President of Farmers' Association "talks and does"

With the thought that as a leader, one cannot just talk, call out, and mobilize in general but must go hand in hand with action and efficiency, for nearly ten years, Mr. Le Dinh Doan, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Hung Long Commune, Director of the Hung Thai Agricultural Service Cooperative (Ninh Giang) has always been at the forefront of the association's movements. He has contributed to the development of agricultural production in Hung Long Commune.

Currently, Hung Long commune is one of the leading localities in Ninh Giang district in transplanting rice by machine. That result has a great contribution from Mr. Doan. "In 2018, I and Mr. Tran Dac Huyen, Deputy Head of Van Diem village, went to Hai Phong to learn about the experience of transplanting rice by machine and boldly bought a transplanter together for local production. In the winter-spring crop that year, we transplanted 12 hectares of rice fields of 2 families," said Mr. Doan.

That crop, the rice yield of the machine-planted area was equivalent to that of the hand-planted rice, but weeding, fertilizing, and caring for the rice was more convenient. Realizing the effectiveness of machine-planted rice, Mr. Doan actively promoted and encouraged people to transplant rice by machine and promised that if the rice yield of machine-planted rice was lower, he would compensate for the lost yield. Thanks to that, in the 2018 crop, some households in the commune boldly rented machine-planted rice. The total rice area of ​​the commune increased to 60 hectares.

By the 2019 winter-spring crop, the machine-planted rice area had increased to more than 100 hectares. As the commune's machine-planted rice area was expanding, in 2021, Mr. Doan and Mr. Huyen mobilized a number of households to contribute capital to establish the Thai Long Machine-Planted Tray Seedling Service Cooperative. Mr. Doan was elected Deputy Director of the cooperative. Currently, the cooperative has a total of 10 transplanters, 10,000 seedling trays and 1 automatic seedling sowing machine, which can plant 1,000 hectares of rice fields per crop. Not only serving local production needs, the Thai Long Machine-Planted Tray Seedling Service Cooperative has linked up with a number of agricultural service cooperatives in the province and Thai Binh province to serve those localities.

During his time working, Mr. Doan has always been at the forefront of applying new techniques to production. "Whenever there is a new technique, I always apply it to my family's production first. The result is the most convincing propaganda for farmer members to follow," said Mr. Doan.

In previous years, rice planting with medicinal seedlings was both laborious and low yielding. Through studying and attending training courses and technology transfer organized by Farmers' Associations at all levels, Mr. Doan knew that planting rice with seedlings sown in the yard brought many benefits such as not having to pull out seedlings and not affecting the quality of the seedlings. In 2011, Mr. Doan decided to sow seedlings in the yard to plant part of his family's area. After harvesting, rice planted with seedlings sown in the yard yielded 15-20 kg/sao higher than that planted with medicinal seedlings. In the following crop, Mr. Doan planted rice with seedlings sown in the yard for the entire production area of ​​his family. From the results of his family, he mobilized people in the commune to convert. From 20% of households doing so in 2013, by 2014, 100% of farming households in the commune switched to planting seedlings sown in the yard. In 2014, the average rice yield of Hung Long commune reached 12.5 tons/ha, an increase of 10% compared to 2013; production costs, investment in rice seeds and labor days decreased.

It is known that in 1987, while still studying at an agricultural college, Mr. Doan was honored to join the Party. In the same year, after graduating, he returned to work in the locality. Over the past decades, he has always clearly demonstrated his pioneering role as a Party member.

"Mr. Doan has always been an exemplary association official, making positive contributions to local agricultural production, from boldly applying planting seedlings in the yard in previous years, to now bringing transplanting machines to the fields. Thanks to transplanting machines, people's production costs have been greatly reduced, contributing to limiting the situation of abandoned fields. In recent years, there have been no more abandoned fields in the commune. Mr. Doan also received 20 hectares of rice fields from people who had no need for production," said Mr. Do Ba Uan, Party Secretary and Chairman of the People's Council of Hung Long commune.

With his achievements, in 2015, Mr. Doan was awarded a certificate of merit by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and the Prime Minister for his outstanding achievements in the emulation movement "Skillful Mass Mobilization"; for many consecutive years he achieved the title of a good farmer and business household at the central level.