Hà Giang - The highest upland of Vietnam

We are going to have a field trip to Ha Giang for 3 weeks and work on a minor project about the development of this area. My interest when applying to this course is about the non-farming activities of the residents here and their roles in contributing to the living standards of the residents. I also want to explore about the crafts in Ha Giang and their potential to develop. I've search something about Ha Giang and the Meo Vac district where we will spend almost the time there and do research. And I find those things are quite interesting and helpful to reveal a whole picture of Ha Giang:


Hà Giang is a highly mountainous region, and travel around the province can be difficult. Much of the province is too mountainous for agriculture, leaving much of the land covered by forests. Hà Giang’s central plateau is good for growing plums, peaches, and persimmons, which the province exports. Tea is also grown.  Farming economy is also getting a boost with growing oranges and mandarin trees as its sustains many households with the income in the range of VND 150 to 200 million a year. Cultivated area of soybean cultivation (high yield type with yield of 750 kg per ha) has increased to 7,900 hectares (20,000 acres).

Hà Giang is one of the poorest provinces of Vietnam. Traditionally, the vast majority of its economic activity revolved around agriculture and forestry. However, in recent years, there have been attempts to establish a manufacturing industry. Infrastructure in Hà Giang has seen improvement, but remains poor - roads, schools, and health services are less developed than in many other parts of Vietnam.

Ha Giang Province also has large areas of green tea, apart from terraced rice fields. The Province has particularly assisted people in developing tea industry with financial (soft loans) and technical support in operations (sowing, tending, gathering and processing). This has resulted in increase in the yield from 9,625 tonnes in 1995 to 20,394 tonnes in 2002. Particular tea plantations of quality tea are the Shan Tuyet strain in the Lung Phin in Dong Van District and Nam La in Yen Minh District. Ha Giang tea is not only popular in domestic market but also in foreign markets

The province is rich minerals; 149 mines with 28 categories of minerals are spread in all districts of the province. Mineral deposits explored in the province are: Antimony, iron ore, manganese, ferrite, zinc, tin, copper, bauxite, gold, gemstones, kaolin and mineral water. These are contributing to industrial development in the province. Plans have been put in place, with appropriate policies to attract direct foreign investments in the province; China, South Korea, Thailand and other countries have already chipped in with investments in the mining and processing industries and the anticipated growth rate of achievement is pegged at 20%. Asian Development Bank also provided loans of USD 3 million to promote tea industry in the province.

As Hà Giang is a mountainous region, the population is not large, and the majority of inhabitants are ethnic Vietnamese. The remainder are Thổ, Hmong, Tay, Dao, Mán, Nung, Giấy and Lô Lô. The majority engage in ancestor and spirit worship.

Some of the economic indicators, according to the General Statistics Office of the Government of Vietnam are: The population of Yên Bái province as on 2008 was 705,100 with a density of 89 persons per sqkm over a total land area of 7,945.8 square kilometres (3,067.9 sq mi) of the province. It is one of the least populated provinces in the Northern midlands and mountain areas of Vietnam. The male population during this period was 346,900 with females accounting for 358200. The rural population was 625,500 against an urban population of 79,600 (about 7% of the rural population).

As against the national figure of 273 Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery cooperatives there are 32 cooperatives in the province, of which 22 are agricultural cooperatives and eight are fisheries cooperatives. The number of cooperatives is 32 as against 7592 cooperatives in the country. There are only 169 farms in the province as against the national number of 120699.

The Output value of agriculture produce at constant 1994 prices in the province was 838.4 billion đồngs against the national value of 156681.9 bill. dongs. The province produced 280,300 tonnes of cereals as against the national production of 43.58 million tonnes.

The per capita production of cereals in the district was 397.5 kg as against the national figure of 501.8 kg. in 2007. In 2007, the industrial output of the province was a meagre 526.1 bill. dongs against the national output of 1.47 million Bhilldongs. However, there is cement plant with capacity of 300,000 tons per year that was established recently.