Bach Dang – a livable countryside

Nestled along the Dong Nai River, enriched by alluvium, Bạch Đằng commune boasts abundant fruits and flowers year-round, with spacious and gentle surroundings, Bach Dang is becoming a desirable place to live, a countryside that many people wish to visit.

Bach Dang Islet is a place worth living with a fresh natural environment, developing agriculture combined with ecotourism

The scent of pomelo drifts far away

In late April, we had the opportunity to confide with Mr. Duong Van Minh, a renowned pomelo farmer in Bach Dang commune. Beside his 2,000-m2 with orange leaves pomelo orchard, Mr. Minh mentioned that Bach Dang islet is famous for 5 special types of pomelos, namely wrinkled skin pomelo (also known as nipple pomelo), orange leaf pomelo, guava  pomelo, sweet pomelo, and green skin pomelo. In which, pomelo and sweet orange leaves are the most chosen to be planted by farmers. To have the best flavor, farmers must take care with organic fertilizer. Along with alternating care methods for harvesting, Mr. Minh's pomelo garden bears fruit all year round. Mr. Minh's family is one of many farming households in Bach Dang commune with high income from exploiting the characteristic advantages of the locality in economic development.

By fully utilizing the value of pomelo, farmers in Bach Dang commune have produced many products from pomelo pulp and pomelo peel such as pomelo wine, pomelo essential oil, candied pomelo peel... According to Mr. Vo Ngoc Tai, a pomelo farmer here, for the fruits that do not meet the standard, instead of discarding them, he bought a machine to extract pure essential oil from pomelo peel. The pomelo pulp is fermented with probiotics to make fertilizer, which is then applied to the pomelo trees. In addition, Mr. Tai also applies advanced scientific and technological solutions, intelligent automation, and standards such as VietGAP, GlobalGAP to enhance product quality. With this method, Mr. Tai's pomelo orchard yields about 50 tons per year, generating a profit of over 500 million VND per year.

Reaching towards the smart village

Mr. Nguyen Tan Quoc, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Tan Uyen City, said that Bach Dang is aiming to achieve the new rural standard by 2025, becoming the first Smart Village in Binh Duong. This is a desirable place to live with a clean natural environment, and the development of agriculture combined with ecotourism.

Mr. Duong Van Minh spent a lot of time and effort taking care of his pomelo and orange leaf garden, which covers an area of over 2,000 square meters.

It can be clearly seen that the Project to build a new rural model village in the period 2021-2025 is associated with the construction of a smart village in Bach Dang commune, which has initially achieved positive results, changing the appearance of the new countryside and improving the quality of people's lives. Mrs. Pham Thi Ngoc Dung, Chairman of the People's Committee of Bach Dang commune, shared that in building a new rural area towards smart agriculture, Bach Dang commune is implementing online transaction applications, providing information, promoting trade, and consuming products for producers to access. This is the premise for building a smart new rural area associated with the province's industrial and urban development process.

The brand of Bac Dang pomelo has affirmed its position and carries a strong local identity. The Bac Dang Pomelo Festival is held twice a year, attracting tens of thousands of visitors, playing an important role in promoting local commerce and tourism, introducing the unique cultural features of Tan Uyen to international visitors. The pomelo gardens in the area are also being invested in to develop eco-tourism and community tourism. Mr. Duong Van Minh's and Mr. Vo Ngoc Tai's pomelo gardens have been selected as points for developing eco-tourism associated with the smart village of Bach Dang.

Over the past years, the land of Bach Dang has created generations of gentle, simple, hardworking, and creative farmers who enrich their families and beautify their homeland. The successive generations living on this island have been diligently nurturing and working together to build a smarter and more beautiful land of Bach Dang.

Reported by Triet Nhan – Van Dung – Translated by Vi Bao