Tiền Giang local preserves agricultural heritage with old farming tools

Cao Tấn Hiệu in Tiền Giang Province has collected hundreds of farm tools of southern peasants in the old days. VNA Photo

Cao Tấn Hiệu, a native of the Mekong Delta province of Tiền Giang, is collecting farm tools to create a comprehensive picture of the province’s rural life for future generations to see and understand.

In his traditional three-compartment southern house in Bình Ninh Commune, Hiệu, head of Chợ Gạo District’s education department, has dedicated an entire section to collecting hundreds of farm tools and equipment linked to the province’s agricultural practices in the old days.

His collection includes many familiar items that were indispensable to every southern peasant during the pioneering and agricultural production periods. However, these tools are gradually disappearing due to the increasing mechanisation of agriculture.

Hiệu got the idea to collect farm tools while renovating his family’s ancestral house in 2021.

Seeing the items from the difficult years before the country’s reunification in 1975 still intact, he wanted to preserve them to help future generations know and understand more about traditional agricultural production and the hardworking, creative spirit of the southern peasants.

Many of his friends, upon visiting his house and admiring the artefacts, were very fond of them, with some even contributing a few items to enrich the collection.

During a recent visit, Nguyễn Văn Út from Mỹ Tho City filmed a clip and sent it to his relatives abroad to introduce the agricultural production process through various stages of peasants in the South in the past, and in Việt Nam in general.

Meanwhile, Nguyễn Hoàng Bảo from Châu Thành District said that people of his generation, born in the 1980s, rarely saw or knew these tools in daily life, having only read about them in books or watch on movies.

Tools like the plough for tilling soil pulled by buffalo, the water scoop for lifting water from canals to fields, the knife for clearing grass and bushes, or the rice winnowing fan displayed here provide vivid images that help young people understand the creativity of their ancestors in land clearing and rice growing for centuries.​

These farm tools all have significant meaning, and help viewers understand the daily life of the southern people. VNA Photo

Besides farm tools, Hiếu also collected many household items that were indispensable in the old southern lifestyle, such as the kerosene lamp, the wine (water) jug, and the betel nut box, and chicken-shaped iron.

These utensils all have significant meaning, and help viewers appreciate and understand the daily life of the southern people.

Hiếu said that he was very surprised to see his simple idea highly appreciated and enthusiastically supported by friends and family.

He plans to continue collecting and adding more household utensils and farm tools to make the collection more complete.

When financially capable, he intends to build a wooden house by a fish pond to display the artefacts, like a mini “museum” for everyone to visit and admire.

The Bình Ninh Commune People’s Committee [commune administration] is calling for people to participate in collecting and donating more artefacts to enrich Hiệu’s collection.

If invested in and developed to be widely introduced to the public, this model could become a cultural tourism site in Bình Ninh Commune in the future. VNS