Profound, theoretical and practical article by comrade Nguyen Phu Trong about a cooperative in Hai Duong

At that time, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong was an editor of the Study Magazine (now the Communist Magazine). Hong Hung Commune was in Gia Loc District, Hai Duong Province today. Hai Duong Newspaper contacted and received help from journalist Nguyen Tri Thuc, member of the Editorial Board, Head of the Special Topics and Special Magazines Department. We would like to respectfully introduce to our readers the full text of this article below:

For the past four years, Phuong Hong Cooperative (Hong Hung Commune) has continuously achieved a rice yield of 6 to 7 tons per hectare per year. Regarding livestock, the cooperative has increased its pig herd to 3,156 (of which 1,000 are raised collectively), averaging more than 4 pigs per hectare of cultivated land. The cooperative has recruited 208 workers (equal to 15% of the total labor force in the commune) to develop occupations such as fish farming, tree planting, sewing, mat weaving, brick making, carpentry, forging, etc., increasing the income from occupations to 26% of the total income of the cooperative. Currently, one worker can cultivate 0.98 hectares of cultivated land. The cooperative has held the title of "leading flag in high productivity and good livestock farming" of Gia Loc District, Hai Hung Province for four consecutive years, and has twice been awarded the Third Class Labor Medal by the Government Council.

That initial victory created a favorable foundation for Phuong Hong to continue moving forward with stronger and more solid steps. That victory is inseparable from the leadership of the commune party committee.

Previously, Hong Hung commune had 6 small cooperatives in 6 villages, with similar land conditions, but each cooperative cultivated differently. There were cooperatives with good production and livestock farming, achieving high productivity such as Hoang Xa, but there were also cooperatives that determined an unreasonable crop structure and ratio of livestock farming to crop farming, affecting the cooperative's income such as Cat Tien and Hoang Phe.

Cat Tien Cooperative had 43.2 hectares of cultivated land, in 1966, it grew tomatoes on 10.8 hectares, seeded rice on 3.6 hectares, and only 28.8 hectares were used for winter-spring rice, and no other crops were grown. The rice yield was only 3.2 tons per hectare for the whole year. Not only did the cooperative not ensure its plan to contribute food to the State, but it also had to buy dozens of tons of food from the State; in addition, the State had to subsidize dozens of families. Hoang Phe Cooperative had 59.04 hectares, an average of more than 0.1 hectares per capita, and had the conditions to grow crops, but it only grew winter-spring rice in the main crop, planted very few potatoes, and its pig herd did not develop. In 1967, after receiving approval from superiors, Hong Hung merged the small cooperatives into a commune-wide cooperative named Phuong Hong Cooperative. Phuong Hong Cooperative has 915 households, 4,225 people, 1,375 workers, 340 hectares of cultivation. The problem for Phuong Hong Cooperative ismust define a production directionHow to suit a place with a large cultivated area, with both low-lying fields, high fields, and flat fields; with both loam soil, sandy soil, and sandy loam soil; with an army of thousands of laborers, to both continuously improve the people's lives and meet the State's requirements.

With the help of superiors, the Party Committee organized research on the Party's economic development guidelines, studied the resolutions of the province and the district throughout the Party Committee and summarized the experience of intensive farming to achieve more than 5 tons of rice per hectare of Hoang Xa Cooperative. After a period of research, carefully discussing the requirements of superiors, specifically analyzing the land and labor conditions of the cooperative, meticulously calculating each aspect and each stage of balance in production, the Party Committee drew some initial conclusions: to ensure the requirements of the State, to ensure the people's lives, Hong Hung must have more than 1,000 tons of rice per year (in 1966 there were only 516 tons). To do so, we must be determined to cultivate the entire area, including the area of ​​​​rice seedlings, make efforts to rotate crops, increase the land use coefficient to more than 2.4, and at the same time implement intensive farming measures well, achieving an average rice yield of over 5 tons per hectare. First of all, we must focus on doing a good job of irrigation, improving the fields, digging and filling tens of thousands of cubic meters of land, proactively solving watering and drainage problems; must promote pig farming, increase the herd to two or three thousand pigs to increase the amount of manure to more than 8 tons per hectare, develop water fern and actively collect sludge; plant new high-yield rice varieties on over 100% of the area and implement intercropping. At the same time, organize and manage labor well to achieve the goal of one laborer for one hectare of planting. With the surplus labor, develop a number of occupations suitable to the capacity and conditions of the locality, both serving production and improving people's lives.

For example, with 15 kilometers of roads in the commune, Hong Hung can plant hundreds of thousands of trees for timber to sell to the State, earning 40-50 thousand VND and serving the construction of the cooperative. With 8.28 hectares of ponds, 7.2 hectares of rivers and several dozen hectares of low-lying fields that have been zoned, the cooperative has the ability to promote fish farming, which can annually harvest hundreds of thousands of VND, etc.

