Nghe An is a province with great potential and strength in agricultural and forestry development. With the largest area in the country, of which forest land accounts for 3/4, Nghe An also has the largest forestry land fund in the country; forest cover reaches over 58%, in some localities the forest cover rate reaches 85%. Nghe An also possesses rich and rare biodiversity, that is the Western Nghe An World Biosphere Reserve recognized by UNESCO as the largest in Southeast Asia...
Resolution 39-NQ/TW dated July 18, 2023 of the Politburo on Nghe An development to 2030, with a vision to 2045, stated: Developing agriculture in a sustainable direction, gradually adapting to climate change, reducing methane emissions in agricultural production. Promoting the effectiveness and spreading of high-tech dairy farming projects, high-tech forestry zones, making Nghe An province a large center for wood production, processing and export in the North Central region, developing forests with carbon credit markets, focusing on medicinal plant production...
In recent times, Nghe An has been known as a pioneer in using FRMS Desktop software to monitor changes in forest resources and forestry land, thereby ensuring database synchronization with the national forestry system. Nghe An forestry sector has also quickly applied remote sensing technology (GIS), satellite image interpretation combined with field forest inventory investigation, pioneering the application of sets in forestry management, helping to ensure timeliness, accuracy, and transparency of data for better forest land management.
With these advantages, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has chosen Nghe An as the place to implement the High-tech Forestry Zone project in the North Central region. This is the first high-tech forestry zone project in the country, a stepping stone to make Nghe An "become a large center for wood production, processing and export in the North Central region, developing forests along with the carbon credit market" according to Resolution 39 of the Politburo. The high-tech forestry zone includes 3 main projects: The North Central High-tech Forestry Seedling Center Project under functional subdivision 1, which has been approved by the Provincial People's Committee for Construction Planning 1/500 and 1/2000 in Decision 1877/QD-UBND dated June 11, 2020, currently being implemented; Intensive forest planting model project with sustainable certification, planting medicinal plants, non-timber forest products and the Trading floor project combined with exhibition to introduce raw wood and processed products from wood and forest products.
With a total area of up to 819 hectares, the High-tech Forestry Zone in Nghe An is divided into 3 functional zones. Zone 1 is the High-tech Forestry Seed Production Center with a scale of 48 hectares located in Nghi Lam commune, Nghi Loc district. Zone 2 - CNC wood and non-timber forest product processing production area with a scale of 530 hectares in Nghi Van, Nghi Kieu communes (Nghi Loc) and Dai Son commune (Do Luong). Zone 3 - Trading floor combined with exhibition to introduce raw wood and processed products from wood and non-timber forest products with an area of 40 hectares, located in Nghi Xa and Khanh Hop communes (Nghi Loc).
Currently, in Que Phong, Con Cuong, Thanh Chuong, Quy Chau districts... large timber forests are strongly developing. Previously, according to the old method, acacia trees were planted every 4 years and sold once, the value was only about 60-80 million VND/ha, but large timber forests can yield up to 250 million VND/ha. From 2022 to now, the whole Nghe An province has had 26,184 hectares of forest granted sustainable forest management certificates (FSC) out of a total of 170,000 hectares of raw material forests. Specifically: Chau Binh commune, Quy Chau district was granted FSC certificate for 2,886 hectares of acacia forest; Thanh Chuong district 6,200 hectares of acacia forest; Le Duy Nguyen forest planting enterprise (Hoang Mai town) 820 hectares; Yen Thanh district 1,980 hectares; Anh Son district 2,823 hectares...
