Lesson 2. Limitations in management capacity and labor skills

(Baonghean) - According to Professor, Doctor Dao The Tuan, Vietnam Association of Agriculture and Rural Development, speaking at the National Farm Economics Conference in 2006: "Labor in farms requires training, because of the specific nature of this type of economy. This is labor specializing in a certain type of plant or animal, requiring in-depth knowledge, not at a general level like farmers who do small-scale farming or raising livestock in their families. Farms are commodity producers, so labor productivity must be higher than the average labor productivity in the agricultural sector. For farm owners, they are very different from a good producer in the household economy. Even a small farm, the owner actually plays the role of a "director" of a factory or farm. The difficulty here is that the director takes care of and decides everything himself. Therefore, farm owners must be good in many aspects."

According to the survey data of the Nghe An Farm Economic Development Project 2007 - 2015, of the total regular farm laborers in 2006, 5,409 people, most of them had not received training. In 2010, out of 8,312 farm laborers, only over 1,000 people had received training through specialized schools. Mr. Nguyen Hung, Head of the Planning Department - Nghe An Rural Development Department, added: At the time of the survey, only 2.8% of the laborers had university or college degrees and 6.63% of the laborers had intermediate and elementary degrees. But that is talking about general training, in reality, few people have been trained in the group of agricultural production, forestry, livestock, poultry, shrimp and fish farming... The remaining 90.57% are unskilled laborers or are "passed down" by the farm owner to work on the farm. Therefore, productivity is low, wages are low, averaging about 550,000 VND/month (in 2007) and in 2010, the average income was from 1.2 million VND to several million VND/month. Mr. Tran Van H, an orange farm owner, pig and fish farmer in Nghia Dan, confided: "I pay a salary of 1.5 million VND per person, including meals for 4 regular workers. That level is not low compared to the farm's actual profit and compared to the general living standards of the countryside. However, they work without self-awareness and lack awareness when harvesting products." According to Mr. Nguyen Trong Huong (Dong Lam hamlet, Nghia Hoan, Tan Ky), the workers on his farm, from raising pigs to taking care of and exploiting rubber latex, are all trained by him with his own money. Of the 20 workers every year, except for 6 "hard" workers, the rest are seasonal contracts. Therefore, productivity is low and wasteful.

Farm owners must have knowledge of their field of development.
Photo: Xuan Hoang

With such low skill level, if the boss does not work together, closely inspect or show respect, the farm's profit will certainly not be commensurate with its potential. That is also the main reason why farms in Nghe An are often small, have few workers, do not invest large capital and do not apply high-tech, complex production lines. Farm owners often recruit relatives, children of friends, close neighbors... to do small business with familiar plants and animals. The concept of "short poles, easy to turn", using simple labor, low revenue (under 500 million VND/farm/year) exists in 80% of the total number of farms.

On the other hand, the management level of farm owners in our province also shows many shortcomings. According to Mr. Vo Van Phong, an official of the Provincial Farmers' Association, in the list of 1,582 good business households in the whole province in 2010, including farm owners, about 25% are owners aged around 30, the rest are over 50. They have studied but only in-service or through short-term training courses, to get certificates.

We approached 10 farm owners in Yen Thanh, Nghia Dan and Thanh Chuong and learned that: only 3 people know how to use computers, 5 people regularly read newspapers, listen to the radio and 8 people have mobile phones; 7 people are allowed to report or study in the province and they are all over 58 years old. Limited qualifications and the burden of age make them reduce the scale of production, borrow less from banks and do not want to take risks in new businesses and new seedlings. For example, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong (Thanh Lam commune, Thanh Chuong), in the previous stage of establishing a farm, he planted raw forest, raised fish, grew crops and purchased raw cassava; now he has reduced the farm size, focusing only on planting forests. This reduction is quite common, because if transferred to young owners, they will not be as enthusiastic and persistent as the previous generation.

District and provincial documents mention training support for workers and farm owners, but in reality, they do not enjoy this policy. Partly because the number of workers in each farm is small and fluctuates frequently, but partly because the authorities at all levels have not yet fully recognized the importance of the farm economy. In the two projects "Employment Program for the period 2011 - 2015" and "Vocational Training to 2015", this issue for workers and farm owners is stated very generally and vaguely, and some projects do not even mention it, although this economic sector has nearly 10,000 workers and nearly 2,500 farm owners.

Hoang Chinh - Van Truong