Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Tu Ac village. Although it is about 30km from the center of Thuong Xuan town, the road from the commune center to Tu Ac village is still bumpy and the traffic route in the village is a graded road with many potholes and erosion.

Party cell secretary Vi Van Truong (born in 1962) shared that he was trusted by the villagers and party members in the village to be elected as village chief and party cell secretary from 2010 until now. He has witnessed many difficulties and ups and downs of this land.

According to Mr. Truong, Xuan Chinh commune, Thuong Xuan district is a particularly difficult commune. The whole commune has 6 villages, of which Tu Ac was merged between Tu Tao village and Cut Ac village since 2018, is one of 3 particularly difficult villages, the poverty rate is still high. The whole village has 186 households, with 99% of Thai ethnic people living, of which 55 households are poor, 97 households are near-poor. Currently, Tu Ac people mainly do farming, raising livestock, growing acacia, small-scale trading, some young people go to work far away in companies, or go to work abroad.

The biggest economic difficulty for the villagers is that they depend on agriculture, but the whole village only has 29.7 hectares of land for growing rice for two crops per year. If divided equally, the rice growing area of ​​each household is very limited. Moreover, the village still does not have a system of intra-field canals and irrigation water storage facilities, which greatly affects the quality and yield of crops and livestock of the villagers.

To overcome this situation, people have to create their own water wheels and use pipes to bring water from streams to their fields. However, this solution is only temporary and cannot guarantee long-term production.

Another difficulty is that many years ago, the forest area of ​​Tu Tao village (now Tu Ac village) bordering Ban Tan village, Xuan Le commune, was a hot spot for illegal gold mining. By 2008-2009, the province, district, and local authorities had taken drastic measures, so gold mining activities no longer took place. Thanks to that, the lives of the people here were peaceful.

Talking with Mr. Truong in his house made of wood and roofed with fibro cement, he also shared that Tu Ac village still does not have a cultural house, so for many years, all village meetings, party cell meetings and cultural and artistic activities on holidays and Tet of Tu Ac village have taken place at his house. "In the near future, the village will have a cultural house, the investment capital is from the national target program", Mr. Truong excitedly boasted.

Mr. Truong added that fortunately, Tu Ac village has a large area of ​​acacia plantation compared to other villages. In recent years, acacia prices have been stable, so people have income from exploiting and harvesting acacia. On average, each hectare harvests 50 - 60 tons of acacia, and people earn about 50 million VND/ha. However, the number of these households is not large, so in general, people's lives are still very difficult. Although there are no more hungry households, many families are struggling with shortages in daily life.

Taking us to visit his family's acacia forest, Mr. Truong excitedly said: His family planted 2 hectares of acacia, which is currently ready for harvest. The acacia harvest period is from 5 to 7 years, and for his family, as well as many other households, acacia is a crop that brings stable income. Currently, the Party cell and the management board of Tu Ac village are also encouraging and propagating people to expand the acacia planting area on the production forest land of the village, while protecting the protective forest land area of ​​more than 3,200 hectares to receive support for protection and care to bring more income to the family.

Sharing about the current socio-economic situation of the Thai people in Tu Ac village, Mr. Cam Ba Hung, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Xuan Chinh commune, said: In recent years, Tu Ac village and the Thai people have also benefited from investment and support programs and projects of ethnic policies, thereby gradually improving the lives of the people and reducing difficulties.

However, Tu Ac started from a low base, so the socio-economic conditions of the village are still very difficult, so it cannot rise up on its own. The difficulties are already obvious, especially the small production land, limited cultivation conditions, Tu Ac needs support and investment to strengthen livelihood models. Currently, Tu Ac people hope to have an inter-village concrete road for travel, trading agricultural products, opening up many new economic opportunities for people, as well as making it easier for children to go to school, but Xuan Chinh is also a commune with many difficulties, the whole commune of Xuan Chinh has 666 households, of which 227 are poor households, 253 are near-poor households, so the local budget is limited, investment and support to solve urgent problems of the people only depend on the provincial and district budgets and national target programs.