Mr. Phung Thanh Vinh - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: In addition to TH Group's projects and closed models that have been applying science and technology, Nghe An also develops ecological agriculture to preserve and multiply natural values, plant large timber forests, and respond to climate change. Gradually build new rural areas with a lifestyle in harmony with the environment and nature according to good living standards, protect and develop clean and beautiful green landscapes. As of October 2023, the whole province has 309/411 communes meeting new rural standards (NTM), of which 53 communes meet advanced NTM standards, 6 communes meet model NTM, 7 district-level units meet NTM standards. Strive to increase the total number of advanced NTM communes to 87 communes and model NTM communes to 12 communes by the end of 2023. Grassroots associations have launched a movement against plastic waste, using biodegradable plastic bags in supermarkets, shopping malls and markets, and implementing a model of waste classification at source in communes in the area...
Engineer Phan Xuan Hong, who is working for a business with green economic models in Nghe An, said: “The important thing in agricultural production is to dare to face risks, accept lower but more long-term and sustainable profits. Green production and clean production are inevitable trends in today’s era.”
Talking to Nghe An Newspaper reporters about why green economy will be an inevitable trend now and in the future, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan affirmed: “Green economy leads to green growth models, green development, green consumption. Green economy is a solution to achieve the millennium goals based on ensuring balance between economy, environment and society. Green economy is also a driving force for innovation while the room for development has reached its final limit.”
According to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development: “Agriculture, in terms of thinking, is a production sector, with extensive development and output as the top goal. Due to the pursuit of output, traditional agriculture has become an industry that is intensive in using natural resources, affecting the natural environment, causing degradation of the soil and water ecosystems, and reducing biodiversity. The structure of the natural ecological balance system for millions of years has been broken. That leads to the consequence of creating adverse effects on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and directly affecting the health of consumers and the health of producers themselves. Along with the effects of destroying nature is creating social imbalance, with rich people getting richer by taking away common wealth, while others become poorer due to the gradual depletion of the natural environment.
Agriculture, in terms of thinking as an economic sector, especially towards a green economy, will link development with environmental regeneration, ecosystems, and biodiversity once impacted. Green agriculture is based on science and technology, innovation, and simulation of self-balancing ecosystem structures. Green agriculture will therefore create more jobs, create higher surplus value by not having to trade off costs, and improve the quality and added value of agricultural products. Green agriculture with the goal of "transparency, responsibility, and sustainability" targets green consumers, rational consumers, contributing to promoting green agriculture and protecting the green planet.
Regarding the general green economic development direction of Nghe An, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said: “I had the opportunity to visit Nghe An for many days, from the eastern coastal region, the delta, to the highlands and mountains in the west. It is true that Nghe An has a lot of potential for green economic development, including circular agriculture, ecological agriculture, and Nghe An has many impressive green economic models. However, for Nghe An to develop in the direction of green economy, it is necessary to pay attention to the following issues: First, green economy does not stop at the production stage but includes the whole industry. Green economy does not stop at large-scale agricultural enterprises with advanced technology, but can cover many levels: large scale, medium scale, small-scale farming. Each level will have appropriate technological solutions. Second, it is necessary to unify green economy not only to adapt to the changing trends of the world but more importantly to create a space for innovation and creativity, forming start-up ideas from derivative products, multi-value integrated models. Thus, green economy creates higher surplus value for Nghe An economy, including: marine and aquatic economy, agricultural economy, forest economy and values from forests.
According to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, green economy is interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral, and it is difficult to have enough resources, human resources and intellectual capacity within a locality. Therefore, Nghe An needs to have an open mind, invite experts, scientists and international organizations to share lessons learned from previous countries to shorten the time. Nghe An should build a number of green economic models at appropriate scales according to industries and fields with potential and strengths, then draw on experience and gradually spread it. Within its capacity, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will support Nghe An in building a green economic development strategy.
With useful methods, starting from household economy and developing at higher levels in corporations, industries... Nghe An is concentrating on making breakthroughs in the face of new opportunities and fortunes; in which, firmly pursuing the goal of harmonious and sustainable development, not doing business at all costs, in order to protect precious resources and increase the value per unit area in agricultural and forestry development in particular. It can be said that Nghe An can completely become a typical example in green economic development in many fields, including agriculture...
