Commodity production alliance - Premise for building large model fields

(Baonghean) - With advantages in land, abundant labor resources, especially with timely policies of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nghe An is ready to build large model fields, bringing high income to farmers as well as creating a concentrated, modern agricultural production.

Yen Thanh currently has 2,165 hectares of aquaculture, 234 hectares of sugarcane, over 1,600 hectares of cassava, 246 farms, agricultural, forestry, fishery and livestock farms. Various types of agricultural services and cooperative economies have developed, helping to accelerate mechanization in production. In addition to high-income fields, for many years, from the "Agricultural Competition" Project, Yen Thanh has had very effective models such as: F1 hybrid rice production alliance in Phuc Thanh commune, Minh Thanh orange production and consumption alliance and Tan Thanh pure rice production alliance. In addition, Yen Thanh pays great attention to the issue of land conversion, building concentrated commodity production areas. Thereby helping farmers change their thinking, promote autonomy in intensive investment, increase crops, change the structure of seedlings towards commodity production and create conditions for mechanization in the fields.

Bringing combine harvesters into Hung Nguyen fields.

Nghe An is a province with potential in building large-scale model fields. The agricultural land fund is over 195,000 hectares, including large plains that have begun to form concentrated commodity production areas such as: rice in Yen Thanh, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau..., peanuts in Dien Chau, Nghi Loc, specialized vegetables in Nam Dan, Quynh Luu... Along with that is an abundant labor force, high level of intensive cultivation. In addition to the province's technical staff, there is also the participation of central agencies located in the area such as: Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Institute of Fisheries, universities... which is the premise for building advanced agriculture.

In recent years, implementing the policy of building high-income fields, the whole province has achieved many remarkable results, the area of ​​fields of 30 million VND, 50 million VND, even 100 million VND has been increasingly expanded, with specialized commodity production areas creating large volumes of products, meeting market demand.

In particular, from 2009 to present, the "Agricultural Competitiveness" Project, funded by the World Bank and counterpart funds from the province, people and businesses, with a total capital of nearly 8 million USD, has truly created clear changes in the thinking and working methods of farmers, authorities and businesses.

Mr. Le Van Luong - Deputy Director of the Agricultural Competitiveness Project Management Board said: One of the project's objectives is to enhance the competitiveness of agricultural products of small-scale farmers, through the application of advanced science and technology in production and linkage with enterprises to produce and consume products.

Implemented in Nghe An from 2009 to 2013, starting with "Alliance for producing high-quality AC5 rice varieties in Dien Lien - Dien Chau"; "Alliance for producing and consuming peanuts in Dien Thinh - Dien Chau" and "Alliance for producing high-quality green tea in Thanh Mai - Thanh Chuong". Up to now, the project has achieved encouraging results. The most obvious of which is the construction of concentrated raw material areas for producing high-quality agricultural products, applying scientific and technological advances, and bringing mechanization into production. "Alliance for producing and consuming peanuts in Dien Thinh" between Sy Thang Private Enterprise and Bac Thinh Agricultural Cooperative, with the participation of 703 households with a peanut production area of ​​240 hectares, after 1 year of implementation, due to unfavorable weather, the yield only reached 3 tons/ha, but was still 0.8 tons/ha higher than the normal production of farmers outside the alliance.

Both selling price and profit have increased, especially the selling rate in the alliance has reached 100%, ensuring consumption for farmers, profit reached 38 million VND/ha, exceeding the plan by 15 million VND. 703 people have been trained on scientific and technological advances. Or the "Thanh Mai - Thanh Chuong High Quality Green Tea Production Alliance" between Truong Thinh Import Export Company Limited and Thanh Mai Commune Tea Growing Cooperative with 254 participating households on an area of ​​300 hectares. After one year of implementation, with selling price, profit... all increasing, the alliance has opened up prospects for expanding links between enterprises and tea growing farmer organizations to create price stability; thereby, ensuring stable and sustainable development for tea growers as well as tea production and trading enterprises in the province...

In fact, after nearly 3 years of implementation, the alliances under the Agricultural Competitiveness Project for producing high-quality corn, rice, peanut varieties, to the alliances for producing and consuming oranges, silkworms, etc. all have similarities with the criteria set by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for building large-scale model fields. Through the implementation of the project, businesses have the opportunity to expand their business, promptly seize market opportunities, create economic efficiency; farmers receive technical support from businesses and stabilize output, can proactively implement measures to minimize risks arising in the production and consumption of products, and have plans to respond to potential risks that arise.

From those favorable premises, along with the policy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nghe An is preparing to build large model fields throughout the province, with requirements such as: using new, advanced varieties as prescribed by the Department of Agriculture, investing sufficiently, correctly, and promptly according to advanced technical processes, safe for the environment.

As planned, this year, the focus will be on building on four main crops: rice, peanuts, sugarcane and corn, in the districts of Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Yen Thanh, Nghi Loc, Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Tan Ky, Anh Son, Nghia Dan, Quy Hop and Thai Hoa town, with a total area of ​​over 2,500 hectares, with a minimum scale of 30 to 40 hectares per field. The construction of these model fields will be carried out on rice from the summer-autumn crop, peanuts from the spring crop, corn from the winter crop of 2012 and sugarcane from the 2012-2013 crushing crop. From there, the immediate task is to continue to consolidate land plots, implement policies for farmers to lease land to businesses and investors.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Lap - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, to successfully implement this program, certain principles are needed. For high-tech model field production areas for raw material areas serving processing, it is mandatory to have a contract signed to buy and sell products between producers, processors and consumers. Products that do not have to be processed but are produced for goods need the participation of enterprises to ensure product output. In addition to the participation of enterprises, the construction of large model fields also requires the participation of science and technology transfer organizations or agricultural extension systems. Therefore, the province really needs to have reasonable mechanisms and policies in the process of implementing the construction of large model fields.

Phu Huong