The H’Re people have practised wet rice cultivation for a long time, but their yield has never been high. Traditionally, they had woven beautiful cloth to make their unique type of clothing, but integration and education has encouraged an abandonment of traditional ways. The local government has now outlined a plan to build an industrial complex, which will include processing factories and material zones in four mountainous districts of Son Ha, Son Tay, Ba To and Son Tra.

The Son Hai cassava processing factory is one of these and has a capacity to produce 50 tonnes of cassava per day, to be expanded to 90 tonnes per day. Ngo Van Tu, Director of the factory said: "The establishment of the industrial complex in the west will help reduce poverty among the ethnic minority people in the western part of our province. We have invested in providing seedlings and helping ethnic minority people learn cultivation techniques, as well as ensuring a product outlet with a high selling price."

The high yielding crops have changed the lives of the local people. Dinh Thi Tac from the H’Re ethnic group said: "The land here is not suitable for rice cultivation, so we now plant cassava. In our last harvest, we earned VND3 million from cassava. Before we had this factory, people did not grow cassava. Now, thanks to the factory, the area for cassava cultivation is larger. The price is higher, so our lives are better. Now, people grow more cassava."

Son Ha district now has more than 3,000 hectares dedicated to cassava cultivation, the largest area so far in the area. Cassava is considered to have been effective in poverty reduction. Dinh Van Leo, the Party Chief of the Son Hai Commune highly appreciates the factory. "The cassava factory has helped generate jobs for the local people, which contributes to hunger and poverty reduction," Mr Leo said, "The factory is located in our commune, so it is very easy for us to sell our cassava. The H’Re people now know how to cultivate cassava with new techniques, which produce higher yields. In the past, people did not have rice to eat for several months. But now, they plant and sell cassava and get money to buy rice. Last year we had a bumper crop which sold at a good price, so the locals were very happy."

The H’Re people have found a way to escape poverty and are now more confident in the Government and their policies for economic development in the remote and mountainous areas of the country.