Vitality of plantation: 46 years of building the Song Hau low-lying wetland

Reclaiming the low-lying wetland

According to historical documents, the area that is now Song Hau Farm was enclosed and leased by Vietnamese landlords, French settlers, and Indian settlers during the French colonial period. High grounds suitable for rice farming were allocated to tenant farmers in exchange for rent, while most of the low-lying wetlands were abandoned.

After 1954, the government of the former regime expropriated landlords' land and resold it to tenant farmers. Nguyen Van Thieu administration issued land-use titles and certificates under the "Land-to-the-Tiller Act" to households directly engaged in production.

After the complete liberation of the South and the reunification of the country, taking advantage of the vast and complex terrain, remnants of the former regime returned to hide and conduct armed sabotage activities against the revolution. In February 1976, to eliminate hostile elements and implement the policy of having the army participate in production, the Hau Giang Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee, and Military Region 9 jointly planned and established Quyet Thang Farm, covering nearly 7,000 hectares.

By April 1979, when the Southwestern border war broke out, the government had to mobilize part of the military forces previously engaged in production back to the battlefield. At that time, the Hau Giang Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee, and Military Region 9 agreed to divide Quyet Thang Farm in half to establish Song Hau Farm, placed under the management of the Hau Giang Provincial Department of Agriculture, with an area of 3,450 hectares. The remaining land was assigned to the Tay Do Battalion for management and production.

At the time, Mr. Tran Ngoc Hoang (commonly known by locals as Nam Hoang), a former army major and Deputy Director of the Hau Giang Provincial Department of Agriculture, volunteered to take on the task at Song Hau Farm and became its first Director.

In his memoir, Mr. Huynh Trung Hoa (84 years old), a long-time resident of Song Hau Farm (now in Thoi Hung commune, Can Tho City), wrote, "In the early days, there were only 16 officials and staff who set up makeshift tents to live in. Wearing rubber sandals and using small boats, they traveled across the entire area to plan the construction of the farm, despite the vast floodwaters during the rainy season. In the dry season, the soil was parched, cracked, and uneven, with stagnant, acidic water; rats, leeches, flies, and mosquitoes were everywhere; and it was also a time when the provincial budget was extremely tight."

Mr. Hoa described the scene at that time as a "battle in wild and dangerous forests." The pioneering officers sent for economic development at Song Hau Farm had to wade through mud and navigate small boats through the low-lying wetlands in the flood-prone area to plan the land reclamation and rehabilitation.

At that time, Song Hau Farm had no investment capital, a shortage of labor, and hardship on every front. Yet, with a spirit of self-reliance, determination, and courage to act, the late Director Tran Ngoc Hoang borrowed capital from a bank at high interest to rehabilitate fields and invest in production.

For many consecutive years, Song Hau Farm built a closed dyke system and dug secondary, tertiary, and in-field canals to quickly flush out acidity and leach alum from the soil under the motto "prevent overflow, welcome tides, drain rainwater." The KH6 canal, considered a strategic irrigation project, was constructed to channel water directly from the Hau River through the Thom Rom canal into the fields and gardens. Thanks to this infrastructure, during flood seasons when water from the Long Xuyen Quadrangle inundated the surrounding areas, production at Song Hau Farm remained unaffected.

Mr. Nam Hoang proposed channeling water into the fields to capture silt and then using rainwater during the rainy season to flush alum from the soil. Over time, this canal became the farm’s sole waterway for transporting agricultural and seafood products to many markets.

Continuing the efforts to transform the low-lying wetlands, Mr. Nam Hoang applied machinery and mechanized equipment to reclaim and level the land into fields. This made farming at Song Hau Farm more favorable, as production was no longer disrupted by annual floods. As a result, seasonal rice yields stabilized, reaching 2.5 tons/hectare.

A golden era

In the 1990s, Song Hau Farm called on poor farmers from surrounding areas who had little or no land to take on contracted plots for long-term production, land reclamation, and field rehabilitation.

