Focus on solutions to build commercial agriculture

8 indicators facing difficultiesin implementation

Since 2014, the Provincial People's Committee has approved the Project on developing key plants and animals in Nghe An province until 2020. According to the assessment of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), looking back now, out of 21 main plant and animal targets according to the project, it is expected that by 2020, there will be 13 important targets that determine the growth rate of the industry that will be achieved and exceeded (accounting for 62%), while 8 targets are likely to be difficult to achieve, including: peanut output, passion fruit output, fresh tea bud output, dry latex rubber output, dairy cow herd, fresh milk output, total deer herd and medicinal plants.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy visited the May 1 Fruit Tree Agricultural Cooperative in Nghia Binh Commune, Nghia Dan District. Photo: Thanh Duy

Recently, working with the provincial inspection team No. 2 led by comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development clearly explained the reasons why some targets were difficult to achieve. For example, peanuts yielded 36,598 tons in 2018, estimated to reach 41,600 tons by 2020, not reaching the Project target of 56,000 tons.

Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Van Lap said that most of the land area planned for peanut development is included in the planning of key projects of the province, so many peanut growing areas have been converted to land use purposes, especially the key peanut growing areas of the province located in the Southeast Economic Zone, WHA Industrial Park (Nghi Loc and Dien Chau), besides some areas have been converted to vegetable growing. According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the peanut growing area from 2014 to 2019 decreased by more than 3,800 hectares.

Or like the target on rubber latex. The output in 2018 reached 5,216 tons, estimated to reach 14,000 tons by 2020, while the project target by 2020 is 16,000 thousand tons. According to Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Tien Lam, one of the reasons is that there are about 10,000 hectares planned for rubber planting, but due to Directive No. 13-CT/TW, the rubber planting area planning is currently being adjusted.

People of Tan An commune (Tan Ky) harvest rubber latex products. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Especially for medicinal plants, which are highly expected, in 2018 the area reached 1,039 hectares, estimated to reach 1,500 hectares by 2020, not reaching the project target of 15,400 hectares. The reason is that the development of medicinal plants is a new direction that initially faces many difficulties, depends heavily on investors; sanctions and policies on the management of medicinal plant cultivation under forest canopy are not yet available, and there is no connection with the people,...

Another important goal of the project is that by 2020, the herd of dairy cows and calves will be 137,000, with fresh milk output of 850,000 tons. However, this target is too high, the Resolution of the 18th Provincial Party Congress has adjusted it to 90,000 dairy cows and calves and 450,000 tons of milk. It is expected that by 2020, the herd of dairy cows and calves will be 70,000. Fresh milk output will be 450 thousand tons. Although there are difficulties in implementation, this is a major breakthrough in the dairy farming industry, from a province with almost zero to now becoming one of the leading provinces in the country in terms of the number of dairy cows and fresh milk output; especially changing the perception of agricultural development applying high technology in agriculture in general and dairy cows in particular.

Dairy farm in Nghia Dan district. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Review and propose key plants and animals

From the practice of developing key plants and animals, it cannot be denied that the achievements have contributed to the development of Nghe An's agricultural sector. However, to make these products truly bring high and sustainable economic value, there are still many problems. According to Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology Nguyen Viet Hung, although the output of oranges - the province's strong product - exceeded the target, the current orange growing capital areas have problems with varieties, quality of orange trees, and the area and yield and quality of trees have decreased.

On a general level, to improve the efficiency of agricultural production, the leader of the Department of Science and Technology also said that the agricultural sector needs to promote the application of VietGAP and GlobalGAP certification for agricultural products. "Our potential is great, but if we do not apply the above certificates, our products will not be able to enter supermarkets, let alone export them," said the Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology, and at the same time suggested paying attention to attracting businesses to deep processing, purchasing and consuming products; strongly applying post-harvest processing and preservation technologies. Because if we do not make products, they will still be stuck with the problem of "good harvest, low price".

People in Minh Hop commune (Quy Hop) harvest young oranges to sell because they are worried about the oranges falling early. Photo: Quang An

Regarding this issue, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Nghia Hieu said that it is necessary to seriously review to have more effective solutions and directions in the coming time. Because in the process of building the previous Project, there were still subjectivities, based on the expectations of the province and businesses. Therefore, the Department of Agriculture will determine to focus on directing appropriate key points. Especially medicinal plants, although the development of medicinal plants is chaired by the Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture will focus on directing related contents, especially the development of medicinal plants under the forest canopy.

Also at the meeting with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy affirmed that at present, agriculture is still the leading front of Nghe An, because it is closely related to the lives of the majority of people. However, agriculture must be produced on a commodity scale, which is the foundation for industrial development in the direction that agricultural output products will be used as industrial input products.

Agricultural products at the 2018 High-tech Agricultural Fair, Safe Agricultural Products of Central Provinces and Green Products of Cooperatives and Craft Villages of Nghe An Province. Photo: Lam Tung

In particular, it can be seen that the Project on developing key plants and animals is a very important element. However, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that the number of key plants and animals is still large and required the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to review, research, and even organize workshops to determine and propose the province to recognize "what plants and animals" are truly key in the current period in the true sense of the word because the development process has changed compared to before. Thereby, the province focuses resources and intelligence for development, in which it is necessary to pay attention and review the concentration of resources on some types of crops. Especially medicinal plants need to be highly concentrated, at the same time pay attention to developing production forest crops.