Neighbors in innovation: Two smart villages in Phu Tho

The legacy of bamboo in memory

Amidst the sweltering heat, I followed the sound of crisp children’s laughter to a corner of Dinh Tre village. It turned out to be a large swimming pool facility equipped with full amenities. Ms. Hoang Thi Hanh, the pool manager, shared that the facility was invested in by her daughter in 2020. It ranks among the top in Phu Thoprovince, featuring two pools -one with a fixed roof and one with a retractable roof, covering a total area of 1,200 square meters with a value of 4.3 billion VND.

"The idea stemmed from my grandchild’s love for swimming and my daughter's desire to do something for her hometown. The standard ticket price is 25,000 VND, but the poor and policy-beneficiary families receive exemptions or discounts. Every summer, swimming competitions are organized here with hundreds of children participating, hailing not only from the former Lap Thach district but also from Vinh Tuong, Yen Lac, and the former Tam Duong districts.

Annual revenue is only about 200-250 million VND, so we don't know when we will recover the capital, but our joy lies in teaching children swimming skills. A parent in the new Dong Tinh commune recounted that their child fell into the water while playing by the Dao canal but managed to swim to shore because they knew how to swim; otherwise, they might have drowned," Ms. Hanh recounted.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Tam, the head of Dinh Tre village, recalled that the village communal house once had columns, rafters, and beams all made of bamboo that had turned ebony-black with age, topped with a tile roof. Later, it was turned into a purchasing cooperative and subsequently demolished, though the royal ordination certificates are still kept at the Ngoc Ha communal house. In the past, every family in the village lived in bamboo houses with palm-leaf roofs, surrounded by bamboo clumps to shield against storms and to provide material for weaving baskets, trays, and sieves.

On both sides of the village road, bamboo wove into arches. It was shady by day but pitch black by night; children would run while walking, mistaking the creaking and rustling of stems and leaves for ghosts. Along the Pho Day riverbank, from the Lien Son stone embankment to Bac Binh, a stretch of 3-4 km was entirely lined with bamboo. In 1987, to bring electricity to the village, the cooperative sold the bamboo grove by the river. Inside the village, wherever power poles were erected, bamboo was cut down.

Later, as families divided land for their children, bamboo was destroyed by cutting the trunks, burning the roots, and pouring hot water into the core to prevent regrowth. Now, the village has only a few sparse clumps left, mainly in the Trai hamlet. Similar to the fate of the bamboo, the village ponds have been filled in, leaving only one remaining near the Health Station.

In the memory of Mr. Tam (66 years old), hunger was a tangible presence during his childhood years. His mother and other mothers in the village had to cook "seven-layer rice." The first layer was pure white rice reserved for the children; the second was mostly rice with a little cassava for the elderly; the third was half rice, half cassava; the fourth was two parts cassava to one part rice; and so on, with the cassava content increasing until the seventh layer, which was entirely cassava reserved for the mothers themselves. Yet, often even cassava was insufficient. Villagers would invite each other to cross the Pho Day river and climb Ngang Mountain to dig for cu bau—a tuber similar to a yam. It had to be boiled and the water discarded multiple times, yet the astringent taste would still choke the throat. In 1991, the village suffered a massive crop failure; the cooperative had to issue a policy giving each family a 120-square-meter plot of land, tax-free, to grow morning glory to stave off hunger.

The hunger for food was accompanied by a "hunger" for information and entertainment media. Before liberation, the village had only Mr. Ha Cao Nguyen, a provincial official, who owned an Orionton radio. Wherever he went, he wore it on his hip. When he turned it on loudly, children would flock to hear poetry, music, and world news. The trouble was, he only cycled his Favorit bike back to the village from Viet Tri once a month, so the villagers remained starved for radio content.

In 1981, Mr. Nguyen Van Kieu, a retired trade official, returned to the village and bought a battery-operated film projector to organize paid screenings in his courtyard. The ticket cost only a few dong, equivalent to 100 or 200 grams of rice, but the poor still couldn't afford it, lurking on the road to catch a glimpse from afar. On days when the commune subsidized the tickets, the villagers felt liberated, carrying small wooden stools to sit and pack Mr. Kieu's yard tight. The program usually featured Soviet spy films or anti-US resistance films. A few years later, Hong Kong kung fu movies appeared but had to be screened surreptitiously because the commune banned them. At 9:00 PM, when the commune security curfew bell rang, people would scatter home.

In 1994, Mr. Tam sold 600 kilograms of peanuts in the town to buy a black-and-white Samsung TV; by then, some households in the village already had one. From being "starved" for audiovisual media, the villagers are now "saturated." Every house has one or two flat-screen TVs, which are sometimes ignored because almost everyone is glued to a smartphone to check the news or scroll through social media.

Economic shifts and high-tech farming

Since industrial zones began springing up, the village youth have "shaken off the mud," leaving the fields to work as laborers. When I arrived, it was only 6:00 PM, yet Mr. Tam’s youngest son and his wife had already finished dinner to prepare for the night shift at Ba Thien 2 Industrial Park, 26 km away, driving a newly purchased Mazda CX3 worth nearly 600 million VND. The son is a factory manager; his salary and overtime pay amount to over 20 million VND, while his wife earns about 10 million VND per month. The village boasts over 20 cars ranging from 4-seaters to 45-seaters. Mr. Ha Vuong Thanh’s family even owns two sleeper buses running the North-South route, valued at over 2 billion VND each.

