Voters want Ky Son ginger to be better consumed

The People's Council chooses the right questioning content, hitting the issues that people are interested in.

Voter Nguyen Viet Cuong - Deputy Director of Huong Son Agricultural and Industrial Consumption Cooperative (Ky Son): What I am most satisfied with in the question and answer session of the Provincial People's Council meeting on issues of agriculture, rural areas and consumption of agricultural products is that the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development answered quite frankly, correctly, and to the point of the issues that we voters are interested in. For example, the procedures for building OCOP products, the province's support policies for agricultural production, especially for cooperatives associated with the development of sufficient raw material areas.

Huong Son Agricultural and Industrial Consumption Cooperative is currently trading, producing and processing fresh ginger products. Each year, it purchases 1,000-1,300 tons of ginger for people in Ky Son district and neighboring areas. The cooperative commits to purchasing the products of the people at market prices, the lowest being 5,000 VND/kg. However, the ginger output from the linked area only meets about 30-40% of the current demand of the cooperative.

The current difficulty is that in recent years, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and other market factors, most young workers have gone to work far away, so the area of ​​ginger in the area has decreased. Therefore, the cooperative's plan to expand the production and processing area is quite difficult, not to mention developing new products such as ginger tea, multi-purpose ginger solution...

During the question and answer session with voters, the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development pointed out the reality of very little production land in mountainous areas, especially in high mountainous areas, and this is a very visible reality in Ky Son district as well as other areas that people are eagerly waiting for support and solutions.

“I hope that after the meeting, the difficulties and obstacles in developing production and consuming agricultural products of farmers as well as enterprises and cooperatives will receive more attention from the Provincial People's Council as well as departments, branches and sectors and synchronously support farmers as per the comments and discussions that the delegates have made at the meeting,” said Mr. Cuong.

Looking forward to more concrete solutions

Voter Le Van Dung - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Thinh Son Commune (Do Luong) said that following the developments at the question-and-answer session of the afternoon working session on July 6, the Provincial People's Council chose the issue related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers associated with product consumption and production linkage for questioning, which was very timely and close to reality.

At this time, farmers have just finished harvesting the spring rice crop and are entering the planting of the summer-autumn crop. However, localities are facing difficulties and are at risk of having to reduce the area and abandon the summer-autumn crop due to drought and natural disasters. This situation was also raised by delegates in questions and was answered quite specifically by leaders of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. The figures given also make people worried when the whole province has hundreds and thousands of hectares of rice land at risk of being abandoned or unable to produce due to natural disasters and drought.

And the solution of converting crop and livestock structure to respond to climate change and avoid wasting production land is an appropriate direction, which was mentioned by delegates at the question and answer session and is quite realistic.

“We farmers expect major orientations on crop restructuring, production linkages as well as agricultural product consumption, and the solutions proposed by the provincial People's Council delegates, who are also leaders at all levels, sectors and localities, need to be more specific. Because that is what the people are looking forward to the most. I am very enthusiastic about the opinion of the Provincial Party Secretary when he frankly affirmed the limitations, such as the mechanisms and policies for agricultural development are not strong enough, and have not encouraged farmers to boldly produce. Hopefully, the limitations that the provincial leaders have recognized will be overcome, helping farmers to be more attached to their profession, creating a strong agriculture in both production and processing, consuming products in the direction of green technology and creating effective linkage chains" - Mr. Dung said.

Focused support for high-tech agricultural models

Voter Vo Van Hau - Hau Nguyen Agricultural Cooperative in Hamlet 3, Nghia An Commune (Nghia Dan) said that through the summary report and the response to questions from the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, he reflected the outstanding issues of Nghe An agriculture in the past 3 years. Sharing the difficulties of the province in developing and implementing policies to support agriculture and rural areas of the province, but based on the reality of his cooperative, he proposed to continue considering increasing the level of support for high-tech agriculture according to the greenhouse and membrane house model.

Currently, according to the province's support policy, when implementing a greenhouse model registered with the district and commune, support is 50,000 VND/m²and each model does not exceed 200 million VND and the district level does not exceed 100 million VND/model. In fact, to have 1,000 m²Net houses and greenhouses need from 350 to 400 million VND, the cooperative invests tens of thousands of m²equivalent to several billion VND, but only supporting no more than 300 million VND is quite modest.

Investing in and developing high-tech agriculture is not only about infrastructure such as greenhouses, membrane houses or irrigation systems, but most importantly, the farming method must meet organic or VietGAP standards, and a product profile must be built that meets quality and standards to enter supermarkets and high-end segments. Previously, in addition to provincial support, there was also district support, but now the district level is no longer allowed to issue support policies, so the level of support is too little.

