Safe agricultural production

(Baonghean) - Japan is the largest ODA donor to Vietnam and is also very interested in Vietnamese agriculture. In Nghe An, the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Vietnam (JICA) has support projects related to agriculture. Currently, JICA is very interested and wishes to support Nghe An in the field of developing safe vegetable cultivation, managing agricultural product safety and managing varieties...

In Nghe An for 2 days (April 16 and 17), the JICA delegation visited clean vegetable production areas in Vinh City, visited rice areas affected by salinity, worked with seed management units, and worked with relevant departments and branches to have an overview of the agricultural fields that JICA is interested in preparing for investment in Nghe An.

In the field areas, JICA coordinators recorded all the information they were interested in, such as the development of agricultural cooperatives, infrastructure of vegetable and rice growing areas, management of production inputs, and people's awareness of agricultural production. Representatives of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and other sectors also exchanged necessary information with the delegation. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang - an officer of the JICA Project "Improving management capacity of the crop production sector to improve the yield and quality of crop products" said: "The Japanese side is very interested and surprised why Vietnam only focuses on agricultural export products (accounting for only 15%), while not paying attention to domestic products, serving itself and its people. Safe vegetable production is now a global requirement.

Food safety issues are more important than ever to the people and management agencies. With the desire to bring new advances in production and change awareness about production, consumption... we are studying the steps to implement the project in Nghe An, at the same time providing people with information about basic GAP in production". Mr. Pham Van Cuong (Lecturer at Agricultural University 1) - JICA Vietnam Project Officer is very concerned about the dangerous situation of rice production on saline soil in Nghi Loc, affecting people's lives. Therefore, the delegation also spent time to inspect and search for relevant information about solutions.

JICA Japan Project staff surveyed safe vegetable production models in Nghi Lien, Vinh City.

Nghe An is the province with the largest area in the country with 1,649,000 hectares, of which agricultural land is about 256 thousand hectares. Nghe An has the potential and experience in intensive rice cultivation, vegetable and industrial crop production, with all the advantages for development. The value of agricultural production in 2013 reached 200 million USD. However, Nghe An's agricultural and forestry production still has many limitations, the identification and transfer of technical advances into production is still limited, leading to the productivity of crops and livestock being lower than the national average, and the quality is also not commensurate. The management of quality, food safety and hygiene of agricultural, forestry and fishery products, and the processing of agricultural, forestry and fishery products still have many limitations. The linkage from production to preservation, circulation and consumption also has many limitations. State management at all levels, especially at the grassroots level, has been strengthened, but has not yet met production requirements. Therefore, the need for cooperation between JICA and Nghe An in the field of agriculture is very important. Because Japan is a technological powerhouse and in the field of agriculture, although the output is not large, Japan pays great attention to quality.

According to Mr. Mori Mutsuya, Chief Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Vietnam, Nghe An is one of the provinces that has received ODA funding from Japan for many years. In Nghe An, Japan currently has 2 projects in operation with a total investment of 17 million USD, in addition to projects funded by JICA such as "Promoting irrigation management with people's participation", "Managing safe vegetable production", "Restoring and upgrading the Northern Nghe An irrigation system to ensure irrigation for over 27,000 hectares". In addition, there are ODA projects that the province is mobilizing that need JICA's support in irrigation, agriculture and rural areas. The plan from 2015 that JICA has for Nghe An is to upgrade the Northern irrigation system, support safe vegetable production, build new rural areas and support cooperatives. After the project ends, the locality needs to replicate the model so that JICA can continue to deploy it to other provinces. Nghe An has implemented programs such as large model fields, 4-house linkage programs, new rural areas, etc. JICA's support, if combined with the above programs, will bring high efficiency.

Thus, in just 3 months, JICA has visited Nghe An twice, exploring cooperation opportunities and showing new prospects for clean and efficient production in agriculture. However, Nghe An needs to be truly open-minded, listen and accept experiences as well as “software” support, not “hardware” (canals, infrastructure, roads, bridges, etc.), so that new models can soon “bear fruit”.

Chau Lan