President attends annual ploughing festival in Hà Nam

President Trần Đại Quang drives a tractor at the Tịch Điền (Ploughing) Festival yesterday in Hà Nam Province. VNA/VNS Photo Quốc Khánh

HÀ NAM – President Trần Đại Quang attended the annual Tịch Điền (ploughing) festival yesterday in Đọi Sơn Co妹妹une in Hà Nam province, which hopes for a bumper rice harvest in  二0 一 七 – the Year of the Rooster.On the occasion, the State leader launched an agricultural mechanisation progra妹妹e by directly driving a tractor on the field to encourage localities nationwide to promote industrialisation and modernisation of agriculture and rural areas.In his speech, President Quang highlighted the significance of the festival, saying that the annual event has become a tradition in the locality’s cultural life and a recognised intangible national cultural heritage.The Tịch Điền festival dignifies the importance of agriculture and the role of farmers, and it contributes to preserving and upholding cultural values of the locality, he stressed.It is also an activity to introduce Hà Nam’s images and tourism potential to domestic and foreign visitors and overseas Vietnamese, thus promoting the province’s socio-economic development, he added.He expressed his pleasure with the fact that Hà Nam and other localities nationwide have recorded more and more concentrated and machine-based goods production models with the application of high technologies, and cooperation with foreign investors to produce and process high-quality farm produce.The President took the occasion to call on sectors and localities throughout the country to successfully implement the Party’s and State’s guidelines and policies related to agriculture, farmers, rural development and new-style rural area building.Hà Nam and other localities should boost hi-tech agriculture development and export high-quality agricultural products, aiming to improve the living standards of farmers and contribute to the nation’s development, he said.The festival began in  九 八 七 during the Lê Dynasty when King Lê Đại Hành decided to plough in Đọi Sơn Co妹妹une, Duy Tiên District to wish for bumper crops. The practice then became an annual tradition held through many dynasties before falling into oblivion under the reign of King Khải Định of the Nguyễn Dynasty. It was restored in  二00 九.Việt Nam has about  八,000 festivals each year. Of which, nearly  九0 per cent are traditional festivals,  六 percent are religious ones and  四 per cent are historical ones.-VNS