Industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas in the current period

(Baonghean) - Industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas are increasingly being recognized more deeply and our Party has proposed policies, orientations as well as issued a system of policies timely, complete, and appropriate to each stage of the country's development. Nghe An Newspaper would like to convey the content of the discussion of Comrade Nguyen Van Giau, Member of the Party Central Committee, Member of the Standing Committee, Chairman of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly, regarding new issues arising in industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

The process of industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas in recent times has achieved many achievements, typically: Agriculture (Agriculture) has developed at a fairly high pace towards increasing productivity, quality and efficiency; the export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery has increased rapidly. In nearly 30 years of innovation, Vietnam's agriculture has achieved rapid and stable growth for a long time, the cultivation, livestock, forestry and fishery sectors have all had significant growth rates. If the value of agricultural, forestry and fishery production in 1986 reached 65.1 trillion VND, in 2005 it reached 182 trillion VND, an increase of 2.8 times, then by 2014 it was about 830 trillion VND, of which: Agriculture reached 617.5 trillion VND; forestry reached 23.9 trillion VND; fishery reached 188.6 trillion VND. Gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014 reached 5.98% compared to 2013, of which the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector increased by 3.49%, contributing 0.61%.

Many successful models

Processing pineapple at Nafoods Factory in Quynh Chau Commune (Quynh Luu). Photo: Mai Hoa

The export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery products has also made great strides. In 1986, the export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery products was only 400 million USD, by 2007 it reached 12 billion USD, in 2014 it reached 30.86 billion USD. Some products have rapidly increasing export turnover and are the world's leading ones such as: rice, coffee, rubber, cashew nuts, pepper, wood and wood products, seafood... Not only that, the process of shifting the agricultural economic structure towards large-scale commodity production, associated with processing industry and market has also helped the links of production and consumption of agricultural products develop diversely, suitable to the production conditions of each region and locality. Among them, many models have been successful (such as large-scale field models; closed production, trade, processing and distribution chain models; new cooperative and cooperative group models; high-tech enterprise models in agriculture; cooperative organizations at the scale of village and commune communities in the form of agricultural service cooperatives, joint stock companies...). The emergence and development of new production organization models in agriculture are very rich, diverse, suitable to the specific conditions of each region, the specific production conditions of each type of product... are opening up the future for the development of the country's agriculture.

Farmers and enterprises play a key role in the agricultural product value chain through production and consumption links. Production relations are increasingly appropriate, mobilizing the contributions of diverse economic sectors in the agricultural sector, especially with 24,000 farms registered for certification according to new criteria. By the end of 2014, the structure of agriculture and rural economy has shifted positively towards promoting the production of agricultural products with high market demand and economic value. The agricultural, forestry and fishery processing industry continues to develop, many enterprises have stood firm, maintained and expanded production; many new establishments have appeared, some of which process agricultural, forestry and fishery products using high technology. It can be said that industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas have contributed to improving the material and spiritual life of people in rural areas, helping to change the face of the rural economy greatly. The face of the countryside in many places has been renewed and become more civilized.

Not meeting development requirements

In addition to the achievements, in the process of implementing industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas, there are still some difficulties and limitations. In particular, legal documents are slow to be issued, amended and supplemented, so they have not met the development requirements of the agricultural sector. Policies to address environmental pollution, climate change, rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion, etc. are not synchronous and not complete. The structure of agricultural production and rural economy in many places has shifted slowly; the structure of rural labor is still basically purely agricultural. Productivity, quality and competitiveness of some agricultural products are still low. The process of socializing investment to increase funding for research and development in agriculture is still limited. Investment resources for agriculture, farmers and rural areas have not met the demand. The quality of planning is still limited, lacking linkage and unity between types of planning, and not closely linked to implementation resources.

In addition, the development of economic components in the agricultural sector is still limited, as private enterprises are an important factor in the development and transformation of the economic structure and labor structure in rural areas, but their scale is still small, mainly in service activities and only develop strongly in the suburbs or places with relatively developed infrastructure. The implementation of large-scale field models, closed production, trade, processing and distribution chain models, models of farmers contributing shares to enterprises by land use rights value, models of new-style cooperatives and cooperative groups, contractual linkages or high-tech enterprise models, although considered new factors, still have many issues that need to be further improved. Cooperatives and cooperative groups face difficulties in accessing state policies, especially preferential policies on credit, infrastructure investment, land incentives, etc.; The involvement of local authorities in some places is not yet drastic, and there is still confusion in converting large-scale commodity production, which still faces many difficulties in both input and consumption...

With these realities, the question is how to promote the process of industrialization and modernization of agriculture and rural areas faster and more sustainably?

Early promulgation of the Law on Agricultural Insurance

In my opinion, in the coming period, we need to focus on implementing a number of key solutions. First, it is necessary to continue reviewing and perfecting policies and laws in the agricultural sector. This is very important, serving as a basis for all innovation activities. Accordingly, it is necessary to amend and supplement the Law on Fisheries, study and promulgate the Law on Irrigation to replace the Ordinance on Exploitation and Protection of Irrigation Works. Conduct a summary of the pilot agricultural insurance policy in order to soon promulgate the Law on Agricultural Insurance to insure farmers' agricultural investment and production activities. Second, it is necessary to improve the quality of planning and management of production planning, including reviewing, adjusting and supplementing agricultural production planning (cultivation, livestock, aquaculture) on the basis of promoting product advantages and regional advantages; developing production on a reasonable scale of agricultural products for export with advantages of agricultural products to replace imports. Third, it is the solution to support product consumption and market development. In this solution, it is necessary to restructure the domestic market, develop the wholesale and retail system; pay more attention to developing markets in remote areas, ethnic minority areas in the direction of encouraging the development of social enterprises to ensure the interests of direct producers. For the export market, maintain traditional markets, develop new markets, focus on building product brands, improve product quality, reduce costs to increase competitiveness.

Fourthly, regarding the application of science and technology, the most necessary thing is to promote research and application of science and technology in production, especially research and transfer, improving the quality of plant varieties and animal breeds, improving productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness of agricultural products; applying biotechnology and building high-tech agricultural zones; improving the ability to prevent and overcome diseases for plants and animals... Encourage and create favorable conditions for enterprises and cooperatives to invest in developing the industry of preserving and processing agricultural, forestry and fishery products... The fifth solution is to develop linkage models, in which modern and professional forms of production and business organization are formed, developing cooperative economic models, vertical linkage in production, processing and trading of agricultural products, linking with industry and urban economy.

In addition, in my opinion, there are also solutions for developing agricultural and rural infrastructure, especially improving the capacity to prevent and mitigate natural disasters, completing the system of river dykes, sea dykes and coastal protection forests, the system of transport infrastructure, irrigation, residential areas, creating safe living conditions for people, proactively implementing measures to adapt and cope with global climate change. Regarding financial support policies, it is necessary to diversify capital sources to continue to invest in stronger development of rural economic and social infrastructure. In particular, priority should be given to upgrading and building new synchronous irrigation systems, ensuring water safety and having policies for enterprises participating in the enterprise-farmer linkage model to borrow medium and long-term capital at preferential interest rates to implement the linkage model. Regarding training and human resource development, it is important to organize vocational training for rural workers in accordance with the planning and socio-economic development plans of each locality and region, close to the needs, and linked to job creation.

Red River(Perform)