The Party Committee discussed that idea with the people. Many opinions agreed with the Party Committee's policy and pointed out the unreasonable things in production that some villages had previously made, and added more measures to implement. However, there were also people who wanted to keep the old way of doing business, did not believe in technical measures and new rice varieties, or thought that intensive farming, increasing crop rotation, transplanting all the rice seedlings, and developing collective pig farming were too laborious and time-consuming, and the profits could not make up for the losses. Some comrades still wanted to continue growing tomatoes or beans but did not like growing sweet potatoes, thinking that tomatoes and beans had high economic value, and the State needed to buy a lot of them. Many discussions took place very heatedly.

With the spirit of only discussing progress, not retreat, and being practical, the Party Committee used the successful experience of Hoang Xa Cooperative and the unsuccessful experience of Cat Tien Cooperative to analyze and persuade, and at the same time sent people to visit and learn from the intensive farming and livestock raising experiences of some other cooperatives such as Dai Xuan, O Me, La Xa, etc. Finally, the Party Committee's policies were agreed upon by the entire Party Committee and officially approved by the congress of cooperative members.

Having a correct production direction, the Hong Hung Party Committee then researchedarrange core team, assign cadres and party membersin charge of appropriate tasks, so that the movement in the villages and production teams progresses evenly and strongly, ensuring the good implementation of the proposed production direction. The key cadres are selected and elected by the Party Committee and the congress of commune members. Most of them are enthusiastic comrades, willing to think, learn, boldly innovate, have leadership experience, have good connections with the masses, and are trusted by the majority of Party members and people.

Each Party Committee member is directly in charge of a Party cell, each Party Committee member is directly in charge of a production team. 65% of Party members are assigned to work in the planting area, 15% of Party members work in secondary occupations, 10% of Party members work in animal husbandry, and 10% of Party members are in charge of other tasks. Party members are in charge of all aspects and stages of basic work. Depending on the time and each stage of unexpected work, the Party Committee assigns capable cadres to accompany inexperienced cadres, and the Party cell and production team have a plan to coordinate work smoothly with each other. The Party Committee requests the cooperative management board to assign labor norms to each type of cadre and Party member. In a month, key cadres must ensure 10 working days directly, cadres in charge of sectors 15 working days, and regular Party members must ensure the number of working days of an advanced worker. Each family of cadres and party members must regularly raise two pigs to ensure that they exceed their food obligations.

The Party Committee resolutely opposes the general leadership ideology, overcoming the situation where cadres and party members are far from labor and run around the cooperative. Thanks to such strict regulations, in the past few years in Hong Hung, cadres and party members have promoted the spirit of exemplary volunteerism, saying what they say and doing what they do, not afraid of difficulties and hardships.

In 1970, out of 134 party members, 102 comrades (accounting for 76.9% of the total number of party members) worked more than the prescribed number of working days and were elected as advanced workers. 100% of party member families raised pigs in excess of the prescribed number, of which 60% of families exceeded the prescribed number quite a lot. In 1968, out of 682 opinions from the masses criticizing cadres and party members, 211 opinions criticized party members for not being exemplary workers, but in 1970 there were very few opinions criticizing this aspect.

Through practical work, the Hong Hung Party Committee realized that the low level of culture, science and technology, and economic management capacity of Party members in Hong Hung was an obstacle to leading production development in a relatively large-scale cooperative. Therefore, in addition to educating and improving moral qualities, the Party Committee hasattach great importance to education, training, and improvement of cultural and technical qualifications and working capacity.for party members

In addition, by implementing the district's concentrated study plans well and regularly sending people to attend training courses opened by the superiors, the Party Committee also maintains the in-service study regime and puts Party members through practical training in labor and work. Every month, the Party Committee organizes a study session on a certain issue depending on the local work requirements. Before the rice crop, they study rice physiology and planting methods; before discussing the distribution plan, they study food policy, revenue and distribution principles, etc. Sometimes they use the form of club activities to discuss cultivation and animal husbandry techniques. Sometimes they use the form of specialized conferences to discuss why the cooperative's production did not develop strongly in the past, thereby introducing the importance of applying advanced science and technology to production. The Cooperative holds competitions: fast plowing and transplanting competitions; rice cutting and cropping competitions. The Youth Union organized technical training, educating young people on how to grow water fern, handle new varieties, and plant rice in new ways... Party members and union members received high-yield fields, each party member was responsible for taking care of 2 sao of water fern... The Party Committee also requested the commune's cultural supplementary committee to regularly urge and inspect, take measures to maintain cultural supplementary classes, and decided that party members must be exemplary and attend classes regularly.