At that time, Mr. Huynh Trung Hoa was among the many households that applied to join the farm. He was allocated a five-hectare low-lying plot under contract to reclaim and grow seasonal rice. Later, the farm implemented the "bank-between-ditches" model, allowing farmers to build banks around their contracted land. Under this scheme, Mr. Hoa's contract was adjusted to three hectares for seasonal rice growing. In the ditches, he raised fish during the flood season, and on the bank, he planted Hoa Loc mango trees.

"When joining the farm, farmers received many incentives, such as long-term contracted land for production and support from the farm with seedlings or capital if they lacked resources to improve the soil. At the end of each crop, payments were settled based on agreed quotas, with rice converted into cash at market prices. This made everyone enthusiastic and confident about production," Mr. Hoa shared.

Thanks to this care and support, Song Hau Farm residents' lives improved dramatically. From having nothing, they had enough to eat and became well-off and prosperous. Locals regarded the farm as a reliable foundation for their long-term development.

In the 1982-1983 period, taking advantage of the canal banks, the farm planted millions of melaleuca and eucalyptus trees to create a source of raw materials for producing wooden household goods for export and supply construction materials for local housing.

In 1984, the Hau Giang Provincial People's Committee decided to merge the land managed by the Tay Do Battalion into Song Hau Farm. With more land, by 1985, the farm had built a banana chip processing plant to export to the former Soviet Union. This milestone turned the farm’s processing sector into its strength and primary direction. It expanded to include 11 food-processing workshops for export, a 100,000-ton warehouse system, seven facilities for processing, drying, salting, and canning agricultural products, two advanced household wood workshops serving both domestic and export markets, and one seafood processing plant.

In 1990, with many new agricultural models taking shape and an irrigation system being invested in relatively methodically, the late Director Tran Ngoc Hoang continued to encourage farmers to convert all single-crop floating rice fields into double-crop rice land.

In 1992, the Can Tho Provincial People’s Committee (now Can Tho City) decided to establish the Song Hau Farm state-owned enterprise, covering nearly 7,000 hectares. This development allowed the farm to officially engage in direct import-export activities and become one of the country’s leading hubs for direct rice exports and fertilizer imports.

Around this time, Song Hau Farm implemented the integrated agricultural production model known as RRRVAC (rice field – upland field – forest – garden – pond – barn), which helped turn this land into one of the most prosperous regions in the Mekong Delta.

By 1995, the farm's rice yield reached 9–10 tons/hectare/year, with a total output of over 60,000 tons, seven times higher than in 1984. Song Hau Farm managed more than 1,000 hectares of intercropped vegetables, 5,100 hectares of freshwater shrimp and fish raised in rotation with rice, and nearly 200 hectares of orchards. It was also equipped with hundreds of tractors, tillers, pumps, rice mills, mechanical repair workshops, and brick-and-tile kilns. Together, these resources supported more than 2,300 farm households at that time.

More impressively, by 1998, Song Hau Farm’s export turnover had reached over USD 51 million, more than 20 times higher than in 1995. Its agro-forestry-fishery products earned the trust of international buyers. By 2002, Song Hau Farm’s dairy cow herd had grown to nearly 600 heads, supplying an average of 1.5 tons of fresh milk/day to Vinamilk Company's Can Tho branch. Its high-quality agricultural products had gained a foothold in more than 40 markets, including Russia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and many African countries.

Impressive woman in the Asia-Pacific region

Following the late Director Tran Ngoc Hoang, his daughter, Ms. Tran Ngoc Suong (affectionately known as Ba Suong), took over the mission of maintaining Song Hau Farm's leading position in economic development during the Doi Moi era. Drawing on her accumulated knowledge and experience, Ms. Ba Suong implemented a series of economic leverage and agricultural extension measures, such as allocating production quotas directly to workers and support staff, introducing payroll and administrative quotas, etc.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Quy, former Deputy Director of Song Hau Farm (1979–2004), recalls Ms. Ba Suong as a visionary agricultural leader with both strategic thinking and a compassionate heart. She paid close attention to the current workforce and nurtured future generations at the farm by improving the educational level of residents and ensuring that students could attend school free of charge. Ms. Ba Suong also promoted the construction of cultural centers and the development of well-rounded, responsible citizens. Thanks to these efforts, Song Hau Farm advanced to become a "cultural farm" recognized nationwide.

