Dong Nai (VNS/VNA) - Thecreation of a new style rural area in Dinh Quan, one of the poorest districtsin southern Dong Nai province, has helped develop infrastructure like roads andpower supply, significantly improving the life of local people.

Under a national programme to build newstyle rural areas in the district, Dinh Quan has focused on building ruralroads since 2011 to enable farmers to transport agricultural produce.

In the district's Phu Vinh commune, forinstance, all rural roads have been cemented or asphalted. Roads linkinghamlets in the commune have a width of seven metres though the programme onlyprescribes five metres.

Tran Thi Lan, who has a mango orchard inPhu Vinh's Suoi Son hamlet, said she had been able to sell her fruits at higherprices since the road running through the hamlet and to her orchard wascemented.

It used to be narrow, muddy and difficultto traverse and traders could not get there by truck, which pushed the mango pricesdown, she said.

"The cemented road helps residentstravel easily and sell their agricultural products at a higher price."

The road was built using public funds andland donated by locals. Lan's family donated 3,000sq.m of land.

Thi Thi Anh Hong, Vice Chairwoman of thePhu Vinh Commune People's Committee, said local people also donated money andlabour to build roads in the commune.

"On many roads, locals grow flowersand grass along pavements to beautify them."

The district has built or upgraded 717roads with a combined length of 681km and cost of 1.15 trillion VND (49.57million USD), according to its People's Committee.

With the development of road and otherinfrastructure facilities for agriculture, annual income from one hectare offarming land in the district increased to 145 million VND (6,240 USD) lastyear, 1.6 times the figure in 2011 before the programme started.

Tran Quang TU, Chairman of the Dinh Quangdistrict People's Committee, said the focus of the programme had been on developingagriculture and improving incomes.

Besides support from the Government andprovincial administration for developing agriculture, farmers and rural areas,the district also had its own policies to support farmers, he said.

They included helping farmers grow otherhigh-value crops on low-yield rice fields, providing ethnic people with cornand rice seeds for cultivation and supplying power to concentrated farmingareas, he said.

The district had developed fish farmingbased on Vietnamese good agricultural practice (VietGAP) standards to improvefarmers' incomes.

Farmers were taught breeding techniquesand treating wastewater from fish ponds.

Dang Hoang Long, who breeds snakehead fishto VietGAP standards in a 4,000sq.m pond in Phu Ngoc commune, said adoptingVietGAP standards fetched higher yields and reduced costs such as for feed. Fishbred thus suffered from fewer diseases, he said.

"The income from breeding fish basedon VietGAP standards is higher [compared to traditional farming methods]."

Dinh Quan has more than 865ha ofaquaculture farms and an annual output of nearly 19,400 tonnes. A large numberof farmers in the district breed fish in cages in the Tri An reservoir and the DongNai river.

Situated in the north-eastern gateway ofthe province, it is a mountainous district and has a large number of ethnicpeople.

The district has spent 21 trillion VND (904.9million USD) on the new style rural area programme, with 3.12 trillion VND (132.8million USD) coming from public funds and the rest from local residents andbusinesses, according to the district People's Committee.

The programme has significantly reducedthe number of poor households in the district.

Its per capita income has increased to 50million VND (2,150 USD), up 1.8 times from 2011.

In that period the number of poorhouseholds has reduced from 8,115 to 146, or a mere 0.32 percent of the totalnumber.-VNS/VNA