With many such forms, the Hong Hung Party Committee has created a rather exciting atmosphere of cultural and technical learning. Up to now, in Hong Hung, 50% of the Party members have a secondary cultural level, 50% have a primary level. The whole commune has 2 intermediate veterinary officers, 1 intermediate animal husbandry officer and a network of primary veterinary officers in the production teams. In the coming time, the Hong Hung Party Committee will continue to promote this work, considering it a very important aspect of work to ensure the leadership of the Party Committee and the development of cooperative production.

Overcoming the shortcomings that were often made in the past, the Hong Hung Party Committee, in the process of directing production,has raised determination, directed closely and promptly, and taken bold but firm measures.When the cooperative was newly established at the commune level, the level of organization and staff management had not yet met the requirements, the material and technical facilities were still poor, the people's ideology was not stable, and the cold weather lasted for a long time.

In that situation, the Party Committee carefully calculated the conditions and capabilities of the commune, and was still determined to lead the cooperative to strive to achieve a rice yield of 33 quintals per hectare in the winter-spring crop and 63 quintals per hectare throughout the year. Regarding livestock, the Party Committee advocated bold investment in pig farming, spending 30,000 VND to build barns, 12,000 VND to buy breeding pigs, and reducing 7.8% of the cultivated area to grow feed crops for pigs, determined to increase the cooperative's pig herd to more than 2,000 in a short time. The Party Committee suggested that the cooperative establish a labor process, implement the "three contracts" regime well, assign work and set clear norms, have a specific farming schedule, and regularly inspect and urge.

There are dedicated cadres who forget themselves for the common work like comrade Luu (Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the Cooperative). When he had no experience in raising livestock, and the pigs he raised were getting smaller and smaller, comrade Luu went directly to the livestock farm for a month to chop duckweed, cut vegetables, research, gain experience, and supplement the livestock raising method and the "three contracts" regime. Once, in a production team, the labor production movement was not going up, the plowmen could only plow 1 sao a day, so he took a handful of rice and went to that village to plow with his brothers. He plowed 5 sao a day. After that, the plowmen gathered to learn from experience, and raised the average plowing productivity to more than 3 sao a day.

In August 1968, two consecutive storms No. 4 and No. 7 collapsed more than 200 pig pens, 136 pigs died, 90% of the pig pens of the cooperative members collapsed, more than 50 hectares of rice were flooded, many people were worried and confused, some party members had the idea of ​​waiting for help from their superiors. The Party Committee promptly held meetings to discuss and prepare plans, on the one hand to encourage the people's thoughts, on the other hand to arrange specific tasks, determined to overcome those harmful consequences, ensuring continued development of livestock farming and boosting production. As a result, in 1968, the cooperative still achieved 7.1 tons of rice per hectare, 3.8 pigs per hectare of cultivated land, raising the people's food standards, exceeding the obligation of food and foodstuffs to the State.

The Hong Hung Party Committee also proposed a fair reward and punishment system to encourage people to work enthusiastically in production and develop livestock farming. As early as 1967, accepting the Party Committee's proposal, the cooperative reduced 3 tons of rice to reward teams that exceeded the cooperative's assigned plan. In each specific stage of work, the cooperative had appropriate incentive measures. For example: to encourage teams to plant all the rice seedlings, the cooperative only collected 50% of the rice on those rice fields, the remaining 50% was managed by the team; to encourage the pig raising movement, the cooperative sold additional rice and potatoes to families that raised pigs in addition to their obligations...

Every year, the cooperative settles its accounts, and any team that exceeds the plan is rewarded with 80% of the increase, and any team that fails to meet the plan is fined 50% of the shortfall. As a result, the labor production movement has grown very strong, and the cooperative's pig herd has increased rapidly. There are families like Mrs. Su's family and Mrs. Trung's family that raise up to 22 pigs, selling nearly 1 ton of pork to the State each year. Up to now, the production and livestock policies and norms have been relatively stable and well-established, contributing to motivating people to enthusiastically compete in labor production, creating increasingly high labor productivity.

Currently, the Party Committee of Hong Hung commune is leading the cooperative to strive to achieve 3 goals: 10 tons of rice per hectare, 5 pigs per hectare of cultivated land and 1 worker per hectare of cultivated land. If we promote the existing experiences well, and at the same time make efforts to do better in education and training, especially training to further improve the ideological level, cultural level, science and technology, organizational capacity, economic management for cadres and party members, and are not satisfied with the achievements that have been achieved, then the Party Committee of Hong Hung will certainly realize its wishes, making the fine traditions of the locality more glorious.