Agricultural restructuring project: Farmers have not yet "re-"earned income
Agriculture was the first sector to complete its restructuring project and was approved by the Government on June 10. However, the most pressing issues of the domestic agricultural sector have not been resolved.
The restructuring project still wants to increase productivity while increasing quality, which is very difficult to succeed - Photo: Chi Nhan
Farmer income ambiguity
Professor Bui Chi Buu, former Director of the Southern Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, said that the most important change now is how to make farmers have high incomes, but the project is not very clear. Currently, the average income of Vietnam is over 1,000 USD/person/year, while that of farmers is only over 480 USD/person/year. In fact, the average income in the Mekong Delta region is only 535,000 VND/person/month, which translates to only 17,800 VND/day (equivalent to 0.81 USD) or only half the price of a bowl of pho at present. "So it is difficult to keep farmers in the fields," said Professor Buu.
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Agreeing with Professor Buu, an expert (who requested not to be named) said that in the entire 16-page approved project, farmers' income was only mentioned once, that "by 2020, rural household income will increase 2.5 times compared to 2008". This expert indignantly asked: "Why is it compared to 2008 and not 2012 or 2013? Why not narrow the gap with the national average? If the project is like that, by 2020, rural people's income will still be as poor as it is now".
Dr. Dang Kim Son, Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agricultural and Rural Development (Ipsard), cited: “The World Bank estimates that 30% of Vietnamese farmers “cannot make ends meet”, I think this rate is higher. The standard of living in rural areas is only half that of urban areas and the absolute gap is widening.”
An expert in the agricultural sector analyzed that the project is somewhat ambiguous in increasing farmers' income. Why is it the income of farming households and not of farmers? Because farming households do not change much, but the number of people in farming households tends to increase along with the population. If using "farming households", it is impossible to accurately assess farmers' income. In addition, the project was approved in 2013 but the benchmark for calculating income increase was 2008, which is "outdated" by 5 years. "I think the project should aim to increase farmers' income in the direction of reducing the gap between rural and urban areas or at least shortening the gap between rural areas and the general level of society," said this expert.
Still chasing quantity
According to the agricultural restructuring project, the cultivation sector will maintain and flexibly use 3.8 million hectares of rice land to ensure food security, with rice output reaching 45 million tons in 2020. Focus on improving rice varieties to improve productivity and quality. In addition, expand the corn growing area to reach an output of 8.5 million tons to provide raw materials for animal feed production... Professor Buu commented: "We still think that we have to grow rice, an area of 3.8 million hectares, do 3 consecutive crops, still want to increase productivity in parallel with increasing quality... Such restructuring is really too difficult to succeed".
In fact, in 2012, the total rice output of the country reached 43.7 million tons, exporting 7 million tons of rice equivalent to 14 million tons of rice - a surplus compared to domestic consumption. However, the project still hopes to continue increasing rice output to 45 million tons by 2020, in parallel with expanding corn growing area to solve the problem of animal feed materials. Many experts share the opinion that the planting area, productivity, and rice output of Vietnam in recent years have reached the ceiling, so it is difficult to understand that we want to increase both output and quality.
Mr. Ho Minh Khai, Director of Co Do Agricultural Company (Can Tho), said: "We are chasing output, so we promote 3-crop rice production, and 3-crop rice is also a sure thing. And demanding high productivity and quality is completely impossible, beyond reality. Because growing 3-crop rice requires using short-term varieties, and with short-term varieties, the quality of rice cannot be high."
Participating in the Advisory Board of the Dong Thap province agricultural restructuring project, economic expert Phan Chanh Duong said that agricultural restructuring cannot be based on the simple mindset of if this crop is not effective, then stop growing it and switch to another crop, if this animal is not effective, then switch to another animal. “That mindset is very old and outdated. Agricultural restructuring cannot be limited to the agricultural sector but must be linked to the processing industry and the market to create high added value,” said Mr. Duong.
Rice export is difficult By the end of August 2013, Vietnam had exported 4.58 million tons of rice, reaching a turnover of nearly 2 billion USD. Compared to the same period last year, the amount of exported rice decreased by over 500,000 tons and decreased by about 298 million USD in value. The rice export situation this year has encountered many difficulties. In the first 7 months of this year, many rice export contracts were canceled with a quantity of about 1 million tons. The contract cancellation occurred from both buyers and sellers, but importers canceled contracts with a larger quantity, especially Chinese customers. The reason is that importers want to force down the price of Vietnamese rice. The situation became even more difficult when Thailand continuously reduced the export price of rice. By the end of August, Thailand reduced the price of 100% B rice to 380 - 390 USD/ton, equivalent to the price of 5% broken rice of Vietnam. This has created more pressure on Vietnamese rice in the market. Meanwhile, up to now, Vietnam has not yet signed a government contract for Recently, VFA has proposed that the Government temporarily purchase an additional 300,000 tons of rice (equivalent to 600,000 tons of paddy) for the upcoming summer-autumn and autumn-winter crops to maintain rice prices in the domestic market. |
According to baothanhnien.PH