Recently, with the support and guidance of the People's Committee of Nghia Dan district, the Cooperative has built products that meet OCOP standards of Nghia An commune, but to have a stable output and enter the large market, many other factors are needed. In the past, although there was market demand, due to limited resources, the Cooperative did not dare to expand production and did not sign large-volume contracts with supermarkets. Therefore, in the long term, it is necessary to have the participation of departments and branches in developing raw material areas as well as finding markets.

Accompanying and supporting large-scale agricultural production models

Voter Phan The Chien - Hung Cuong Agricultural Cooperative in Nghia Thuan (Thai Hoa Town) stated that through following the questioning and answering of the head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development at the Provincial People's Council meeting, he saw that Nghe An's agriculture still has many problems and each problem is useful and interesting. However, from the perspective of an agricultural cooperative investing in high-tech agricultural production and large-scale organic production, production and consumption in a chain, he himself is interested in support policies. Support policies are not only in money per unit of m²which can be supporting cooperatives and enterprises in planning and conversion to accumulate land, supporting agricultural human resource training for farmers' children...

For example, the cooperative wants to build an organic farming model, so it wants to allocate land right in the area of ​​more than 10 hectares of land rented from the commune and contributed by members to build a grape juice processing facility. At the beginning of the model, the scale was small so it was supported by the commune and town, but now it has developed to a large scale, so there are problems beyond the management of the district level.

In addition, the reality of using agricultural labor at cooperatives shows that there are many rural laborers but it is very difficult to find skilled and hard-working people. Currently, local children who graduate from university and college cannot find jobs but are very difficult to recruit because when they enter the farm, they have to be trained and guided, which takes a lot of time. Therefore, in the coming time, we hope that schools and localities will closely coordinate with businesses and cooperatives to survey needs and provide practical vocational training.

Need to continue promoting agricultural economy

Voter Dam Ngoc Thang - Former Chairman of the Elderly Association of Bong Khe Commune (Con Cuong) said: Through following the question and answer session at the Provincial People's Council meeting, voters were very happy to know that the province's economy continued to recover and grow well; especially the fields of agriculture, rural areas, job creation... have achieved many positive results. People's lives, especially in mountainous areas, remote areas,... have continued to improve significantly both materially and spiritually.

The reality in Bong Khe commune shows that, despite the general difficulties of the economy, heavily affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, with timely support from the State, the province and the district, people are still confident in developing production. With the policy of creating jobs, supporting trees, seeds, and converting crop structure. Thanks to that, people's lives have been stabilized and improved, many households have risen out of poverty and become rich.

However, the lives of a part of the people in Con Cuong district are still facing many difficulties; rural infrastructure is not synchronous, especially in remote areas... At this question and answer session, through monitoring, I found that the content of the answers was not really in-depth as expected by voters. The problem of farm land has been going on for a long time and has not been resolved yet, while people need land to stabilize production development. Support policies for ethnic minorities are not synchronous, not timely and the effectiveness of these policies is not high.

Therefore, voters really hope that at this session, after the question and answer sessions, the Provincial People's Council delegates will continue to propose practical solutions to promote socio-economic development of the province in 2023 and the following years, especially in the fields of agriculture and rural areas. In particular, it is necessary to continue to have timely support policies for farmers to develop production; organize vocational training for people in accordance with the requirements and aspirations of laborers in each region, focusing on on-site vocational training.

More determined in building large fields

Voter Nguyen Manh Tuong in Yen Thanh district said that at the question-and-answer session on issues related to the current situation and development of agricultural production, in general, delegates had a clear understanding of the advantages and disadvantages.

In particular, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Council was quite frank in clearly pointing out the limitations in the fields of agriculture, production linkage, and agricultural product consumption. The question and answer session also raised concerns and the current situation of agricultural production due to natural disasters, droughts, and climate change.

Mr. Tuong said that the majority of voters come from farmers, growing up on the fields, so they understand the impact of agriculture on all aspects of people's lives. Nowadays, agricultural production is very modern, but in Nghe An it is not much and not effective. Including the construction of large fields to bring machinery into production, increase productivity as well as the value of agricultural products.

Voters expect that at the question and answer session, the delegates will pay much attention to this content. However, it has not been as expected. The project on land accumulation and application of science and technology to agriculture has been implemented for a long time, bringing many expectations, but up to now, farmers are still not satisfied, and have not really created efficiency on a large scale. Therefore, voters hope that after this session of the Provincial People's Council, the construction of large fields and land accumulation will be promoted more effectively.