the largest area of acacia plantation in the commune; however, his acacia forest has brought high economic efficiency owing to the methodical and scientific planting technique.

As shared, each hectare out of his 20 hectares acacia forest generates a high net profit of 40 million per year. Therefore, it is deserving when people often associate his name with nickname "king of acacia leaves" in Hoa Ninh.

In the same vein, Mr Bui Quang Tien has currently owned a 2ha green-skinned pomelo garden with 500 pomelo trees, which has become the dream of many locals in Dong Son Village, Hoa Ninh Commune. People here often call him by the name of "the king of pomelos" not only due to the large planting area but also the economic efficiency of this famous pomelo garden.

In the arid hilly land of Hoa Ninh, to earn hundreds of millions from the hill garden not only requires sweat and tears but also passion and intense love for the beloved homeland.

In the past, Hoa Ninh garden land only planted cassava and planted local varieties of fruits on a small scale. Nevertheless, when having the policy to renovate small orchards to grow fruit trees in a bid to give supply for markets, some local officials and Communist Party’s members had followed it first to make people less afraid and boldly implement it.

Since then, the dream of a homegrown fruit brand was started by Mr. Tien and has been realized for 5 years on a hill garden with plenty of sun and wind but lack of water. Not only that, his family also make pomelo jam to sell during Tet holiday and is planning to use pomelo peel to cook essential oil. One day, perhaps his green-skinned pomelo garden will be in the village eco-tourism route of Hoa Ninh Commune.

In the different vein, Mr Kinh has been attached to the forest like a deer eating forest leaves from his childhood. To explain the reason for inheriting and sticking to the afforestation profession in this mountainous area for more than 20 years, he said, “ When I was a 6th grader, I often followed my father to help do the cooking and take care of trees on weekends. There were nights when lying in a shack in the forest and listening to the rustling in the stream, as well as when waking up and hearing the birds chirping on the tree branches. They made a child's soul filled with a feeling of adventure and excitement. The forest is in my blood."

According to Mr Kinh, to reach the aim at gaining highly effective afforestation in Hoa Ninh, forest growers must understand the land and have a long time to stay with the forest to be able to stick to it for ages.

Many people from other places came to buy land to set up acacia plantations have At first, enthusiasm at first, but became weaker and weaker due to many reasons later on; therefore, they had to transfer forests to someone else.

If acacia is just plated in a 5-year cycle, the afforestation will stop at raw products for plywood processing. As the result, Mr Kinh revealed that he is incubating a model of planting large timber trees with a 10-year cycle to produce high-quality whole wood products.

Mr. Kinh (left) gives Mid-Autumn Festival gifts to the children of laborers working in his acacia forest. Photo: N.H

“Flowers” bloom on barren land

In the years of heavy rain and storms, the acacia forest fell, causing countless of damage. Consequently, forest growers often divide the land area into several sub-zones to limit the risk of natural disasters. On the other hand, there will always have forests to be harvested at any time to pay for labour, reinvest, clear the ground.

A 5-year acacia melaleuca cycle has up to 5 shoots including weeding off small branches and breaking off the forest ropes that cling to trees so that they can grow well and strong. As harvest time comes, bulldozers must be used to create a wide road surface for trucks to run to the place to collect glue, then transfer to Hoa Nhon Commune to grind into chips to make commercial plywood.

In reality, afforestation has more difficulties ranging from recruiting workers, choosing to buy good seedlings, organizing accommodation for workers to the reasonable division of labour, especially when acacia get diseases such as having white fungus. At that time, there was only one way to burn it completely to eradicate the disease from spreading to other sub-areas.

Similarly, the growing commercial green-skinned pomelo of Mr Tien in Hoa Ninh has also encountered difficult days when holding the hoe, the lawnmower, and watering the plants for the 2-hectare pomelo garden under the scorching heat of the hilly land after many years of working as an official. Although pomelo is a suitable plant for hilly soils, it can not survive if having too much rain or sun lights.

When his pomelo garden gave a stable harvest, Mr Tien bravely cut down 200 fruit-laden domestic pomelo trees as well as leaving roots to graft green-skinned pomelo varieties, creating a hybrid pomelo with high pest resistance in the hope of creating a kind of green-skinned pomelo labelled the hometown brand name. Roughly, each pomelo tree sells for 1 million VND per year.

In the words of Mr Le Duc Thuong, Chairman of Hoa Ninh Commune chapter of People's Committee, the commune has currently housed about 200 households growing pomelo with an area of nearly 200ha.

The commune is registering Hoa Ninh pomelo production models according to VietGap standards, as well as the OCOP program (one product per commune). Moreover, Hoa Ninh Grapefruit Cooperative is being promoted with a brand name to be traded in the market soon.

There was a time when many people had doubts when the poet Hoang Trung Thong wrote, "With human strength, stones can become rice". However, via the story of two "barefoot kings" in the hilly land of Hoa Ninh, we can see that human strength alone is not enough, but passion and aspiration are needed for the barren land to truly bloom

Reporting by NHU HANH- Translating by T.VY