During this period, agricultural production at Song Hau Farm reached new heights. Ms. Ba Suong personally managed 13 enterprises, allocating part of the farm’s capital and providing production loans to various units. She also participated in monthly performance evaluations for the workforce, ensuring that employees received bonuses in addition to their salaries.

Under her leadership, the farm maintained its position as a leading economic unit, achieving HACCP quality management certification in 2002 and ISO 9001:2000 certification in 2003. The late Director Tran Ngoc Hoang and former Director Tran Ngoc Suong were both awarded the title of Labor Hero during the Doi Moi period in 1993 and 2000, respectively.

In 2002, Ms. Tran Ngoc Suong received the "Impressive Woman in the Asia-Pacific Region" award, one of the most prestigious honors, recognizing 15 outstanding women. She donated the entire prize of USD 10,000 to support poor women and children in Can Tho.

In 2004, building on the foundation of Song Hau Farm, the Government established Thoi Hung commune in Co Do district (now Thoi Hung commune, Can Tho City), creating a dual-management model between enterprises and local government.

Since 2015, in addition to contracted plots for households, Song Hau Farm has directly produced and linked with partners for specialized aquaculture, dairy cow farming, and vegetable production. The farm currently manages over 200 hectares of high-tech agricultural production land and collaborates with Tam Ngoc Co., Ltd. to supply clean products for processing, domestic consumption, and export.

The Song Hau Farm Ecotourism Area has been developed as a hub for combining agriculture with tourism. Tourists can visit fruit orchards and fish ponds and experience local cuisine, contributing to increasing income for farmers.

Carrying forward the tradition

On February 17, 2025, the Can Tho City People's Committee issued a decision to convert Song Hau Farm into Song Hau Agricultural One-Member Limited Liability Company, organized and operating under the provisions of the Enterprise Law.

Building on the achievements of three previous generations of leadership, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phu, Director of Song Hau Agricultural One-Member LLC, shared, "The precious legacy that earlier generations built with their sweat, dedication, and youth is invaluable. I fully understand that I must work even harder, not only to maintain what has been achieved but also to continue the farm’s development along a modern and sustainable path."

For Mr. Phu, building a team of successor officers is a core task and a way to carry forward the farm’s tradition and to preserve a collective forged through resilience and determination.

At the same time, he has set a higher goal for the farm: to maximize the potential and advantages inherited from previous generations, ensuring that Song Hau Farm not only maintains stability but also advances further. This will improve the material and spiritual lives of employees and farm members, worthy of the heroic legacy and the trust that everyone has placed in them.

In the near future, Song Hau Agricultural One-Member LLC focuses on stabilizing land and production for farm members. Additionally, the company guides farmers to develop agricultural economic and service activities, improve product quality, and especially adopt sustainable production toward a green, circular, and organic economy to meet domestic and international demand.

In recent times, the company has linked with various departments of Can Tho City and businesses to organize workshops and transfer science and technology to farm members. The unit also provides guidance on services such as agricultural tourism and post-harvest service.

Under government policy, agricultural and forestry farms that have converted to one-member limited liability companies are expected to eventually transition into multi-member LLCs. This is also a strategic direction for Song Hau Agricultural One-Member LLC, aimed at leveraging technical, managerial, and financial resources from partners for joint development.

However, the transition to a multi-member LLC faces obstacles due to capital contribution regulations, which currently hinder investment attraction. Mr. Phu identified this as a bottleneck requiring central government review and resolution in the coming time.

After 46 years of ups and downs, Song Hau Agricultural One-Member LLC now manages and utilizes over 6,200 hectares of agricultural land. Of this, more than 5,600 hectares have been contracted to 2,568 households for agricultural production.

Whereas most of the land was previously devoted to rice production, residents of Song Hau Farm have now shifted to cultivating high-value fruit trees such as mango, longan, soursop, and jackfruit. In addition, the farm currently has over 300 hectares of aquaculture, especially pangasius, supplying raw materials for export processing plants.

The 46-year journey of Song Hau Farm has been forged through the resilience, creativity, and determination of generations of staff, workers, and farm members. With this solid foundation, the right development direction, and a dedicated successor team, Song Hau Farm is expected to continue writing a new chapter in building a modern, ecological, and sustainable agriculture.