Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue suddenly asked the Chairman of Dong Thap about honey prices…

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue made Chairman of Dong Thap Province Nguyen Van Duong “confused” when he suddenly asked about the prices of locally produced honey and cooking oil. This story happened right before the opening of the Conference on Agricultural Restructuring in Dong Thap Province on the morning of September 27.

Low agricultural product prices… “bottom of the pile”

Conference on agricultural restructuring associated with planning, land use plans, irrigation, new rural construction, cooperation in developing key agricultural product production according to the value chain of the Mekong Delta region and cooperation plan for sustainable development of the Dong Thap Muoi region, Dong Thap province, on the morning of September 27.

While visiting the display products, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue suddenly held a bottle of locally produced honey and asked the Chairman of Dong Thap: "How much is this bottle of honey?" At this time, Chairman of Dong Thap province Nguyen Van Duong appeared confused about the price of the bottle of honey that the Deputy Prime Minister asked him.

The Deputy Prime Minister continued to ask the Chairman of Dong Thap about some other products such as: Rice, cooking oil, longan, mango, melon... These products, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Duong, have achieved some results in implementing the Agricultural Restructuring Project.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue asked the Chairman of Dong Thap province about the price of locally produced cooking oil.

According to Mr. Duong, rice used to suffer from “good harvest - low price”, but when implementing the Agricultural Restructuring Project, it contributed to stable consumption for farmers and increased profits by 3-4 million VND/ha/crop. Dong Thap mangoes are now “exported” to markets in Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Samara (Russia)…

According to Mr. Duong, in addition to mangoes, Dong Thap also implements safe production on longan trees, ensuring that they meet export standards to the US market. Lemons are exported to the Japanese and Korean markets; Chili is exported to China, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Korea, etc. Because of the export market, the selling price has also increased by 10-15% (for each type).

Talking about the price of agricultural products in the Mekong Delta, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tran - former Vice Chairman of the State Committee for Science and Technology, who has made many contributions to research on rural agricultural development in the Mekong Delta, expressed many concerns. "The price of agricultural products in the Mekong Delta is low, even "at the bottom" compared to other countries. If we do not restructure agriculture and link regions to create added value, the Mekong Delta will fall behind the rest of the country" - Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tran said.

Market risks are all on the people!

Speaking at the Conference, Mr. Le Huy Ngo - former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development - said that for generations, farmers have been talking about land. Farmers work hard and make great contributions to the country, so finding ways to change the difficult lives of farmers is to find ways to create a new class of farmers with higher qualifications, applying science and technology to production to increase labor productivity, increase people's income, ensure food security, food safety and living environment, and at the same time, restructure the labor force.

Re-agriculture is how to increase income and improve farmers' lives.

Mr. Nguyen Van The - Secretary of Soc Trang province said: Doing agriculture only helps people to be full but cannot make them rich, restructuring agriculture will help people's lives to be better. In restructuring, there are 4 trees and 3 animals that must be prioritized: rice, oranges, green-skinned grapefruit, soursop, fish, shrimp, and cows.

Emphasizing the restructuring goal, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue raised the issue of increasing added value and developing agriculture, raising awareness of developing clean agriculture, green agriculture, and high-tech agriculture. To achieve this goal, the method of agricultural restructuring is to reorganize production and apply scientific and technological advances to agriculture.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, rising sea levels cause 500 hectares of landslides every year that cannot be saved, serious subsidence of 3-4 cm every year, 45% of the delta area is predicted to be affected by salinity, water resources and water quality depend on the Mekong River. Therefore, it is necessary to update the climate change response scenario to build strategies, regional agricultural development plans, land use plans, irrigation and new rural construction. The Mekong Delta must achieve the dual goal of restructuring agriculture and responding to climate change.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue talks with Professor, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tran about rice exports from the Mekong Delta.

“If we restructure agriculture, how much income will farmers get? It’s easy to say, but how to do it? Increasing added value means increasing labor productivity and income for farmers in the region. At the same time, there needs to be policies on input and output markets for people.

Millions of farmers sell agricultural products but very few people buy them. Almost all agricultural product losses and market risks fall on the farmers, while businesses do not have to bear anything... Therefore, market policies and mechanisms must be made to best serve farmers," the Deputy Prime Minister affirmed.

According to Dan Tri