Agricultural restructuring: "Models" for the future

The agricultural sector has identified priority goals and directions to promote production organization according to production chains and value chains.

2014 marked an important milestone for the agricultural sector in implementing the restructuring project approved by the Prime Minister in June 2013, with the emergence of “models” of the agricultural sector in the future. These are large fields and specialized areas for growing raw materials to serve the domestic and export markets; and disease-free livestock areas in many localities across the country…

Implementing the restructuring project, the agricultural sector has identified the focus as innovation and development of production organization forms. From there, the sector has directed regions and localities to deploy many new agricultural models whose effectiveness has been initially evaluated as good and can become "models" of the agricultural sector in the future.

These are large-scale field models that continue to expand, with a scale of hundreds of thousands of hectares, concentrated in the Mekong Delta region. These are areas specializing in growing raw materials to serve the domestic and export markets such as: Jasmine rice fields; Rice fields growing high-quality long-grain white rice; Large fields growing high-quality specialty rice according to geographical indications...

Currently, more than half of the localities nationwide have issued projects and plans to implement the local agricultural restructuring project. The agricultural sector has also developed sub-projects in the fields of cultivation, livestock, aquaculture, forestry, and irrigation, with priority goals and orientations to promote production organization according to production chains and value chains.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong, Director of the Planning Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the goal of the agricultural restructuring project is to aim for added value and sustainable agricultural development. The whole sector has directed its affiliated units to coordinate with localities to guide farmers to convert over 87,000 hectares of ineffective rice to grow high-value crops such as corn, peanuts, sesame, and vegetables; build specialized rice growing areas in the form of linking farmers with enterprises in 43 provinces and cities across the country, with an area of ​​121,000 hectares.

The livestock sector has clarified the orientation for developing livestock, reorganizing production, planning disease-free livestock areas, etc. Regarding forestry, the sector has identified four key tasks: Improving productivity, quality and value of planted production forests; Increasing the added value of processed wood products; Developing the market for wood and wood products; and Developing economic cooperation and linkages along the value chain of forestry products.

In the fisheries sector, we have focused on shifting the structure between exploitation and aquaculture and protecting aquatic resources; promoting offshore exploitation associated with protecting national security and defense of coastal areas; reducing post-harvest losses and diversifying farming objects...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong also said that the fields of cultivation, livestock, irrigation, and aquaculture are all focused on restructuring towards improving the quality and increasing the value of agricultural products. Innovative forms of production have appeared such as: concentrating on large fields, linking farmers with businesses, linking cooperatives, production teams with businesses from production to product consumption. Creating a value chain for better consumption.

The growth and export value achieved by the agricultural sector this year show the right direction in the restructuring process of the agricultural sector. Instead of chasing output, agriculture is now looking for ways to increase the value of agricultural products.

There have appeared “models” of the agricultural sector in the future such as: large-scale fields, specialized raw material cultivation areas and disease-free livestock farming areas… Notably, this year, for the first time, the entire agricultural sector achieved an export value exceeding the threshold of 30 billion USD; the growth rate is on the path of recovery, estimated at about 3.1%, exceeding the increase of 2.67% of last year.

Net house for agricultural production is being applied in many places.

However, in addition to the achieved results, the agricultural sector still faces many difficulties in the process of implementing the restructuring project, especially in the context of increasingly deep integration into the world economy, with the inevitable roadmap of industrialization and modernization. The limitations and weaknesses that are being exposed need to be overcome in the coming time, such as the implementation process is only focused on the Ministry and its affiliated units, and the implementation at the local level is still slow and confusing.

Innovation in production organization forms is still slow; the value chain linkage model from production to consumption between enterprises and farmers is mainly concentrated in the rice production sector; The replication of the model to other production areas is still slow and lacks support policies.

According to Dr. Dang Kim Son, Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agricultural and Rural Development, if our country's agriculture still relies only on exploiting available resources such as land and water resources as it does now, it will be very difficult to achieve the goals of the restructuring project.

“The future driving force of agricultural restructuring is to shift from exploiting available resources to exploiting the most important resource, which is human resources. This includes strongly developing science and technology in agriculture, focusing on building and perfecting infrastructure, and doing a good job of personnel work, training human resources, and improving institutions, including both organization and mechanism to create new driving forces for this resource,” Dr. Nguyen Kim Son pointed out.

Although there is still much work to be done and many problems to be solved, the initial results of the implementation of the agricultural restructuring project are creating momentum for recovery and gradually moving towards steady growth, with key agricultural products such as rice, seafood, coffee, cashew nuts, and forestry products increasing in both quantity and value.

According to VOV.VN