Restructuring the agricultural sector for sustainable development - Final article: Important and urgent solutions

(Baonghean) - The project to restructure Nghe An's agricultural sector until 2020 has proposed many solutions for implementation, because agriculture includes many different fields, which resonate with each other, including 2 solutions: Attracting investment and responding to climate change in agricultural production is extremely necessary...

Attracting investment resources

Focusing on mobilizing and diversifying investment resources for agricultural and rural development is an extremely effective solution for Nghe An's agricultural sector, especially in the context of difficult public investment. However, the state budget also needs to be spent to create the foundation, motivation, and conditions to promote investors, both businesses and farmers. Only when the capital of individuals and businesses is spent, will that entity really worry, make every effort to manage, and worry about how to grow and develop. As for state investment capital, if it is a model or support, when the capital runs out, the model often runs out.

Upgrading the reservoir dam in Quynh Tam (Quynh Luu). Photo: Van Truong

In recent times, attracting investment from enterprises inside and outside the province has created new breakthroughs for the agricultural sector, creating a new image, new values, and a new perspective on land, potential, and people of Nghe An. TH Group's investment in Phu Quy land is a typical example. This group has brought modern Israeli technology to cultivate, raise, process milk, and create new products and new values, turning Phu Quy land (Nghia Dan district) into the largest dairy cow "capital" in Asia thanks to the project "High-tech industrial-scale concentrated dairy farming and milk processing". Implemented since October 2009 with a total investment of 1.2 billion USD, in the past 2 years, the scale of the cow herd has been increasingly large, arranged into 2 farm clusters; The total herd of cows is reported to be more than 40,000, of which more than 22,000 are lactating with an average milk yield of 30 liters/cow/day.

Ms. Thai Huong, Chairwoman of TH Group, with her investment strategy and goals, has proven that, in the most difficult times, investing in agriculture is successful, and in fact, since then, the land potential in Phu Quy has been awakened, in some places 1 hectare creates a value of over 1 billion VND/year when technology is invested in such as sunflower fields and American sorghum. TH Group has also created many new jobs for Nghia Dan people.

Recently in Tan Ky, Kieu Phuong enterprise has boldly invested tens of billions of VND to buy 300 Australian cows for breeding, taking advantage of the protected forest area to build a farm. In recent years, Tan Ky has focused on attracting investment in agriculture. In addition to linking and creating sustainability in sugarcane raw materials for Song Con Sugar Factory, the district has also linked with Duc Viet Hot Chili Export Joint Stock Company; linked with Vinamilk Branch to develop dairy farming. Mr. Nguyen Ba Thuc, Head of Tan Ky Agriculture Department, said: "The district is developing a project to develop dairy farming in Tan Ky and working with Vinamik Nghe An branch to consume products for farmers. In the coming time, Tan Ky agriculture will convert low-yield, small-scale crops to large-scale, highly efficient commodity production."

In recent times, Nghe An has done a very good job of attracting investment to serve agricultural development, attracting ODA capital sources for investment in agriculture and rural areas, typically: The project to repair and upgrade the Northern Irrigation System with a total investment of 5,300 billion VND (JICA loan capital), currently organizing bidding for construction of component 1. The province is also promoting investment in projects to prevent salinity and keep fresh water on Lam River with 3,000 billion VND, Hoang Mai River salinity prevention sluice with 700 billion VND, Lam Tra canal irrigation system with 174 billion VND, Nam Viec irrigation system with 150 billion VND; at the same time, attracting capital sources combined with socialization for the development of crops such as oranges, tea, coffee, medicinal plants, building model fields, concentrated aquaculture... Recently, Japan has also invested in Vinh City in farming models to improve production experience for the city's people.

In reality, Nghe An is still the “richest” in terms of land potential, of which 1.2 million hectares of land for agricultural production has been exploited, but the efficiency has not been as expected. Tens of thousands of hectares of unprocessed corn and rice, peanuts and tea are being processed raw, nearly 800,000 buffaloes and cows are being slaughtered annually for raw meat, 3,000 hectares of oranges are still mainly being sold for fruit….

Responding to climate change

Nghe An is a locality with diverse terrain, many mountainous districts, rivers, lakes and dams that often suffer from natural disasters, especially in the context of increasingly complex climate change, strongly affecting production and people's lives. Since 2003, the province and the Department of Agriculture have called for projects with a total investment of more than 20,000 billion VND for the construction of irrigation works to serve production and people's lives. Of which, more than 200 works have been renovated and upgraded. Many large projects such as repairing and upgrading Vuc Mau reservoir (WB loan); repairing and upgrading Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Anh Son dam clusters; upgrading Xuan Duong, Dong Sang, Tan Thang, Khe Canh lakes..., building new Song Sao lake, Ban Mong lake, new Nam Dan sluice...

Up to now, the whole province has over 1,500 large and small irrigation works, including 624 reservoirs, 559 electric pumping stations, 400 dams and 2 irrigation systems of North and South Nghe An; over 4,700 km of canals have been concreted. The total capacity of irrigation works for rice reaches 170,000 ha/year. Many irrigation works for industrial crops, upland crops and drainage for color areas have been built such as Phu Tan, 1/5, Dong Hieu, Tay Hieu pumping stations..., the drainage system for color areas Nghi Loc, Dien Chau, Quynh Luu ensures irrigation for nearly 90,000 ha of industrial crops, drainage for 19,476 ha of crops. It can be said that the investment in irrigation infrastructure in recent times has had very positive results in stabilizing local agriculture, however, supply has not met demand. Therefore, the Provincial Party Committee, Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Agriculture have paid special attention to investment in irrigation infrastructure, including canals, dams, and sea dykes.

Mr. Nguyen Van De, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: To create favorable conditions to contribute to the restructuring of the agricultural sector for sustainable development, the sector will continue to mobilize and attract investment from the budget, from foreign investment sources (ODA, government bond capital, etc.) for investment in developing agricultural infrastructure, serving production, adapting to climate change, especially key projects. Attract support capital sources from central and local programs to build weak and urgent works and canal systems, and intra-regional traffic routes. Attract and utilize integrated capital sources from socialized sources and support mechanisms to build agricultural infrastructure works serving concentrated agricultural zones and high-tech agriculture; in which, focusing on prioritizing investment in projects: Developing plant varieties, livestock, forestry, and aquaculture; Research and application facilities for science and technology, high-tech agricultural zones; concentrated aquaculture infrastructure. Attracting investment and capital to build multi-purpose irrigation works serving irrigation, drainage, aquaculture, water supply for people's daily life and industrial production; key irrigation works, irrigation works associated with intra-field traffic to facilitate mechanization in production; river dike upgrading projects; water-saving irrigation projects, and hilly irrigation projects.

In addition to the above two solutions, many other solutions are needed such as restructuring associated with building new rural areas, innovation, equitization of agricultural enterprises, innovation in agricultural service forms, etc. The agricultural sector also affirmed that restructuring is a complex, difficult and long-term process that needs to be regularly evaluated, summarized, and learned from to adjust in accordance with reality.

Chau Lan