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Soldiers of the mixed D30 Company are taking care of their vegetable gardens |
Visiting mixed D30 Company (Binh Dinh Military Headquarters) at Nhon Chau island commune, Quy Nhon city, we are really attracted to verdant vegetable gardens there.
The mixed D30 Company garrisoned at foot of a mountain in the island where lacks of water in dry seasons but experiences a lot of strong storms and winds in rainy seasons. Given the harsh conditions of the weather and poor material facilities, soldiers of the military company are overcoming all the difficulties, improving the island landscape, growing vegetable and rearing animals to raise their living standards and increase quality of their meals.
They have improved an area of 300 square meters of exhausted soil by themselves for establishment of vegetable gardens, a cultural campus, and a poultry and cattle farm. Outside working hours, all officers and soldiers of the military company participate in taking care of the vegetable and flower gardens, the farm with aim to meet target of 12kg of fresh vegetable/person/month.
In the vegetable gardens, there are various kinds of plants, such as mustard greens, spinach, onion, herbs, etc. In fish ponds, there are thousands of catfishes, tilapias, pomfrets, etc. In the cattle breeding facility, there are always 20-25 pigs available. The mixed D30 Company intends to build up a breeding facility for wild boar farming. This new economic model developed by the military unit is very promising.
To ensure regular water supply for daily activities as well as the vegetable plantation and the animal rearing, the military unit invested 15 million VND to build up a 300-m water pipe system from the mountain top to foot. Because the natural water source is available all year round, the military unit doesn’t experience water shortage any more in dry season and saves quite big costs of power for generator operation.
In rainy season, the vegetable plants in the gardens are all verdant while other trees in the island become leaf bare because of strong monsoon. The soldiers protect each of the plants in the gardens with corrugated iron sheets and plastic bags. In the dry season, abundant vegetables are sold to local people. The gardens are luxuriant all year round.
The gardening and the animal raising not only provide a source of fund for the military unit but also bring chances of taking physical exercises for the soldiers.
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