Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Government policies and programmes on poverty reductionhave changed the lives of ethnic minority people in the northern borderprovinces.

Meo Vac district, one of the six poorest districts of the northernmost provinceof Ha Giang, as well as the country as a whole, is eligible for a specialgovernment support scheme, the programme 30A – a collection of comprehensivepoverty alleviation efforts effective since 2008.

With support from 30A, the district with its mountainous terrain and rockysoil, has gradually escaped poverty.

The poverty rate reduced from 66.01 percent in 2015 to 35.99 percent in 2020,according to the local authority's report.

Dung A Duong, head of a near-poor household in Xin Cai commune, is among 20households trying to climb out of poverty thanks to a project helping them tobreed cows.

Duong said he is raising a herd of cows and is going to sell two of the animals.The money collected will help his family repay 40 percent of the supportcapital provided by the project.

Nguyen Cao Cuong, Chairman of Meo Vac district People's Committee, said povertyalleviation is an important task for the local government.

The local authorities have mobilised resources to create effective povertyreduction models in order to effectively implement the national targetprogramme on poverty reduction, creating better livelihoods for the poor, hesaid.

In Lai Chau province, the local authorities and border guards have to buildbreeding and farming models to help ethnic minorities see production efficiencyfrom changing farming methods, as part of efforts to help them rise abovepoverty.

At the beginning of 2018, border soldiers in Muong Te district in coordinationwith the local authorities developed a wet rice cultivation model with twocrops a year in Ha Xi village.

They held a meeting to talk about the effectiveness of wet rice cultivationwith the residents.

But after the meeting, only one household took part in the programme.

Hoang Hu Xa, the village pioneer, was supported by the border force to improve1ha of land and bring water from the stream to the rice fields.

They also provided him seeds and fertilisers, as well as teaching him farmingand harvesting methods.

In the first crop, Xa harvested two tonnes of paddy. The productivity doubledin the second crop.

Seeing the effects of the new farming model, many households asked the army tohelp them.

"I am a member of the Party and a village officer. So, I have to be apioneer to take part in the trial programme on farming wet rice in order tohelp the residents see the effectiveness of this model," Xa told theVietnam News Agency.

In order to achieve the goals of economic development and sustainable povertyreduction, some local governments have helped people settle on new land.

Nearly 270 Mong ethnic households of seven mountainous communes of Muong Khuong district,Lao Cai province, have been relocated to new settlement villages for economicdevelopment.

From the poverty reduction programme, the locality has allocated land andforests for people to cultivate and take care of, creating sustainablelivelihoods.

Border security forces, the agriculture and rural development office in MuongKhuong district and local authorities called on people to turn wasteland filledwith rocks into banana and pineapple farms.

Duong Hong Trung, Secretary of Ban Lau commune’s Party Committee, said: “Coc Phuongvillage has developed rapidly and become one of the villages with high incomein Muong Khuong district. The income per capita reaches 40 million VND (1,720USD) a year."

"Many households have earned hundreds of millions of dong a year. Theybuild new houses and buy modern conveniences for their daily lives. People donot leave their fields and do not illegally cross borders to seekemployment," said Trung.

Hundreds of billions of dong have been invested to provideroads, electricity, schools, irrigation and water supply, to help ethnic Mongpeople in border areas improve their lives and production, Trung said.

In 2015, 93 households in Ban Me commune, Si Ma Cai district, took part in aproject called "Cow Bank" with 191 breeding cows to escape frompoverty and attain a higher standard of living.

According to Vice Chairman of the Ban Me commune People's Committee Hang SeoChang, the efficiency of raising cattle is higher than growing corn or rice.It is also less affected by the weather and farmers can earn stableincomes.

As a result, poverty reduction in the commune has been implemented quickly andsustainably.

The income per capita was 15.6 million VND per year in 2015 and reached 33million VND in 2019, Chang said. 

In recent years, border soldiers and officials in Lai Chau province have alsoimplemented an economic development model: “Four Togethers – Eat Together, LiveTogether, Work Together and Speak the Local Ethnic Language Together.”

The model aims to improve local life, eradicate hunger and alleviate povertythrough practical projects such as breeding cows.

Major Tran Ha Nam from the border post of Pa U commune, said the soldiers alsohelp locals build houses, cultivate crops, and educate children.

Vice chairman of People's Committee of Lai Chau, Giang A Tinh affirmed that theinvestment policies for poverty reduction have reached the right beneficiaries.

The infrastructure system has been upgraded, making an important contributionto changing the face of mountainous areas, and basically solving people's needsfor electricity, roads, schools, healthcare and promoting socio-economicdevelopment.

The locals have also brought varieties with high economic efficiency andapplied science and technology in production, Tinh said.

In Nam Ban commune, an extremely poor commune of Nam Nhun district, the incomeper capita was only 3.5 million VND per year in 2015, with 80 percent of thepopulation in poor households.

At present, the poverty rate has decreased to 65.67 percent, with income percapita reaching 14.5 million VND per year.

The implementation of poverty reduction programme in the 2016-20 period inborder provinces such as Ha Giang, Lai Chau and Lao Cai has proved theeffectiveness of the government support and investment policies to reduce povertyand reach the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction.

However, the support policies are not synchronous and there are overlapsbetween ministries, agencies and localities.

According to Tran Duc Quy, Vice Chairman of the Ha Giang provincial People'sCommittee, the Government should study and accelerate the integration ofpolicies to avoid overlaps and dispersion of resources.

Administrative procedures need to be simplified, helping localities toeffectively implement the national target programme on sustainable povertyreduction.

Specifically, in Ha Giang, although the income of poor households in poordistricts has improved significantly, the poor mainly lack basic services suchas housing quality, water sources, hygienic latrines and information.

The vice chairman said in order to limit the disadvantages, it is necessary toallocate adequate budgets for ethnic minority people in disadvantaged andextremely disadvantaged groups.

Priority should be given to transport, raising cattle, electricity, irrigationand concentrated water supply works, Quy said./.