Agriculture: Focus on 3 groups of solutions to promote production

At a press conference on the evening of July 1, Minister Cao Duc Phat affirmed that in the last 6 months of the year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will promote stronger agricultural production growth, trying to achieve a higher growth rate with 3 key groups of solutions for production.

The first solution proposed by Minister Cao Duc Phat is to review value chains for products that have markets and can expand production to remove difficulties and obstacles, support farmers and businesses, and boost production and business.

For example, for rice, we will continue to support farmers in producing higher quality rice for domestic consumption, while monitoring world market developments and coordinating with Mekong Delta provinces to guide the production of the Autumn-Winter rice crop on a larger scale to meet the world market. “The Autumn-Winter rice crop often yields higher yields, is of better quality and has a better price than other crops, especially in the context that Vietnam’s competitors are also facing difficulties,” the Minister compared.

The second group of solutions, considered the most important, is to synchronously implement measures to improve the business environment, facilitate businesses to invest in agricultural activities, and act as a locomotive to promote value chains for key agricultural products for higher efficiency.

Therefore, the Ministry will review, simplify and eliminate administrative procedures, and publicize the application of information technology to provide online public services to support businesses.

The third solution proposed by Minister Cao Duc Phat is to remove difficulties and obstacles to maintain and expand export markets and support agricultural product consumption for farmers. The Ministry has directed general departments, bureaus and divisions to work with each specific market to remove difficulties and obstacles, creating conditions for our country's agricultural products to penetrate the markets.

“Many free trade agreements will continue to be signed. The spirit of the agreements is mostly tax reduction, but the biggest problem in the markets today is technical barriers and administrative procedures. To remove those barriers, we need to work specifically with each market. In the last 6 months of the year, in addition to increasing market opening for aquatic products, agricultural products, etc., one of the focuses is to open the market for livestock products,” Minister Cao Duc Phat emphasized.

In the first months of the year, the agricultural sector also faced many difficulties in the agricultural product consumption market. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also stated that these were medium and long-term difficulties, not temporary difficulties.

Under the Government's strong direction, the Ministry has coordinated with relevant ministries, branches, associations and enterprises to discuss solutions to remove obstacles, improve the business environment, promote exports and domestic consumption.

Therefore, the consumption of many agricultural products (rice, lychee, etc.) has improved significantly. However, up to now, there are still 5/12 products with decreasing prices and export turnover, namely: Tea, rubber, rice, coffee, seafood. Total export turnover in the first 6 months is estimated at 14.42 billion USD, down 2.8% compared to the same period in 2014 (first quarter decreased by 13.2%).

According to the General Statistics Office, the GDP growth rate of agriculture, forestry and fishery in the first 6 months of 2015 reached 2.36%, higher than in 2013 (2.14%), but lower than in 2014 (2.9%); the total production value of the industry is estimated at 489,000 billion VND, up 2.41% over the same period in 2014.

According to Chinhphu.vn