Veterans of An Nghia Commune develop citrus plantation

Prior to 2013, citrus growing is quite strange to veteran members of An Nghia Commune (Lac Son). However, up to now, citrus planting area has been expanded to nearly 20 hectares owned by veteran members. Thanks to the effectiveness of the model, the average income of veteran members reaches at 23.5 million VND / person / year, the rate of poor households reduced to 3%.

Visiting Mr. Bui Van Dung's family in Vo village, the veteran members pioneered to plant citrus trees in An Nghia commune since 2014. At present, the area of citrus trees of Mr. Dung's family has extended to 2 hectares, of which includes 850 original orange trees with variety, such as: yellow, V2, Canh and 150 green grapefruit trees. In 2017, the oranges were harvested for fortune tellers; Mr. Dung exported 20 tonnes of fruit. The market price ranged from 13,000 to 20,000 VND depending on the types of fruit. Thereby, his family earned over 300 million VND. Traders buying products are mainly from provinces of Thanh Hoa, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, etc. In the season of 2018, the orange garden of Mr. Dung will give the main crop; the output is expected to be 2-3 times higher.

Currently, in order to support and assist members who wish to develop the citrus planting model, the Veteran Association of the commune have coordinated with other departments, organizations and mass organizations to organize thematic workshops. This helps create a useful playground for members to exchange information and share their citrus planting experiences. In addition, the Veteran Association of the commune has facilitated 10 members to access the capital from the District Social Policy Bank with the loan amount as regulated.

Mr. Bui Van Dang, the Chairman of the Veteran Association of the commune, said: "In the coming time, the Veteran Association of the commune continues to propagate and mobilize officials and members to bring into full play the effectiveness of the citrus planting model.we expect that all the branches, organizations, unions to support capital sources, science and technology, we are also looking for business associates to link for product consumption. Thereby, this can contribute to increasing the income for members, reducing the rate of poor households, promoting the local socio-economic development.