In contrast to the rise of automobiles, the number of buffaloes and cows in the village is dwindling. There are only 4 buffaloes and 40 local cows left, but there are 57 dairy cows. On the smooth asphalt road, flanked by rows of lush green Golden Dewdrop plants and the white or blue-painted iron gates of multi-story houses, Mr. Bui Van Vinh leisurely led a mother cow home. However, at a bend in the road, the cow stopped, arched its tail, contracted its belly, and dropped a large pile of manure, forcing him to hurry and scoop it up. Only after cleaning it did he notice several plastic bags of trash at the foot of a nearby electric pole; today was not the village's scheduled trash collection day. "I have to check the camera to see who put garbage here. It must be someone from elsewhere because everyone in my village knows the 9-days-per-month trash schedule by heart," he explained.

Each year, a mother cow gives birth to one calf, which sells for around 10 million VND-enough for the elderly couple to be independent of their children. Currently, the average income of Dinh Tre residents is about 80 million VND per year. In 2020, Mr. Tam’s couple built a two-story house with five bedrooms, a worship room, and three bathrooms valued at 1.1 billion VND, but many families are now building homes worth 2 to 3 billion VND.

"In 2019, we started working on the 'Model New Rural' status. besides local mobilization, we established a Zalo group for villagers ranging from the North to the South and even abroad, raising over 100 million VND in donations. Environmentally, the village built 1,730 meters of covered drains to prevent odors and mosquitoes. 100% of the roads are hardened; the main axis is over 5 meters wide, and the smallest alley is at least 2.5 meters wide. Wherever possible on both sides of the road, we plant Golden Dewdrop, Mexican Petunia, Golden Shower trees, and Bougainvillea.

Currently, the Bougainvillea route is managed by the Women's Union, the Golden Shower route by the Elderly Association, while trees in front of private homes are cared for by the homeowners. The village has 13 inter-family self-management groups handling everything from small to large matters. The trash schedule of 9 days a month is reminded by everyone in rotation. Weddings, funerals, and environmental sanitation are all recorded in the village conventions. Dinh Tre currently has three elders over 100 years old, including Mrs. Nguyen Thi Tuc, whose eyes are still keen, ears sharp, and who still holds a hoe to plant trees despite her children's prohibitions.  

In 2024, Dinh Tre was recognized as a Smart Village. Regarding security, there are 6 public cameras, and over 100 families have installed their own cameras, with some households having two. Directives no longer require paper; they are announced in the village Zalo group and association groups. Some households have learned to apply social media to production and business, such as the layer chicken farming group announcing egg quantities for buyers, or the dairy group notifying activities like a cow calving so others can come to help, or assisting with grass cutting and milking if someone is busy.

Mr. Nguyen Van Lam's family raises 18 dairy cows, equipped with fans, misting systems, and milking machines. He sells about 150 liters of milk daily, earning over 20 million VND per month. The environment remains protected as probiotics are mixed into the cow feed and scattered on the barn floor, while manure and urine are channeled into biogas digesters.

The village park

Just a few steps past Dinh Tre village lies Den village, home to the temple of Lady Trung Nhi and a 5,000-square-meter "Village Park," recently formed by embanking a wild lake, installing railings and stone benches, and paving walkways. Initially, only Dinh Tre was planned as a smart village because it is the center of Thai Hoa commune and has National Highway 2C running through it. However, Den village was subsequently included in the planning after observing its excellent implementation of new rural criteria, especially regarding socialization (raising over 3 billion VND) and regular weekly environmental sanitation.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Vinh, the temple keeper, said that the majority of villagers now buy and sell goods with a few taps on their phones. Any village business is communicated via Zalo groups. "At 90 years old, I don't know how to use a smartphone, but my children and grandchildren use them swiftly," he noted. Policies like "Contract 100" and then "Contract 10" have helped Den village transform completely. The clay roads that were dusty in the sun and required carrying sandals in hand during the rain where cyclists had to stop to scrape mud off their fenders are now 100% hardened. The village has no drug addicts, and no theft has occurred for 5-6 years, so many households leave their motorbikes in the yard at night with the keys in the ignition without locking the gate.

Ms. Luu Thi Thu Hang, Head of Den village, explained that a smart village has five criteria. For security, the village has installed 6 cameras on main roads, while residents have installed a total of 184 private cameras. Free Wi-Fi is installed at the cultural house. 80% of villagers have electronic health records, synchronizing personal health data. 80% of the working-age population uses bank transfer payments, and most production and business establishments know how to use social media to promote and sell products. The general community Zalo group of the village delivers all directive information without the need for paper as before.

Village sentiment and neighborliness are maintained through the village Zalo group. When Ms. Ha Thi Hoi’s child had an accident, the whole village called for donations, raising over 6 million VND, and even organized to help transplant rice for her. Mr. Do Van Tuan's wife has suffered from a stroke for over 10 years; every year during holidays, Tet, or Children's Day (June 1), all 150 households remember to send gifts to her children. Whenever there is a wedding, every family saves a small plate of sticky rice and a piece of chicken for the children.

In 2023, Den village achieved "Model New Rural" status. Thanks to this, internal axis roads are 5 meters wide, and alleys are 3 meters or wider; all are hardened with covered drainage, tree-lined sides, and streetlights. The village gate was also built through socialization with a total value of 170 million VND. Currently, the average per capita income in the village reaches 79 million VND/year. There are no poor households, only two near-poor households consisting of one disabled individual and one person past working age.

*Currency exchange: 1 USD = 26,362.48 Vietnamese dong (Source: Vietcombank).