Developing Nghe An agriculture in an ecological direction, applying high technology

The backbone of the economy

10 years in the makingResolution No. 26It was also the time when Nghe An made efforts to transform itself into an industrial province. However, agriculture with its advantages continued to prove itself as the pillar of the provincial economy when achieving high growth rates and making an important contribution to ensuring social security.

In the period 2013-2021, the total output of the agricultural sector increased by 19,781 billion VND, from 18,430 billion VND to 38,212 billion VND. The average growth rate reached 4.43%, of which 5.59% in 2021 alone, the highest in the North Central region. The value of agricultural production was 29,638.13 billion VND, an increase of 3.9% compared to 2013. Not only maintaining the growth index, but the agricultural structure by sector has also changed more positively. In 2014, the proportion of pure agriculture accounted for 80% of the sectoral structure, but by 2021 it had decreased to 77%; the proportion of forestry decreased from 6.55% in 2014 to 6.17% and the proportion of fishery increased from 13.7% to 16.31%.

In the fieldnew rural construction, although starting with countless difficulties with over 100 communes and nearly 400 villages in remote areas under program 30a or in particularly difficult areas, after nearly 10 years of implementing Resolution No. 26 and the New Rural Construction Program, Nghe An has achieved positive results.

Villages and hamlets in the mountainous areas of Nghe An have been transformed thanks to the State's investment under the Sustainable Poverty Reduction Program and the province's investment under the New Rural Development Program. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Mr. Nguyen Van Hang - Deputy Chief of the Standing Office of the Provincial New Rural Area Coordination Office said: By June 30, 2022, the whole province had 299/411 communes meeting the standards, reaching 72.74%, 20 communes meeting the advanced new rural standards, accounting for 5.02%; the poverty rate was 7.81% and the near-poor rate was 6.61%.

Similarly, the fieldhigh tech agricultureand in the ecological direction has initially had positive results. Up to this point, Nghe An has attracted a number of high-tech agricultural projects to the area.

Typical isHigh-tech Forestry Zone Projectin Nghi Lam commune (Nghi Loc); industrial-scale dairy farming project of TH Milk Joint Stock Company and Vinamilk; high-tech vegetable, root and fruit production projects in Nghia Dan and Yen Thanh districts; orange and medicinal plant projects in Ky Son and Quy Hop districts...

TH Group pioneers in applying high technology in agricultural production. Photo: Archive

Based on the agricultural support policy and the province's high-tech agricultural support project, since 2018, Nghe An has supported the development of 26,555 hectares of cultivated land, accounting for 8.7% of the agricultural production area, of which cultivated land is 26,104 hectares and aquaculture area is 450 hectares.

Difficulties and challenges lie ahead

Investing in pipeline infrastructure to bring seawater into concentrated shrimp farming areas following VietGAP guidelines in Quynh Bang commune, Quynh Luu district. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Mr. Phan Nguyen Hung - Head of Finance - Planning Department, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development shared: Despite achieving great successes and contributions to the economy, especially in the 2 years of the Covid-19 pandemic, compared to the development requirements in the new integration period, Nghe An agriculture is facing many challenges. One of the biggest challenges is the requirement to move agriculture towards large-scale, comprehensive production and in the direction of ecology, green growth...

We all know that most of the land fund has been allocated to households under the contract 10. If in the past, land allocation to households was the driving force to stimulate the production capacity of individual households, now this mechanism has revealed its limitations and is a challenge and barrier to large-scale production. Households are now commonly allocated 3-4 sao of land in many rice fields, so now it is very difficult and costly to apply machinery and high technology to production.

Cherry tomato growing model in greenhouse of farmers in Quynh Luong commune (Quynh Luu). Photo: Thanh Phuc

Because household-scale livestock farming is not developed, after growing enough spring rice, people are not interested in summer-autumn and winter crop production. Due to unfavorable weather and unprofitable production, people are willing to leave their land fallow for 2/3 of the year. The paradox is that although farmers leave their land fallow, it is very difficult for enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative groups to rent the land for production investment. The reason is that the State does not have a mechanism for farmers to trust and hand over land to enterprises for rent, and farmers, with the mentality of considering land as their last asset, want to hold on to it...

Mr. Le Ngoc Quang - who has a greenhouse agricultural model in Hung Tien commune (Nam Dan) shared: Starting to build greenhouses in 2018, after 4 years, he built 4 greenhouses and a greenhouse with an area of ​​2,000 m²; now want to expand by 1,000 m²more but extremely difficult. Renting land to build a solid greenhouse or greenhouse requires a minimum of 10 years or more, but farmers only want to rent for less than 5 years.

Melon growing model of Mr. Le Canh Hieu in Nam Anh commune (Nam Dan). Photo: Nguyen Hai

Regarding this issue, Mr. Phan Nguyen Hung assessed: With the current agricultural infrastructure and psychology and habits of farmers, the application of high technology in large-scale production, growth of ecological agriculture, green agriculture according to Resolution No. 26-NQ on Nghe An and recently Resolution No. 19 of the 5th Central Committee Conference, term XIII on agriculture, rural areas and farmers clearly still has many challenges.

In addition to the above goals, according to agricultural experts, implementing the goals of Resolution 19 (term XIII) on developing green agriculture and developing a circular economy will be a challenge in the short term, but in the long term, this is an opportunity for Nghe An's economy. With the advantage of over 1.08 million hectares of forest, including 788,991 thousand hectares of natural forest and nearly 220,000 hectares of planted forest, the annual output is about 1.5 million m3 of wood. Currently, although the contribution of the forest economy to Nghe An's economy is still modest, in the long term it will be a great advantage when completed.forest certificationto exploit sustainably and move towards exporting carbon emission certificates.

Provincial leaders witnessed the signing ceremony of a cooperation agreement on sustainable forest certification at the VSIP Nghe An 1 Industrial Park biomass pellet production investment project. Photo: Quang An

According to Ms. Vo Thi Nhung - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the province: The potential of the forest economy is quite clear and the problem is that the province must have a plan to develop a sustainable forest economy and towards a green economy. In addition, the agricultural sector applies high technology. Currently, although the support resources are not much, it is necessary to continue thinking and researching to have more focused and key investment support policies to encourage farmers.